Schools Booking and Membership Assistant

Job title: School Booking and Membership Assistant

Salary: B1 £26,016 - £26,847

Hours: 29.6 hours, or 4 days, per week

Contract: Temporary until 31 March 2028

Location: Leeds City Museum (3 days p/w), Leeds Discovery Centre (1 day p/w)

Do you remember your school trips to museums as a child? You remember the magic because everything ran smoothly for you and your teachers. The School Booking and Membership Assistant provides the brilliant administrative support that makes school trips at Leeds City Museum run without a hitch and helps school loans boxes go out into schools from the school membership scheme at Leeds Discovery Centre. The role is split across the two venues with an expectation of in person working, with some hybrid, 3 days a week at Leeds City Museum and 1 day per week at Leeds Discovery Centre.

Leeds City Council is one of the largest employers in the region with over 14,000 employees. We seek to recruit and develop talented individuals who embody our council valuesand ambitions.

About you

You will be highly organised and able to manage and respond to a fast-paced enquiry system as schools seek to book visits to Leeds City Museum. Our museums are like 3D jigsaw puzzles as we manage conflicting priorities of limited spaces and the needs of different visitors, and your role within making this work is key. Do we have the space to host another school workshop? Do we have the staff to deliver it? Has the school workshop been invoiced for? What else is going on in the building on that day? Leeds City Museum hosts about 9000 schoolchildren annually in booked school groups, so there’s a lot going on!

You will be able to manage relationships and have brilliant customer service skills at Leeds Discovery Centre. We run a membership scheme for 22 primary schools annually from the Discovery Centre, including loans boxes of museum objects that go into school for a half term. You will be responsible for ensuring the loans boxes reach the school and return to Discovery Centre, that schools use their full membership benefits, and that they are fully paid-up members through invoicing and financial processes.

About the role

The role sits within the Leeds Museums and Galleries Learning and Access Team. However, at both venues, you will be working closely with Learning, Operations, Commercial colleagues.

We are open to flexible and some hybrid working, although to manage the loans boxes you will need to be at Leeds Discovery Centre!

What we offer you

We take pride in offering the best employee experience, with benefits including:

• a competitive salary and annual leave entitlement plus statutory holidays
• membership of the West Yorkshire Pension Fund with generous employer contributions
• flexible and hybrid working arrangements subject to service requirements
• a clear career pathway and continuing professional development opportunities
• a range of staff benefits to help you boost your wellbeing and make your money go further

How to apply

Please complete the online application form.

Read our guidance for further advice. Please check your information carefully and ensure you complete all sections before submitting your application.

If you have any queries or would like an informal chat about the role please contact Kate Fellows, Head of Learning and Access, 07891276891, kate.fellows@leeds.gov.uk

We welcome applications from everyone and actively seek a diverse range of applicants from all backgrounds and cultures. We particularly encourage applications from, but not limited to, women, carers, veterans as well as LGBT+, ethnically diverse, disabled and care experienced people.

This role is based in the UK. Home Office guidance states that candidates must evidence their right to work in the UK prior to commencing employment, either as a UK or Irish citizen, under the EU Settlement scheme or having secured any other relevant work visa.

If you do not have the right to work in the UK, you must consider your own eligibility for sponsorship for a particular role through the Skilled Worker visa route before applying. To be eligible for sponsorship you'll usually need to be paid the standard salary rate of at least £41,700 per year or meet one of the other eligibility criteria. Ensure you are eligible before applying.

Job Description

Job Purpose:

To provide school booking support at Leeds City Museum and administrative support for the school membership scheme at Leeds Discovery Centre.

Leeds City Museum is a city centre museum with a very busy school workshop and self-led programme reaching around 10,000 pupils a year. This is balanced with the needs of other audiences and groups within the building. At Leeds City Museum, you would be taking and managing school and group bookings (spaces, diary, invoicing, supporting risk assessments, recording performance data), managing immediate relationships with teachers and school staff, booking in casual Learning Facilitators to deliver workshops, and liaising with the Learning and Access Officer on complex bookings and developments to the school programme.

The Leeds Museums and Galleries (LMG) primary school membership scheme is managed from Leeds Discovery Centre. It is an annual subscription service where schools buy into levelled membership packages and receive half termly loans boxes of museum objects, pupil workshops and teacher CPD. You would be managing annual membership requests (tracking, invoicing, recording performance data), checking loans boxes in and out every half term, maintaining long-term relationships with annually subscribing schools and teachers, assisting in the development of new loans boxes and digital resources, marketing the scheme, and working closely with the Learning and Access Officer (School Membership).

