Estates Administrator

• Job title:Estates Administrator
• Job Type:12 month FTC, 8am-5pm, 40 hours per week
• Salary:£30,000 per annum (£34,170 if full pension flex benefit is utilised)
• Department:Estates
• Reporting to:Estates Manager
• Location:Highgate, North London
• Start:ASAP
• Closing Date:19 June 2026 at 9:00 am

Highgate School Estates team are looking for someone to join us as an Estates Administrator to help run our busy back of house operation, ensuring contractors are booked in on time and compliance and financial documents are meticulously recorded. We’re looking for someone enthusiastic, personable, and hardworking, with keen eye for detail and a proactive approach to problem‑solving. In this busy and rewarding role, you’ll help keep our historic North London campus running smoothly, working alongside a supportive team to deliver high‑quality maintenance across a wide range of buildings and facilities. If you take pride in your craft, enjoy variety in your day, and thrive in a collaborative environment, we’d love to hear from you.

Highgate Estates is made up of Maintenance, Porterage, Grounds, Gardening and Capital Projects teams. The department’s in-house maintenance team has responsibility for all aspects of property and premises management and repairs and the maintenance of the schools landscaped areas and sports fields. The department works closely alongside the School’s other operational departments.

The School is unique as a client organisation in the breadth of facilities it must provide and maintain which include; academic, residential, sporting (internal & external), office and administration, ecclesiastical, performance space and dining and function facilities.

Job Description

THE ROLE

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES

The key focus of the role is to provide high quality support to the Estates Manager and Estates Support Officers to ensure that all elements of the Estates Office run smoothly and efficiently. The ever-evolving demand on the Department means continued administrative support is required.

Porters & Security 

• Responsibility for coordinating the activities of the porter team, including creating and maintaining work plans and managing resource, alongside the Lead Porter
• Provide a point of contact for Porters where additional resource may be required to meet the demands of exception events
• Liaise with third party suppliers to arrange additional resource for exceptional events where required
• Ensure the School’s fleet of minibuses are kept in a roadworthy and serviceable condition

Administrative Support to the Estates Office 

• Ensuring efficient electronic and paper filing and office management
• Assembling external contractors’ quotations and collating for review by the Estates Manager
• Fostering effective working relationships with contractors, suppliers etc. and escorting visitors as required
• General office and departmental administration as required or directed by the Estates Manager or Estates Support Officers
• Monitoring incoming work requests and allocating to engineers or contractors as directed by the Estates Manager, Maintenance Manager or Estates Support Officers either by telephone, email or via the TABS CAFM (computer aided Facilities Management) asset management system (where appropriate level of training will be provided)
• Answering telephones and direct office enquiries
• Signing in visiting contractors and issuing keys as required
• Escorting visitors and providing access to buildings as required

Health & Safety 

• Support the Estates Office in ensuring full compliance with all Health & Safety legislation relevant to the physical environment

Special Projects  

• Assisting the Estates Manager and Estates Support Officers in maintaining the data held within the TABS CAFM system
• Any other reasonable request from the Estates team

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

  • Proven track record in providing administrative support
  • Experience of liaising effectively with building users, external consultants and external contractors

  Desirable

  • Knowledge of working in the education sector
  • Knowledge of working in a Facilities or Estates Management environment
  • Experience of basic building maintenance and providing facilities services within business premises and the associated legal compliance issues
• Skills

• Essential

  • Excellent organisational skills with an ability to plan, prioritise and meet deadlines
  • Excellent interpersonal skills
  • 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

  Desirable

  • Ability to establish, maintain, manage and monitor the legal and regulatory records required for the Foundation’s facilities
  • Experience of asset management software
• Knowledge

• Essential

  • 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, multi-task and prioritise tasks logically
  • Ability to work well as a member of a team
  • Ability to understand and adapt to the culture of an independent day school

  Desirable

  • Willing to be flexible and work outside office hours as required

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:19th June 2026
• First Interview:22nd June 2026
• Second Interview:26th June 2026

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.