Groundsperson

The Manchester Grammar School is seeking an experienced grounds person to be responsible for the preparation, upkeep and maintenance of the school grounds and sports pitches to the highest standards.

The successful candidate will have experience in grounds maintenance, preparation of sports pitches, use of horticultural machinery, driving a tractor and good working knowledge of Health and Safety.

The Manchester Grammar School is an independent boys’ school in Manchester with pupils aged 7 -18. The grounds and buildings cover an extensive area. With over 1560 pupils and over 300 staff, the School is very busy, both during and outside the school day.

The School grounds cover an extensive area and consist of a large number of football and rugby pitches, cricket squares, training areas and tennis courts. Sport is a very important part of School life. Sports teams have extensive fixture lists with other schools and the School teams take part in a wide range of local and national competitions in many different sports.

The Grounds team take great pride in the quality of our pitches.

There is a vacancy within the Grounds team for an experienced grounds person.

The job description is shown below:

The role

The objective of the grounds person is to ensure the efficient maintenance and development of all sports playing surfaces and their associated areas ensuring that they are safe, well presented, and of a high quality.

The role will also require the maintenance and development of all landscaped and garden areas. The duties of this post will include lifting and manual handling; therefore, the post holder should be familiar with the procedures required for these areas.

The post-holder must hold a full driving licence and be able to drive all grounds dept vehicles and a works van.

The role requires weekend working (Saturdays mainly) and some additional weekday hours on a rota basis to enable the set up and smooth running of all sports fixtures, training sessions and other external events.

The purpose of this job description is to set out the current principal duties of the post. It does not detail every individual task, and employees will be required to undertake such tasks and duties as are allocated to them from time to time in accordance with the role.

This job description is reviewed annually to ensure relevance to the schools’ operations.

Responsibilities

• Prepare all grass and artificial surfaces at the school to the highest standards including mowing, marking out, aeration and renovation practices.
• Drive tractors/plant with a variety of implements attached for grass maintenance and renovation.
• Operation of all cylinder/rotary mowers, strimmers, leaf blowers and hedge trimmers.
• Undertake adjustments of mower heights and quality of cut.
• Basic maintenance/repair of work equipment and plant
• Have a basic knowledge of shrub and plants
• Be responsible in icy/snowy weather for salting/gritting of paths, steps, slopes, and car parks to help ensure the safety of all site users and to enable the school to keep functioning in times of inclement weather.
• Undertake general maintenance and development of landscaped and garden areas.
• Keep the management team up to date and informed about all allocated areas of responsibility and to report any significant problems as appropriate and within a reasonable time period.
• Establish and maintain effective communication channels and efficient/effective working relationships with other colleagues, customers and third parties.
• Ensure and promote the correct use and operation of machinery and equipment and report any breakdowns to the Grounds management.
• Ensure the security of the departmental vehicles, tools, machinery, buildings, and equipment at all times.
• Complete all duties effectively, efficiently, accurately, and within allocated deadlines.
• Undertake appropriate training to ensure that skills remain up-to-date and commensurate with the first-class service required for this role.
• Drive School vehicles in relation to your duties at the school.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Good general level of education (to GCSE or equivalent)
• Full, clean driving licence
• Desirable
• NVQ Level 2 or equivalent
• PA1 / PA2 / PA6
• First Aid qualification
• Agricultural tractor operations

Knowledge, Skills, and Experience

Essential

• Ability to demonstrate a disciplined approach to all the safe systems of work that are in place concerning working with machinery and safe practices.
• Excellent organisational and time management skills
• Excellent customer service skills

Desirable

• Good literacy and numeracy skills
• Personal Attributes

Essential

• Ability to understand and operate in a school environment.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills at all levels
• Ability to work well as part of a team.
• Ability to work unsupervised and use own initiative.
• Enjoy outdoor working.
• Initiative-taking and proactive
• Enthusiastic with the ability to learn.
• Willingness to work flexibly to support the department when required.
• Conscientious, honest, dependable, and committed

Terms and conditions include the following:

A normal working week is 40 hours, Monday to Friday and the exact timings may be flexible depending on the needs of the School in terms of workload and seasonal variation. There is an hour’s unpaid lunch break each day with a further two 15 minute breaks at a time agreed with the Head Grounds Person.

The postholder will be expected to work overtime on Saturdays as required by the School to provide support for School fixtures. There may also be some evening overtime required during the cricket season. We do require a degree of flexibility around hours and a willingness to be adaptable. Overtime would be agreed in advance with the Head GroundsPerson

The holiday allowance for the post is 19 days, together with a number of specified school closure days. Holidays are generally to be taken during the school holiday period and are to be agreed in advance with the Estates Manager. The holiday entitlement increases to 24 days after 5 years’ service. The school closure days include bank holidays and closure periods over the Easter weekend and the Christmas holiday period. There are typically around 8 closure days each year as well as Bank Holidays.

Non-teaching staff in school are auto enrolled into the support staff scheme and details are provided about the scheme, which is a Defined Contribution scheme administered by TPT with a generous employer contribution rate of 14%.

After 6 months service the post-holder is entitled to sick pay on the following basis:

• A maximum of 4 weeks during the 1st year of service
• A maximum of 8 weeks during the 2nd year of service
• A maximum of 12 weeks in subsequent years.

The salary for the post will be in the range of £27,000 - £28,000 dependent upon experience/qualifications (plus overtime) and will be discussed at interview.

Staff have the opportunity to utilise the school facilities at certain times, including the fitness suite, the pool and tennis courts. There is free parking on site and the school participates in a Cycle to Work scheme. The School offer excellent professional development opportunities to staff.

Applicants should complete an application form: this can be downloaded from the vacancies section of the School’s website and emailed to recruitment@mgs.org. The closing date is Tuesday 22 April 2025 and interviews will be held shortly after.

The Manchester Grammar School is an equal opportunities employer and we welcome applications from all sections of the community. We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and successful applicants will be required to undergo child protection screening appropriate to the post, including checks with past employers and the

Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).  

Both our Safer Recruitment policy, and Safeguarding and Child Protection policy may be viewed on our website (click on ‘our policies’ at the bottom of the homepage).

We would like to thank all applicants for their interest in the School and for taking the time to apply. However, please note that, because of the high volume of applications we receive, we regret that we are unable to reply individually to each application.

Applications must be made by MGS application form, CV’s will not be accepted on their own.