Assistant Project Manager Candidate Information Pack
Contents
4
About the GDST
5
Sustainability at the GDST
6
The GDST Estate
8
The Estates Vision
9
The Estates Programme
10
The Capital Investment Programme
12
The Role
16
Person Specification
18
Application process
2
About the GDST
Sustainability at the GDST
The Girls’ Day School Trust is the UK’s leading family of independent girls’ schools. In all of our schools, academic excellence is a given – at the GDST we develop character beyond the curriculum. The GDST is a charitable trust which owns and operates 25 schools across England and Wales. Our schools are mainly girls only, with the GDST ethos to ‘reach as many girls as possible’ permeating everything we do. Most schools are Junior, Senior and sixth form, with some having nurseries as well; one of the school’s remains a boarding school. The Council of Trustees oversee the strategic direction of the Trust, with an Executive Board who run the day to day operations, based at the Trust Office in Victoria, London. The Heads of the schools report into the Chief Executive, and all have Directors of Finance and Operation (DFO’s) who help to run the 23 schools and 2 academies. The GDST owns most of its property freehold, although there are certain leasehold landholdings, plus other property retained for investment purposes. There is also an outward bound centre in north Wales. Each of the schools and academies are run separately, with central services including Estates, Finance, HR and IT located in Trust Office. This is also where the strategic Education and Innovation strategy is set, along with most of the teacher and staff training, reinforcing the GDST ethos.
Climate change is a very real part of our lives today, and its impact will be felt more widely when our students reach adulthood. Our students are passionate about making a difference and dedicated to achieving a sustainable world. Our sustainability strategy is informed by our girls and the GDST is committed to meeting its ambitious targets. Our work includes a strategy to deliver Net Zero by 2050, and we have already achieved CarbonNeutral® Organisation certification. We achieved this by off- setting our carbon footprint whilst we work towards significant reductions in our energy use. A dynamic green thread of sustainability is woven through everything we do and our One strategy aims to capture and amplify this holistic approach.
You can learn more here.
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The GDST Estate
A list of the main schools and sites are given below:
Our Estate is diverse, both geographically and chronologically, with buildings dating back to the 1800’s up to the present day. A significant number of the older properties are listed or locally listed and sit in Conservation Areas.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Blackheath High School, London Brighton and Hove High School Bromley High School, London
Many of our properties are converted residential buildings, others are purpose built as schools.
Croydon High School
Howells School, Llandaff, Cardiff
All of our current schools are in England and Wales and amount to over 200 buildings, predominantly owned by the GDST, plus also Trust Office in central London. Most of our properties are occupied for educational purposes, although some sites also have residential accommodation for staff, in addition to the one boarding school in Bath. Further investment properties are let out to external occupiers.
Kensington Prep School
Newcastle High School for Girls Northampton High School
9. Northwood College, Middlesex 10. Norwich High School for Girls 11. Nottingham Girls High School 12. Notting Hill & Ealing High School 13. Oxford High School 14. Portsmouth High School 15. Putney High School
16. Royal High School, Bath 17. Sheffield High School 18. Shrewsbury High School
19. South Hampstead High School, London 20. Streatham & Clapham High School, London 21. Sutton High School 22. Sydenham High School 23. Wimbledon High School 24. Belvedere Academy, Liverpool 25. Birkenhead High School Academy, Birkenhead
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The Estates Vision
The Estates Programme
Our mission is to provide an integrated customer service, providing strategic leadership and well as technical support and advice across the Estate, ensuring consistency of approach and critically ensuring compliance with all statutory requirements across the Estate at all times. The Estates department under the Director of Estates, hold the delegated responsibility from the Trustees to assure, maintain, enhance and develop the estate to ensure it is fit for purpose to provide innovative education and learning facilities as well as the breadth of functions that allow the schools to operate, including external spaces and sports fields. Our primary aim is to keep our Estate safe for our students, staff, visitors as well as members of the public. The Estates department run a continuous programme of maintenance programmes, minor works, refurbishment and new build projects, varying in scale from £100,000 to over £20 million. Each school also has a delegated maintenance budget, directly managed by the school, used to address minor repair and maintenance works. The Estates team act as the central Technical and Trusted Advisors for the schools, supporting them in all Estates related decision making, scoping and delivery.
