We are looking to recruit an Office Secretary/Exams Officer to work in our busy office at Normanhurst School in Station Road, North Chingford E4 7BA.
The successful candidate will have:
- Excellent admin skills including outstanding levels of accuracy and attention to detail
- A high level of IT proficiency, including accurate typing and keyboard skills
- Excellent MS Office proficiency, including in Excel
- A high level of discretion and confidentiality
- Excellent written and oral communication skills
- The ability to communicate with a wide range of audiences
- The ability to work effectively as part of a team
- A high level of flexibility and commitment to the role
- The willingness to show initiative and take responsibility.
Candidates with relevant experience working in schools and/or working as exams officers will be prioritised.
The position is to start mid-August 2026, with the following terms of employment:
- Part time working 39 out of 52 weeks of the year (term times, training days & 15 days during the holiday periods)
- Hours from 8am until 5pm
- Salary £27,650pa
- Company pension scheme
- Complimentary refreshments
Main Purpose of the Role
This role is as an Admin Secretary and Exams Officer in a busy school office. You will have sufficient experience working in an office environment, proven secretarial skills and excellent awareness of customer service needs. Experience using all Microsoft Office packages, especially spreadsheets in Excel and Word documents, is essential and previous use of large databases would be useful. The Exams Officer role is to provide a comprehensive examination service for the school with overall responsibility for all aspects of strategic and operational planning and organising of examinations.
Main Duties and Responsibilities:
General
- To help ensure that the office offers a welcoming environment at all times.
- To deal with enquiries from parents, staff and pupils as promptly as possible.
- To answer the telephones in a personable and welcoming manner.
- To arrange appointments as necessary.
- To deal with incoming correspondence and e-mails.
- To type letters, documents and promotional literature as required.
- To use the IT systems and help keep the Engage database up-to-date.
- To record and file information, in strict confidence, when necessary and assist with school archiving.
- To photocopy and file relevant documentation.
- To assist with first aid for children and complete accident forms, as required.
- To administer medicines as required in accordance with parental consent.
- To sign in visitors.
Pupil-Related Matters
- To oversee the administration of the Engage attendance system on a daily basis.
- To ensure that the Attendance Registers are completed correctly on Engage.
- To contact families to check absence as and when it occurs.
Reception Duties:
- To keep the staff signing-in sheets regularly updated.
- To oversee the visitors’ signing-in book and ensure that lanyards are correctly issued and recalled.
- To oversee the pupil signing-in book.
- To manage, open and distribute the daily post.
- To ensure that the Reception area is kept tidy and presentable for visitors.
Ordering:
- To authorise invoices, order goods once processed and authorised by the Office Manager, then to unpack and distribute goods on delivery and to pass delivery notes to the Office Manager.
- To maintain the main budgeting spreadsheets and keep up-to-date with all daily orders.
- To check office supplies and, in conjunction with the Office Manager, order exercise books, diaries/planners, photocopying paper, accident books, school registers, batteries and any other items as and when required.
Communication:
- To keep the electronic school diary up-to-date and appropriately recorded.
- To add trip, PE and event details to the school calendar.
- To anticipate future entries in the school diary and organise necessary paperwork for events, parents’ evenings etc.
- To deal with administrative arrangements for School Events and outings.
- To prepare and appropriately distribute full weekly staff bulletins with information taken from the school diary and other sources.
- To administer and oversee the generation of group texts to parents when necessary, through the GroupCall system.
- To oversee the administration Option Booklets.
- To coordinate the distribution of emails and letters via Engage and Outlook.
Examinations Responsibilities
- To be responsible for managing the administration and conduct of external examinations.
- To ensure compliance with the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) regulations and awarding body rules.
- To be the main point of contact for, and act on behalf of, the school for exams.
- To represent the school in matters relating to the general administration of awarding body examinations and assessments
- To ensure that external examination administration processes are strictly followed and key deadlines met.
- To ensure that internal examinations are effectively planned, administered and conducted under conditions that prepare pupils for external examinations.
- To carry out all duties in accordance with Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) regulations and awarding body rules.
- To maintain and develop systems to manage and coordinate all aspects of the exams administration process, ensuring accuracy.
- To keep abreast of developments, updates and changes in JCQ awarding body regulations, guidance and instructions, and communicate these to staff.
- To observe and adhere to the examination boards’ published terms, conditions and processes for the registration or entry and withdrawal of candidates.
- To gather correct entry information and manage any changes within given deadlines to avoid late (or other) penalty fees.
- To be able to verify the identity of all pupils that are entered for examinations and maintain records on each candidate.
- To manage the conduct of examinations in accordance with JCQ regulations.
- To ensure all examination rooming is prepared in accordance with regulations.
- To deploy fully trained invigilators to examination rooms.
- To publish dates for the issue of results and details of post-results services (including appeal procedures).
- To liaise with the Head to prepare for and manage the restricted release of results in support of examination analysis.
The Office Secretary/Exams Officer should also be prepared to undertake other such specific duties that may from time to time be assigned by the Senior Leadership Team.
Person Specification:
Essential:
- Good standard of education – attainment of GCSE or equivalent to include English or Maths Grade C or above.
- Excellent administrative skills.
- Excellent Excel skills
- High level of IT proficiency including accurate typing and keyboard skills.
- High level of discretion, understanding of and experience of maintaining confidentiality.
- Excellent written and oral communication skills, including telephone manner.
- Ability to communicate with a wide range of audiences including staff, parents and pupils.
- Ability to work effectively as part of a team, understanding staff roles, responsibilities and your own position within these.
- Ability to react calmly and quickly in an emergency.
- Ability to comply with policies and procedures relating to child protection, health, safety and security, confidentiality, data protection and equal opportunities.
- Flexibility and commitment to the role.
- Willingness to show initiative and take responsibility.
Desirable
- Experience working in a school environment.
- Experience working in sales and/or admissions.
- First Aid qualification.
Job Types: Full-time, Permanent
Pay: £27,650.00 per year
Benefits:
Ability to commute/relocate:
- London E4 7BA: reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work (required)
Work Location: In person
