Day Porter

Canford; United Kingdom; Remote; GBP 21,000 - 30,000; Full time

Job summary

Canford School is seeking an on‑site Porter to be the welcoming first face for visitors, pupils and staff. You will handle daily campus operations including logistics, waste and post management, and light security awareness.

You will support reception and Estates with key/permit management, incident reporting and event staffing, while maintaining a helpful and proactive presence across the site. Applicants should have a full driving licence and strong customer service skills.

Qualifications

• Strong communication with pupils, staff and visitors.
• Ability to work as part of a team and support reception/estates.
• Customer service focus with a polite, helpful and cheerful manner.
• Able to multitask and prioritise tasks in a busy school environment.
• Attention to detail in safety, access control and post/waste management.

Responsibilities

• Adhere to live feed and site setup requirements for events and daily operations.
• Carry out Help Desk tasks and assist with furniture moves as needed.
• Assist with parking, traffic management and security awareness.
• Manage waste, post, and deliveries with reception collaboration.
• Open/lock buildings, de‑alarm systems, and respond to alarms when required.
• Support reception/estates by maintaining car permits, ID cards and keys.

Skills

Good communication

Teamwork

Customer service oriented

Multitask

Problem solving

Attention to detail

Flexible / adaptable

Education

Full current driving licence (D1/B1)(E)

Job description

Porters are to be a welcoming first face of Canford for visitors and a helpful and reassuring presence for all pupils, staff and site residents at all times. Porters are responsible for all daily operational requirements on campus. This involves delivering on logistical set ups/collapse, waste management, post management, and a small amount of security awareness and any other task .

Duties

• To adhere to Blue runner live feed reports to ensure all set ups/re setting up are carried out in a timely manner. (Internal or external events including weddings and events)
• To carry out Help Desk tasks to ensure all tasks are planned and carried out
• To assist or support on any furniture moves
• Traffic management – during shift placing out reserved cones for works or reserved bays for events, access, car parking and day-to-day road safety, placing out and taking in one-way system signs.
• Support and deconflict parking arrangements when events clash.
• All staff – any incidents or issues must be communicated to the next shift. (Transfer duty phones to next duty person)
• Waste management.Ensuring all bins whether large wheely bins or small pedestrian bins are monitored, placed out for external collections, or emptied routinely.
• Post Management. Working in conjunction with reception staff - To support the receipt, consolidation and delivering of post. Dept to collect their own post.
• To commit to rota shifts as per contractual hours per week. Full year contract
• Ensure buildings and premises are properly secured and spot any security or fire risk which may compromise that security.

Other tasks:

• Keep pupils, staff and visitors feeling safe and provide reassurance
• Supporting reception team/Estates by ensuring all key and padlock management for the site (aided by MC during the day for estates contractors and personnel).
• Supporting receptionist team/Estates by ensuring maintaining car permit records and issuing car stickers.
• Supporting reception team/Estates by managing ID cards alongside IT, digital locking systems and keys, including annual servicing and reactive repairs.
• Opening/locking and de-alarming buildings, when required.
• Challenging unknown people on site as appropriate.
• Hand in lost property and securing items left insecurely outside.
• Site patrols on busy / quiet days when the risks are increased.
• Immediate response to DRAX security, lift and accessible toilet alarms, or incidents / concerns called in by colleagues.
• Occasional speed camera management and operation.
• Occasional parking audits and drop-off supervision- challenging those who are inconsiderate or not following instruction

Health and Safety:

• To carry out hazard spotting and to report any accidents or near misses.
• Ensure you operate to Departmental and School risk assessments and Policies
• Report any items of machinery or vehicle malfunctioning or operating inconsistently immediately to your line manager.
• First Aid – Be a first point of contact for immediate first aid assistance, and for directing / coordinating the emergency services response.
• Fire – attending all alarm activations and supporting colleagues when holding the duty phone. Submitting fire incident reports for all fire alarm incidents attended.
• Hand over key information to the next shift and make written records of any key incidents or matters whilst on shift (e.g., intruders, incidents, police calls, defects)

Other Duties/Points:

• On occasion you will be required to adjust your shift timings to suit the operational needs of the school
• You will be required to work occasional weekends to support School activities .
• In any week during the year, the evening shifts, weekend shifts and shifts which cover larger group events involving external participants must be priority over day shifts
• Undertake any other reasonable tasks across School Services Departments as requested by line managers.

Knowledge / Experience:

• Full Current driving licence (D1/B1)(E)
• Experience in managing and prioritising workload(E)
• Experience of identifying service needs and delivering innovative solutions(E)
• Competent in the use of IT systems and Microsoft applications (D)
• Good communication skills and able to negotiate or defuse in stressful or difficult situations(E)
• Good personable and organisational skills(E)
• Excellent attention to detail(E)
• Customer service focused. Polite/helpful and cheerful(E)
• Ability to work collaboratively building trust within the school community (Staff/parents/pupils/external visitors)(D)
• Able to multitask and be proactive(D)
• Smart appearance(E)
• Enthusiastic and engaging personality(E)
• Ability to work as part of a small team and use own initiative to meet commitments(E)
• Ability to problem solve (D)
• Self-motivated(E)
• Flexible/Adaptable(E)
• Leads by example(E)

Canford School is committed to equity, diversity and inclusion in all areas of our Community and encourages applications from all suitably qualified candidates.

Canford School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people.

The successful applicant will be required to undergo child protection screening.