A Day In The Life Of… The Site Team

Our site team’s working day begins earlier and ends later than any other team in the school. The site team work in shifts, with the early shift beginning at 6am, and the late shift not ending until 10pm. On top of this, there is always an on-call agent available over night, so the school is taken care of 24 hours a day.

Our incredible site team is made up of eight staff and an additional team of around 30 cleaners, all overseen by our Facilities Manager, Mr Lavery. The site agents have ultimate responsibility for the security of the school site, and they will unlock all areas of the building before teaching staff start arriving from around 7am.

When he arrives in school, Mr Lavery goes through the overnight handover document (which details important information about any incidents during the evening, work that’s been carried out, and tasks that need doing in the morning) and checks his emails, so that he can prioritise work which needs to be done each day. Once a week, he meets with the headteacher to discuss ongoing issues and agree priorities. Mr Lavery oversees site security, health and safety, risk assessments, fire safety compliance and the school’s environmental duties, so there is always lots to discuss.

While Mr Lavery is planning larger priorities for the days and weeks ahead, the site team are already getting on with daily maintenance tasks. The Vandyke campus covers an especially large area, and each member of the team has responsibility for a given area of the school. All Vandyke staff are able to log jobs which need doing around the site, using a system called Smartlog. Smartlog is overseen by our Senior Site Agent, Mr Johnston, who regularly monitors incoming jobs and allocates them to various members of the team.

Our site team are a multi-talented bunch who can turn their hand to most tasks! Regular jobs include: repairing flooring and carpeting; fixing minor electrical problems; sorting out plumbing issues; painting and general repairs; trouble-shooting issues with classroom projectors; putting up shelves and display boards; setting up staging and changing lighting in the theatre; waste disposal and recycling; weeding and general grounds maintenance… the list goes on!

Each term, Mr Lavery and our deputy headteacher, Mr Phillips, arrange fire evacuation and lockdown drills, to ensure all staff and students know what to do in an emergency situation. Site accessibility is another important consideration, and Mr Lavery will liaise with the SEND team to apply for additional funding to ensure the school site is fully accessible for students and staff with a variety of needs.

The team are constantly looking for ways to improve the school’s green credentials.  The site team work hard to manage an extensive recycling programme across the school, including food waste from the canteen. They are also in the process of updating all the lighting across the school, removing old style lighting and installing more energy efficient solutions, which are not only better for the environment, but will help to reduce the school’s electricity bill!  A grant has recently enabled the school to install ten Electric Vehicle charging points in the car park.

Students depart the site at 3.05pm, but this does not signal the end of the working day for the site team. Every evening and at the weekends, various areas of the school are used by local community groups, to run their clubs and activities. The 3G pitch, astroturf, theatre and drama studio are just some of the areas which are regularly used. The site team prepare these areas and remain available during their use, in case any issues arise.

We are exceptionally grateful to our skilled site team for the round-the-clock care and supervision they provide. Our school couldn’t operate without them!