Without a doubt the purpose of school is to educate, and the primary focus is understandably on students and teachers. It is surprising to realise therefore that, in common with most other schools, there are almost as many support staff as teachers at Northampton High. Why should this be? And what do they all do? Particularly when the school is closed during the evenings and school holiday periods.
It is reassuring that almost 50% of the support staff are directly involved in supporting teachers and students whether they be Science Technicians, IT Technical support, Teaching Assistants, Before and After School Care, Nursery Nurses, School Nurse, Counsellors or Examination Invigilators.
We have made a conscious decision at Northampton High to keep all school services in-house rather than contracting these functions out. This means that we have experienced teams of caterers and cleaners who take a great pride in keeping the domestic side of school running smoothly and to a high standard. The beauty of having in-house teams means they are flexible and responsive to the needs of the school community, whether this is during term time, or to support the community use of the building in the evenings, holidays and at weekends. It also means that these staff are generally long serving and very much an integral part of the wider school community which adds value in so many ways.
Our administration team take care of the two school Reception desks, transport administration, financial administration, examinations, database management, HR, marketing and admissions, trips organisation, ordering goods and services, as well as supporting teaching staff with routine administrative matters. I think anyone who has had reason to visit or telephone, either the Senior School or Junior School Reception, will acknowledge that they received a warm welcome and help with their enquiry.
This just leaves our Premises team who cope admirably with the running of a 27 acre site and school mini bus service. They are on hand 7 days a week to meet the demands of the school and out of hour’s lettings. The growing demands of compliance involve them dealing with the management of tree surveys, legionella, water risk assessments, asbestos management plans, health and safety, COSHH risk assessments, grounds contracts, swimming pool plant and our several school boiler rooms. They are an experienced team with a wealth of knowledge about the school site and infrastructure and are always on hand to carry out work requests from teaching staff. One of their favourite tasks is getting up at 3 am to open up the school to wave off a trip! Or being woken at 2 am when the intruder alarm has been activated by a display falling from a wall!
It feels like there has been a need for increasing numbers of support staff over the years brought about by an increase in legislation, inspection regimes and compliance, adherence to best practice in safeguarding and the need to risk assess just about everything we do. It would be good to think that the additional support staff have eased the workload of teachers but this is most certainly not the case. The job of the teacher is as challenging as ever, demanding a huge level of commitment, talent and many working hours. However it is true to say that the school could not operate with the dedicated team of support staff that also work hard, often behind the scenes, out of sight, and sometimes out of hours.
One of the joys if working at Northampton High is that all staff come together to form a community united in its aim of doing the best it possibly can for our pupils. This applies to all staff, whatever role they have to play.