Recruitment Advisor

Highgate School; London; On-site; GBP 33,000 - 39,000; Full time

Job summary

Highgate School seeks a dedicated Recruitment Officer to join its HR team in London. This full-time role involves supporting efficient recruitment processes and ensuring compliance with policies, offering a permanent position in a supportive atmosphere that values teamwork and community.

Benefits

Generous pension scheme with employer contribution

Complimentary lunch

Free access to sports facilities

Supportive personal development programs

Family-friendly policies

Qualifications

• Previous recruitment experience in a fast-paced environment is essential.
• Excellent communication and organizational skills are required.

Responsibilities

• Support the Recruitment Manager in providing high-quality recruitment services.
• Ensure compliance with the School’s Safer Recruitment Policy and best practices.

Skills

Communication

Organizational

Job description

• Job Type: Permanent, Full Time, Monday to Friday (8am-5pm)
• Salary: £33,000 per annum (£38,280 if full pension flex benefit is utilised)

This is an excellent opportunity to join our friendly and supportive Human Resources Team within an award-winning charity. If you are interested in being part of one of this country’s top independent schools where kindness is at the heart of what we do, then this is an ideal opportunity for you.

The main purpose of this role will be to support the Recruitment Manager in providing high quality, efficient and compliant recruitment services for the School in line with the School’s Safer Recruitment Policy, current legislation and best practice guidelines.

The ideal candidate will have previous recruitment experience, gained within a fast-moving environment. This is a hands on role working with all of our stakeholders – internal or external, candidates and hiring managers. As such the post-holder would be required to have excellent communication and organisational skills.

The Department

An excellent opportunity to join our friendly and supportive Human Resources team.

There is a supportive and welcoming atmosphere within the department that underpins our people first culture as a school. Teamwork is at the heart of everything we do and by working together, we aim to provide the very best service to our students and staff.

The Human Resources (HR) department is made up of 9 people who work together to deliver a people first vision in line with the School’s Safer Recruitment Policy, current legislation and best practice guidelines to the whole school ensuring that day to day HR functions is effectively managed. The department are on a transformation journey to deliver proactive people solutions to our staff and develop a self service mentality across the school.

Job Description

Person Specification

Location |Highgate Village, adjacent to Hampstead Heath, with quaint shops and easy connections across London.

Pension | AVIVA workplace pension scheme offered with a generous 26% employer contribution, with the ability to flex up to 16% of this as additional non-pensionable salary, employees contribute a minimum of 5%.

Personal development |Comprehensive induction support for new staff. Focus on continued professional development for all employees.

Leisure facilities |Free access, at stipulated times, to our sports facilities, including a fitness suite and swimming pool (recently refurbished).

Lunch |A complimentary lunch.

Help with sustainable travel |Access to the Cycle to Work Scheme and a Season Ticket Loan scheme for public transport.

Family-friendly policies |Highgate appreciates that employees sometimes have family commitments so we try to be as supportive as possible, for example with enhanced maternity pay (8 weeks’ full pay, then 10 weeks’ half pay) and paid dependant leave.

‘The Food Bank partnership was excellent in supporting some of our families over Christmas’

‘The Food Bank partnership was excellent in supporting some of our families over Christmas’

— Headteacher at a local Chrysalis partner secondary school that we supported through our food bank initiative.

Working at Highgate

A culture of community, kindness and belonging

Highgate is a caring, open-minded community, where we promote kindness, empathy and friendship. Everyone who works and studies with us deserves to feel they are part of a welcoming environment that enables them to be themselves and to thrive as individuals.

Our community extends beyond the school, through partnerships, charity work and our commitment to equality, inclusion and sustainability. All members of our school community are encouraged to look outwards and play an active role.

Following a visit from the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) in September 2024 to assess Highgate’s regulatory compliance and school standards, we are pleased to share the inspection findings, which reports compliance in all five areas and a ‘significant strength’ in our teaching expertise.

Highgate is committed to staff wellbeing, which we promote by encouraging a strong work-life balance; trying our best to support flexible working requests; providing a nutritious complimentary lunch in the dining hall; and offering access to sporting facilities including our recently renovated swimming pool.

The Staff Wellbeing Committee, with representatives across the School, meets regularly to drive forward initiatives, and a selection of staff have been trained as Mental-Health First Aiders.

We encourage an open culture throughout our school, with regular staff surveys, action committees and opportunities to feedback. We strive for continual learning and improvement, and staff training and development is paramount. There are opportunities to participate in the wider life of our school, such as taking part in trips or societies and getting involved in partnership projects.

More details about working at Highgate can be found here:

As an independent school, we want to use our position as a charity effectively: to make high-quality education accessible to as many children as possible – through our bursary programme at Highgate and through our work with local state schools. We have partnerships with over 60 state schools across 7 London boroughs, and we are the principal educational sponsor for London Academy of Excellence, Tottenham – an academically-selective state sixth form in a community where such opportunities are lacking.

Alongside this, our staff and pupils undertake charitable activities throughout the year. These range from staff giving up their time to neighbourhood schools and charitable organisations, focused fundraising campaigns, to pupils undertaking community work in the local area or further afield.

As a school, we have a central role to play in educating our pupils, staff and parents about the importance of environmental sustainability. We are taking positive action to adapt our operational performance to tackle the negative effects of climate change. We encourage all our staff to reflect upon their personal and professional practices, to support our environmental agenda and to make positive changes wherever possible.

Early Application: Applications will be considered ‘as and when’ received and we may close the vacancy if we appoint before the closing date.

We know that more diverse teams are stronger teams,and that the more inclusive we are, the more our staffand pupilswillfeel a sense of belonging and willthrive. To enable us to make reasonable adjustments, please let us know of any disabilities (including neuro-divergence) when you submit your application.

Safeguarding

As this role will have regular unsupervised contact with children you must, if appointed, comply with Highgate’s Safeguarding Policy and Staff Code of Conduct. Ifin the course ofcarrying out the duties of the post the post holder becomes aware of any actual or potential risks to the safety and welfare of our pupils, these concerns must be reported immediately in accordance with the Safeguarding Policy. If whilst in the post, Highgate becomes aware of any safeguarding concerns to staff, pupils or the community; these will need to be followed up in line with the safeguarding policy and code of conduct which is underpinned by KCSIE and other legislation. These concerns may need to be shared with other agencies. A copy of these policies will accompany all offers of employment.Training will also be provided to all staff to support Safeguarding practice.

Please read before you apply

Highgate is committed to the safeguarding and welfare of childrenand applicants must be willing to undergo child protection screening appropriate to this post, including checks with past employers, the Disclosure and Barring Service and overseas police check if necessary. Candidates from overseas must provide information about their past conduct, for example, by providing documents issued by overseas teaching authorities. DBS Privacy Policy

Please note that this role is ‘exempt’ from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore, you are required to declare any convictions, cautions, reprimands and final warnings that are not ‘protected’ (i.e.filtered out) as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in 2013). Shortlisted candidates will be asked to provide details of all unspent convictions and those that would not befiltered,prior to the date of the interview. DBS Code of Practice

In accordance with the latest guidance from KCSIE, we shall be conducting online searches on any candidates who are shortlisted.