The LMG Learning and Access team are a high performing, robust, research-led team who are national leaders within museum and gallery learning.

Responsibilities:

• Deal with and prioritise fast-paced routine and complex telephone and email enquiries for Leeds City Museum school bookings and LMG primary school membership scheme in an accurate, timely and professional manner.
• Work closely with the Learning and Access Officers at Leeds City Museum and Leeds Discovery Centre, and the Head of Learning and Access, to support LMG’s commercial activities in relation to learning, ensure the school requirements are met, and that colleagues are accurately informed.
• Develop and maintain high quality, professional relationships with schools and key school staff.
• Keep, maintain and report accurate records in line with current data protection legislation. For Leeds City Museum, this will be using the Artifax room booking system to generate booking forms and manage relationships. For the LMG primary school membership scheme this will be using Microsoft Excel.
• Handle the finances (invoicing, income reports) for the LMG primary school membership scheme and school bookings at Leeds City Museum in a timely manner and in line with financial regulations.
• Ensure that record keeping for enquiries maximises school booking and membership opportunities.
• Actively promote and market the LMG primary school membership scheme through Leeds for Learning and other appropriate channels.
• Assist in the development, delivery and evaluation of the LMG primary school membership scheme and loans boxes, including co-creation with teachers and pupils, and teacher continuous professional development (CPD).
• Work independently, have excellent time management and prioritising skills in demanding environments and be resilient.
• Actively participate as a member of the LMG Learning and Access team in developing new programmes and action research by being professionally curious, working creatively, being reflective and participating in local and national networks (such as the Group for Education in Museums).
• Be aware of and adhere to Leeds City Council Health, Safety and Wellbeing Policy being responsible for your own health and safety whilst at work and that of your colleagues and visitors.
• The duties outlined are not meant as an exhaustive list and will also comprise any other duties within the spirit of the post commensurate with the job evaluation outcome for this post.

Qualifications:

Educated to Level 3 (A Level equivalent) or professional vocational qualification within a relevant area

Essential criteria Candidates will only be shortlisted if they can demonstrate that they meet all the following essential requirements.

• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.
• Ability to develop and maintain excellent working relationships with colleagues, external partners and stakeholders.
• Ability to work under pressure and to strict deadlines.
• Excellent management of conflicting priorities and demands within a high volume workload.
• Excellent keyboard skills.
• Ability to work as part of multi-layered teams and in complex environments.
• Analytical use of data for financial analysis and evaluation (quantitative and qualitative).
• Basic knowledge of Local Authority financial procedures and data protection legislation.
• Knowledge of spreadsheets, databases and word processing.
• Proven track record of operating administrative systems accurately (finance, room bookings, managing diaries) within a high volume workload and busy office environment.
• Proven track record of prioritising fast-paced tasks to tight deadlines.
• Experience of working in a complex environments and in multi-layered teams.
• Experience of working with the public, or in front line customer services.

Behavioural and other related characteristics

• Flexible approach to working hours.
• Self-motivated, independent learner, with the ability to use own initiative.
• Passionate about the power of object learning.
• Demonstrate a strong interest in the work of Leeds Museums and Galleries.
• Understand and embrace Leeds City Council Values and Behaviours and codes of conduct
• Committed to continuous improvement in all areas and work towards delivering the Best City Ambition of Health & Wellbeing, Inclusive Growth and Zero Carbon
• Able to understand and observe Leeds City Council policies and procedures.
• Carry out all duties having regard to an employee’s responsibility under Health, Safety and Wellbeing.
• Willingness to actively participate in appraisal, training and development activities to ensure up, to date knowledge and skills.
• Flexible and adaptable to change to assist other services as required commensurate to grade.
• Be aware of and support difference and ensure equality for all working in an anti-discriminatory manner, upholding, equality & diversity of Leeds City Council.
• Recognise and appropriately challenge any incidents of racism, bullying, harassment, victimisation, and any form of abuse, reporting any concerns to the appropriate person
• The Council has adopted a flexibility protocol and the role will be expected to work within these parameters.

Desirable requirements Candidates are not required to meet all the following desirable requirements however these may be used to distinguish between candidates.

• Basic knowledge of statutory education needs (e.g. National Curriculum for England).
• Basic understanding of what accessibility and inclusion mean in a museum / gallery environment.
• Experience of administering a membership scheme or similar commercial packages.
• Experience of managing and administering casual staff and volunteers.
• Experience of creating object-based learning resources.