Our Estate is the physical representation of the schools and the GDST; with the Estates Strategy a reflection of the Trust’s strategic vision. It is the responsibility of the Estates department to deliver against this context. Although primarily for educational purposes, our schools host numerous events for the school community plus for the wider public benefit within their local communities. We aim to provide an appropriate quality of environments, infrastructure and buildings to support the educational and recreational needs of our schools; working to deliver sustainable and innovative spaces for our students to enjoy, whilst enhancing the GDST’s reputation as a leader in girls education. The GDST is committed to ensuring all of its operations are as sustainable as possible. As such, it is now certified a carbon neutral organisation and currently progressing towards a carbon zero strategy, driven primarily by the Estates team. Sustainability is embedded in all property work, as the estate is evolved towards carbon net zero both in construction and operation.’
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The Capital Investment Programme
The GDST invests over £30 million annually in capital programmes across the Estate; based on a prioritisation of compliance and condition related works, educational need, as well as improvement and expansion of the Estate, as appropriate.
Examples of projects recently completed include:
• A new integrated carbon net zero designed Junior School building at Notting Hill & Ealing High school • Major external refurbishment of Howell’s School listed buildings • South Hampstead High School junior school renewal programme (ongoing) • New building purchase at Oxford Prep school to be developed • Phase 1 of the LED replacement programme • Solar pilot project at Northwood College • Refurbishment of four science laboratories at Sydenham High School • Brighton Girls - estates optimisation programme and major retrofit of listed buildings – ‘Highly Commended’ in the Sussex Heritage Awards 2023 (2020-2022) • Wimbledon High School – improvement programme, including STEAM tower, new dining hall and 6th form centre – Shortlisted for ‘Education Architect of The Year - IID Architects (2019-2022) • Nottingham Girl’s High School – extension and improvements to sports facilities Significant projects currently underway include: • Improvements to the external landscape at Bromley • Next phase of LED, solar and sustainability programmes • South Hampstead Junior school improvement works • Sutton High school programme of works including a new sixth form and teaching building In parallel, there are a significant number of refurbishment and improvement works across the Estate, infrastructure works and maintenance programmes covering both fabric and mechanical and electrical works.
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Assistant Project Manager
Role:
Assistant Project Manager 10 Bressenden Pl, Westminster, London SW1E 5AE
Location:
Accountable to:
Senior Project Manager
Grade:
Grade 4
Job Purpose / Background The Estates Department acts on behalf of the Trust and deals with all property related matters to ensure that the estate is developed and maintained to agreed standards. The estate consists of 23 schools, two academies and the Trust Office based in Victoria. Reporting to the Head of Estates Management the postholder will • Act as a ‘Business Partner’ to the Schools on all aspects of Estate Management. • Identify, develop and manage estate improvements and minor works across the GDST school’s portfolio as part GDST’s long term maintenance and condition related works programmes, in support of the GDST’s and Estate Strategy. • Work in conjunction, and collaborate with, the Schools and Estates colleagues to develop and implement long term intelligent investment and maintenance plans for each school. • Offer the provision of an effective and holistic hybrid delivery service (all aspects of estate improvement and development - maintenance, refurbishment, new build and planning) to the GDST schools - which is significantly superior of that which any school could deliver on its own. • Work in collaboration with schools to ensure schools remain compliant for all statutory maintenance, fire risk and management. • Ensure schools comply with CDM Regulation for works carried by the school or capital projects by the Trust. • Be a ‘Trusted and Technical Advisor’ to the schools
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The post holder will follow the GDST Strategic Vision, the Estate Strategy and the school business plans. They will also be required to :- • Support the Director of Estates to deliver a professional Estates focused knowledge base to support and enhance best practice throughout the Trust and to implement strategic investment for the Trust • Support the Trust strategy to be leaders in educating girls through Estates and charitable objectives of maximising use of estates assets for benefit of current and future students Accountabilities • Assist the Senior Project Manager in all phases and aspects of delivering projects. • Provide support to other Estates team staff plus GDST schools teams. • Follow the GDST Policies and Best Practices. Key Responsibilities • Assist the Senior/Project Manager in the execution of the management plan for assigned projects • Help coordinate and manage projects from inception to completion • Review project designs and contribute ideas for value solutions
