Working in a school office.

wendall

Spendless wrote: »

I did a huge amount of research for this interview from knowing more about the school to knowing more about the area but at no point was there the opportunity to fetch any of this up. I felt like I'd revised for a History exam only to find I was taking one in English instead. I need to talk through the questions and my answers with my employment support office.r

The HT at my kids school has said I can do voluntary work in the office there 1 half day a week to get the experience.

Sorry you did not get the job, but do try and do the volunatry work at your kids school, you never know what may happen i did this at my kids school and then a receptionist job came up which i got. I have been there 5 years now and my job has totally changed and i now work in the behavior & attendance team, the head put me and a colleague forward to do a course which led to us qualifying as Specialist Leader's in Behaviour and Attendance. We both started in the school office.

Savvy_Sue

Spendless wrote: »

No not me. Never heard of it. Interested in knowing more.

Well, I don't know how it works in your area, but I'd be surprised if your local council didn't have some scheme to enable it to fill temporary vacancies at speed from a pre-vetted 'bank' of workers.

It may be that they have a 'special relationship' with a local agency, or they may run their own 'agency' in house.

I'd ring HR and ask.

Of course that won't be limited to working in schools, and some of the jobs will be dull as ditchwater. But they'll be jobs, and you'll be able to say when you're free to work.

Universities and colleges may have similar arrangements, as may local Housing Associations.

Spendless

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Well, I don't know how it works in your area, but I'd be surprised if your local council didn't have some scheme to enable it to fill temporary vacancies at speed from a pre-vetted 'bank' of workers.

It may be that they have a 'special relationship' with a local agency, or they may run their own 'agency' in house.

I'd ring HR and ask.

Of course that won't be limited to working in schools, and some of the jobs will be dull as ditchwater. But they'll be jobs, and you'll be able to say when you're free to work.

Universities and colleges may have similar arrangements, as may local Housing Associations.

ahhh yes it might have been me saying I had written off to go on a school's list of temp workers who could do as and when. Unfortunately in my eagerness I forgot to write 'I am writing to apply for your request for temporary admin workers' and instead just sent off my CV and person spec though it was addressed to the right person. I only realised my mistake after posting, so am not really surprised I've heard nothing.

I will ask my ESO more about 'bank work'.

peachyprice

Spendless wrote: »

I've never seen myself as teaching assistant material. Mid day assistant jobs are pretty easy to get into here. I did have one (but left to update skills at college).

I undertand where you're coming from, but they're a great foot in the door and will give you the benefit of being the first to hear of any office jobs that come up in your cluster.

Spendless

I've taken up the opportunity of doing voluntary work in the school office a few hours per week. Both mine and another ESO told me to grab the opportunity as in their experience (in my area) it is very rare to get office voluntary work, classroom yes, office no so not to miss the chance.

dollydoodah

Spendless wrote: »

I've taken up the opportunity of doing voluntary work in the school office a few hours per week. Both mine and another ESO told me to grab the opportunity as in their experience (in my area) it is very rare to get office voluntary work, classroom yes, office no so not to miss the chance.

Brilliant - this will definitely help your chances when you apply for other jobs and it will give you an idea of whether you would really enjoy it. Many people - and I think this is one of the reasons why schools don't take the chance on employing people who haven't worked in the same environment before - can't cope with the constant interruptions. A primary school I know employed someone as a business manager who, on paper, was great - he had worked for the LEA in a finance role but once he was in school he just couldn't hack it.

I really hope that you manage to get a permanant job soon - despite me being vomitted all over yesterday, I do love it!

Spendless

and today I've had a letter from the school I applied to that was putting together a list of admin staff who could cover for staff absence or busier times that says
'The school isn't holding interviews at this time but we have noted with interest your details onto our supply staff database.

Whether anything will come of that I don't know. :cool: but the voluntary work will now help.:)

Nemo

Sorry you didn't get the job. Sometimes it's just not meant to be.

I believe that if you want something enough though, you'll get there at some point, so just take any opportunities you can to gain experience.

Savvy_Sue

And at least the volunteer work will establish whether this IS something Spendless really wants ... I know I couldn't do it! :rotfl:

Spendless

To tell you more about the interview. There were 4 interviewers (more than I've ever had before) with a question each 7 in total. From my feedback
3- I answered perfectly correctly
1- I needed to give a lot more info (and my ESO has kicked herself as she had assummed I knew more as I've volunteered for a charity before but I'd not make that mistake again)
2- I needed to give a bit more info.

but 1 and this is the one that has got to me I was asked what more I could fetch to the role, so I talked about more what I'd done (I've done a lot of courses via the school so I talked about them and how I felt I'd benefiitted from it.
But when going thru the feedback the HT said they were looking for ...and basically just read me the job spec and then said 'Get your feet under the table before you start suggesting changes'.
But I saw it she'd asked me what MORE I could fetch.

My ESO couldn't believe it when I told her and said she'd have answered the same.

The other thing is I had done a HUGE amount of research on both the school and the area, from reading the ofsted reports to looking on the school website to finding out what links the school had with the community and at NO point was I asked 'what do you know about the school or the local area'. I could have gone to the interview knowing zilch about it and it wouldn't have been picked up on.

Sorry didn't feel up to expanding more about what happened the other day.