• Job title:Maintenance Supervisor
• Job Type:Permanent, Full Time, 8am-5pm
• Salary:£45,000 per annum (£51,255 if full pension flex benefit is utilised)
• Department:Estates
• Reporting to:Estates Manager
• Location:Highgate, North London
• Start:Immediately
• Closing Date:3 October 2025 at 9:00 am

Highgate School Estates Department are looking for an enthusiastic and dynamic Maintenance Supervisor to support the Estates Manager in delivering a best in class Estates provision to one of London’s top Independent Schools.

The key focus of the role is to provide support to the Estates Manager in managing the maintenance team and providing a focal point of contact for both staff and the wider department to ensure smooth allocation of tasks and day to day smooth running of the team. The role is designed to provide high quality support to the Estates Manager to ensure that all areas of the Estate (including back of house areas) remain operational, safe, pleasant to occupy and conducive to an enjoyable learning experience.

The Estates Department comprises the Estates Manager, School Marshall, and four Capital Project Managers. The department has a small in-house team of maintenance staff and has responsibility for all aspects of property and premises management and repairs, and the maintenance of the Schools landscaped areas and sports fields.

The School is unique as a client organisation in the breadth of facilities it must provide and maintain. These include academic, residential, sporting (internal & external), office and administration, ecclesiastical, performance space and dining and function facilities. Significant capital investment in the Estate has already occurred with some £64m of expenditure in both the modernisation and replacement of existing building stock. The School is however only part way through the planned pipeline of projects with the more challenging and exciting projects yet to come in the next 5 to 10 years and beyond.

It is a key objective of the department that the functions of maintenance, refurbishment and new build are closely aligned to deliver an efficient and informed joint strategy to ensure the Department continues to provide high quality facilities for the School.

In addition to the capital project element, significant modernisation of the facilities management function has also taken place. This has resulted in improved tracking and diligence around statutory compliance together with and increased focus on customer service and service delivery to academic colleagues. The input of the maintenance team into the proposed design and specification of capital projects is also pivotal to ensure continuity of new assets and ease of maintenance.

Job Description

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES

Support the Estates Manager in all aspects of maintenance service delivery as required. The role will be an additional responsibility over and above the core “trade” role of the successful applicant. The post holder is expected to carry out the duties of a maintenance technician in their specialist field as well as the supervisory and coordination duties noted below.

The primary focus will be to ensure that the maintenance team supports the School and remains compliant by fulfilling the range of duties covered within the role including which are, but not limited to:

Health & Safety/Compliance

• Providing regular H&S toolbox talks to the team
• Ensuring all work areas (e.g. plant rooms and workshop areas) are clean, tidy and well organised including effective management of COSHH
• Ensuring logbooks for in house delivered tasks are regularly and correctly filled out
• Co-ordinating technical and compliance training requirements for the team, including identifying training gaps and researching appropriate provision to close them

Team Supervision

• Demonstrate an exemplar standard of organisation, time keeping and workmanship in their technical field
• Work alongside the Estates Manager to ensure that School holiday periods are effectively planned to ensure necessary repairs are carried out alongside betterment works
• Work to maximise the amount of work that can be completed in term time, and liaise with members of academic staff to facilitate extended periods of access when required
• Allocate tasks to members of the maintenance team via the TABS CAFM system
• Instil a culture of teamwork, team harmony and effective time management to maximise staffing coverage across the School day
• Act as a voice for the maintenance team with regards issues, concerns and opportunities to improve
• Coordinate parts orders across the team to ensure best value for money and efficiency of processing

 

Estate Management

• Assist the Estates Manager with reviewing third party supplier contract tenders as required
• Provide a liaison point for the Commercial team to ensure external hires are appropriately serviced and staffed as needed
• Provide a liaison point for the Parents Association for periodic events
• Ensure that regular building checks, including of void properties, are carried out as required
• Attend building handover meetings as part of the Capital Projects programme and ensure other members of the team are appropriately trained in new building systems
• Liaise with subcontractors as required to escalate issues where necessary, liaising with the Estates office as required

 

Energy & Sustainability

• Ensure that staff work in a sustainable way, and actively contribute to the schools Sustainability plan by identifying new ways of working to support this
• Identify new technology and equipment to enhance the School’s energy and environmental performance in line with the Sustainability Policy

These duties and responsibilities are intended as a guide. They are not exhaustive: the employee will be expected to undertake any reasonable task or responsibility as required by their line manager.

Person Specification

• Criteria
• How will these be tested or verified?
• Qualifications and Experience

• Essential

  • GCSE (or equivalent) qualifications supported by strong literacy and numeracy skills
  • Proven track record in providing support in operational and facilities environments
  • Experience of liaising effectively with building users, external consultants and external contractors

  Desirable

  • Experience of working in the education sector
  • Experience of staff line management
• Skills

• Essential

  • Excellent organisational skills with an ability to plan, prioritise and meet deadlines
  • Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to foster effective relationships with suppliers and contractors
  • Excellent oral and written communication skills
  • Intermediate level skills in Microsoft office (Word, Excel and Outlook), to enable the preparation of reports, spread sheets and databases
• Knowledge

• Essential

  • Awareness of relevant Health and Safety legislation/regulations

  Desirable

  • Knowledge of child protection and safeguarding policies
• Personal Attributes

• Essential

  • Competent and personable
  • High degree of personal drive and motivation
  • Ability to work calmly under pressure and multi-task
  • Willing to be flexible and adaptable
  • Ability to work well as a member of a team

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

Pension | AVIVA workplace pension scheme offered – 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).

Holidays | Generous holiday allowance of 33 days (including bank holidays) for full-time staff. Most holidays will be taken during school holiday periods.

Lunch | A complimentary lunch including hot meals, sandwiches, salads, fresh fruit and dessert.

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.

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.

• Closing Date:3rd October 2025
• First Interview:9th October 2025
• Second Interview:16th October 2025

Contact: Recruitment Team are happy to answer any questions about this post.

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 staff and pupils will feel a sense of belonging and will thrive. To enable us to make reasonable adjustments, please let us know of any disabilities (including neuro-divergence) when you submit your application.

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. If in the course of carrying 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.

Highgate is committed to the safeguarding and welfare of children and 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 be filtered, 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.