• Carry out daily operational tasks in an effective and timely manner • Facilitate communications between office and project team members • Track and directly report project status updates to Senior/Project Manager and PMO • Help problem solve issues and suggest ways to improve projects • Organize, file, and maintain all current project documents • Enter information into and manage the GDST Asset and Project databases • Assist in ensuring compliance with necessary specifications • Help create, manage, and maintain project budgets • Take responsibility within a designated project for raising orders, paying invoices and facilitating payments • Coordinate and execute daily administrative tasks • Help create and adhere to project timeline and calendar • Schedule meetings, phone calls, site visits etc. • Consult with and gather information from technicians, engineers, contractors, etc. • Maintain positive vendor and client relationships • Ensure project adheres to set schedule and is meeting goals of the client • Ensure CDM and Project Health & Safety duties are carried out within the project team • Carry out procurement activities such a preparing tenders, managing the tender process, organising tender returns and arranging tender interviews • Carry out any other duties as are within the scope, spirit and purpose of the job. Key Relationships
• Head of Capital Development • Senior Project Managers
• Estates colleagues, including Director of Estates, Head of Estate Management, Estates Managers, the Head of PMO and the Head of Sustainability. • School Heads and Directors of Finance & Operations (DFO’s) and other Operational staff (e.g. Facilities Managers and maintenance teams) • ICT, Finance, Legal and other members of the Trust Office Management team • Outsourced service providers (e.g. professional consultants, contractors etc.)
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Person Specification
General Requirements All staff are expected to: • Work towards and support the Trust vision and current objectives outlined in the GDST Strategic Development Plan. • Work within the Trust’s health and safety policy to ensure a safe working environment for staff and visitors. • Work within the GDST’s Diversity Policy to promote equality of opportunity for all staff, both current and prospective. • Maintain high professional standards of attendance, punctuality, appearance, conduct and positive, courteous relations with Trust Office colleagues, schools’ staff, external contacts and visitors. • Engage actively in the performance review process, and training and development opportunities available. • Adhere to policies as set out in the GDST Council Regulations, Notes of Guidance and GDST circulars. • Undertake other reasonable duties related to the job purpose required from time to time. Other Requirements
Person Specification
• Ability to generate and maintain customer confidence in you as an individual and in the team as a whole. • Approach of proactively taking ownership of a situation and seeing it through to a successful conclusion. • Excellent communication and presentation skills. • Ability to work effectively and flexibly on own initiative under pressure. • Excellent negotiating skills. • Ability to motivate staff and to manage collaborative team working. • Ability to create good working relationships both internally and externally and manage stakeholders effectively. • Ability to work outside normal office hours as required. • Able to work with, structure and prioritise large amounts of project information and work with the Asset Management database. • Ability to challenge in a constructive manner. • Ability to develop creative solutions to difficult issues. • Positive, ‘can-do’ attitude. • Open and diplomatic approach. • Team Player. Qualifications / Training • Bachelor’s degree in a construction or related field preferred. • 1-3 years’ experience in project management/supervisor role or as an administrative assistant. • Knowledgeable in our specific field desirable. • Proficient in Microsoft Office (Word, Outlook, Excel, Project essential) and other management software.
Essential: • Enhanced DBS check. Circumstances
• Hybrid working; 3 days office or site, 2 days working from home • Ability to travel in support of the duties of the role. • Stay overnight in support of the duties of the role when required • Work flexibly as required in support of the duties of the role Review and Amendment This job description should be seen as enabling rather than restrictive and will be subject to regular review.
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For a confidential conversation please contact our advisors at The Management Recruitment Group:
Nick Coppard 07896 079 495 Leena Lias 07973 192 953
Applications should consist of a comprehensive CV (of not more than 4 pages) and a covering letter (of not more than 2 pages).
Applications should be sent to nicholas.coppard@mrgglobal.com
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