Caretaker

The Shaw Education Trust; Birmingham; On-site; GBP 22,000 - 28,000; Full time

Job summary

Fortis Academy in Birmingham is seeking a reliable, proactive Caretaker to join the dedicated site team. You will help ensure the academy buildings and grounds are secure, well maintained and welcoming for students, staff and visitors.

Working with the Site Manager, you will carry out routine maintenance, open/close the site, assist with health and safety compliance, liaise with contractors, and prepare rooms for lessons and events.

Responsibilities

• Open and close the academy buildings, ensuring the site is secure at all times.
• Carry out routine maintenance, minor repairs, and basic decorating tasks.
• Monitor the condition of the buildings and grounds, reporting and responding to maintenance issues promptly.
• Ensure compliance with health and safety regulations and academy policies.
• Assist with planned preventative maintenance and statutory compliance checks.
• Prepare rooms and facilities for lessons, examinations, meetings, and academy events.
• Maintain the cleanliness and appearance of external areas, including pathways, car parks, and green spaces.
• Liaise with contractors and support the monitoring of their work on site.
• Assist in responding to emergencies, including alarm activations and unforeseen maintenance issues.
• Support the academy in maintaining a positive, safe, and welcoming environment for the whole school community.

Skills

Caretaker duties

Health & safety

Liaison with contractors

Job description

Fortis Academy is seeking a reliable, proactive, and enthusiastic Caretaker to join our dedicated site team. This is an excellent opportunity for someone who takes pride in maintaining a safe, clean, and welcoming environment where students, staff, and visitors can thrive. As our Caretaker, you will play a vital role in ensuring the academy buildings and grounds are well maintained, secure, and fully operational. You will work closely with the Site Manager and wider academy team to provide an outstanding learning environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Open and close the academy buildings, ensuring the site is secure at all times.
• Carry out routine maintenance, minor repairs, and basic decorating tasks.
• Monitor the condition of the buildings and grounds, reporting and responding to maintenance issues promptly.
• Ensure compliance with health and safety regulations and academy policies.
• Assist with planned preventative maintenance and statutory compliance checks.
• Prepare rooms and facilities for lessons, examinations, meetings, and academy events.
• Maintain the cleanliness and appearance of external areas, including pathways, car parks, and green spaces.
• Liaise with contractors and support the monitoring of their work on site.
• Assist in responding to emergencies, including alarm activations and unforeseen maintenance issues.
• Support the academy in maintaining a positive, safe, and welcoming environment for the whole school community.

Fortis Academy is more than a school. It is a thriving community where ambition, hard work, and opportunity come together. With a brand new, state of the art campus opening in 2030, Fortis is on track to become the largest academy in Birmingham, educating over 2,000 students from Year 11 to Sixth Form.

Our mission is simple: Enriching Lives. We develop confident, capable young people guided by our core values of character, resilience, and aspiration, which shape everything we do. We offer a challenging, well-structured curriculum from GCSE to post 16 pathways, preparing students for further education, employment, and life beyond school. Every student is equipped with an iPad to support modern, flexible learning in school and at home.

Our success is driven by over 200 dedicated staff who are fully committed to supporting students and improving practice. Student wellbeing is central to life at Fortis, with strong support for mental health, confidence, and personal development. Our Sixth Form is one of Birmingham’s strongest, with a Value-Added score of 0.36 in 2026, enriched by opportunities that broaden horizons and build real world skills.

With outstanding facilities ahead and a growing community, Fortis Academy continues to inspire, support, and challenge every student to succeed.

At Shaw Education Trust, we believe every role has the power to transform a life. Whether you’re supporting behind the scenes, inspiring in the classroom, or leading with vision, you will be part of something truly meaningful. Our values—opportunity, integrity, community, and equity—guide everything we do. Our vision is “Opening doors to the world through the power of learning.” We bring this to life through our mission: working together to inspire communities where every school is valued, every voice matters, and every learner thrives. We are a dynamic and growing family of primary, secondary, and special schools, proudly serving communities from Birmingham to Bury. Our people are our greatest asset, and we are deeply committed to their development through high-quality training, apprenticeships, talent development programmes, and research opportunities, we empower our staff to thrive as skilled, confident professionals. We champion wellbeing, value every voice, and foster a culture where you feel supported, motivated, and inspired to make a real difference. You will join a collaborative network of schools where shared expertise and a strong professional community drive success. Every academy within our Trust has an equal voice, and every colleague plays a vital role in shaping tailored learning experiences that raise aspirations and build brighter futures. If you have the passion, dedication, and drive to help shape lives and create futures filled with promise, we would love you to join our team. Together, let’s make the remarkable happen.

We believe every child has the potential to be extraordinary. In our secondary schools, we pride ourselves on our innovative approach to curriculum design, to ensure all our schools have breadth and ambition for all students, regardless of their starting points and barriers. Standard curriculum models don’t always engage all students, so we constantly seek to innovate and provide better opportunities to develop both knowledge and skills for life. We want our students to believe their curriculum is bold, exciting, purposeful, and ultimately leads to something meaningful for them. Some examples of our innovation include moving towards a trust wide approach to enrichment and competitions, to provide a world class enrichment programme and more opportunities for essential skills like reading and cultural capital. We are also introducing vocational and technical pathways, which run through the normal school curriculum but attract support from leading employers and universities to develops work-readiness in our students, so that they can progress onto T Levels and apprenticeships.

Employee Benefits

• An excellent Local Government Pension Scheme (Support Staff) / Teachers Pension (Teaching Staff) Support Staff only based on working full time, all year - Generous holiday entitlement from your first day of employment (37 days holiday rising to 39 days after 5 years’ service including Bank Holidays)
• Access to Medicash Health & Wellbeing Plan: Enjoy health services designed to support your well‑being.
• Free DiscountForTeachers Scheme for all staff (Support and Teaching), Exclusive discounts to save money with a wide selection of discounts and exclusive offers from hundreds of the biggest brands.
• Free Eye Tests
• Cycle to work scheme
• Access to our Institute of Education and fantastic opportunities to help you grow, contribute and flourish in your role and in the Trust.

We know our people are the key to our success and so we’re committed to ensuring the employment experience at Shaw Education Trust is a rewarding one.

Benefits for colleagues

• Access to a full range of courses both in‑house and professionally accredited.
• These courses include a variety of the National Professional Qualifications and the Early Carer Teacher Programme delivered by Shaw Education Trust as a delivery partner for Ambition Institute.
• Experienced leadership and subject‑specific support.
• Guidance from former HMIs and serving Ofsted Inspectors within the Trust.
• Access to the Trust’s Institute of Education and SCITT.
• Opportunities to work with different schools within the Trust as a Professional Advocate.
• Participating in peer reviews.
• Access to a suite of online courses.
• Placement projects within our family of schools.