Leadership by example {CASE STUDY}
A challenging, but rewarding, role We speak to EMMA SANDS, business manager at The Grange Primary School in Scunthorpe, about her progression from the corporate world to a school business manager in a large primary school - and the challenges she has faced along the way Tell us a little bit about yourself, and the pathway to your current role. I’m a working mum of two very energetic boys so it’s never a dull moment. My background is predominantly finance and business. I started in 2008 by doing the AAT bookkeeping qualification and I enjoyed it so much that I carried on and did the full qualification. I then achieved full membership status in 2013 and I also worked in private sector finance for several years. When my eldest was school-age, and my youngest was about two, I decided I wanted to do something different that would maybe give me a bit more time to spend with them. I didn’t know about any school business roles, I just stumbled across it and thought that it would suit. I knew it would be a challenge, but I thought I’d apply for it. At the time I had lots of other mums telling me, ‘Oh no, you’ll not get in at a school – they’re notoriously hard to get into,’ and ‘My friend’s applied for years and she’s never got an interview,’ and I just thought having that qualification the AAT, the accountancy skills matched perfectly to the role, so it didn’t deter me and I did apply for it. I was successful straightaway in one of the jobs - so I’ve continued in a school business manager role since 2014. I’ve completed both the ILM School Business Manager qualifications Level 5 and 6 and then, last year, I did the Level 7 CIPFA course. This is the second business manager role that I’m in now; it’s a larger school in a really high deprivation area, so it’s quite challenging.
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14
Summer 2021
Did you enjoy the Level 7 qualification? I passed my CIPFA Level 7 Strategic, Financial and Operational Leadership course, which was brilliant. If somebody wanted to understand fully about everything to do with school finance and funding, I would really recommend the course - CIPFA are great. It was a bit tricky because you have complete the Cert FRA
