Admissions Registrar

The Role

The purpose of this role is to support the Director of Admissions in ensuring best practice in admissions procedures and processes so that the College meets its recruitment targets. In addition to supporting the Director of Admissions, the Admissions Registrar will work closely with the other Admissions Registrars to ensure consistency and shared best practice across all admissions activity.

The Admissions Registrar will provide all prospective families to the College with a friendly, professional, helpful and efficient service throughout the recruitment cycle. They will also be responsible for all administration and data input relating to the admissions process for each family considering the College.

The Admissions Registrar reports to the Senior Registrar.

IDEAL CANDIDATE PROFILE

The ideal candidate will have outstanding interpersonal skills and personal warmth. S/he will be logical, thorough and a superb communicator with a good command of written and spoken English and excellent attention to detail. The Admissions Registrar will ideally have a strong customer service mentality and experience of using databases.

Experience of working in school or university admissions or in an educational setting would also be an advantage but not essential.

They will be sympathetic to the School’s Catholic ethos and will be comfortable with articulating this when communicating with prospective parents and pupils.

These skills will be necessary to help the College grow its market share in the highly competitive marketplaces in which the College operates when recruiting both day and boarding pupils at 13+ and 16+.

KEY FUNCTIONAL RELATIONSHIPS

The role of Admissions Registrar pivots on building successful relationships with many stakeholders including:

• The Headmasters of the College and St Mary’s Hall
• The Director of Admissions department
• Other members of the Admissions
• Prospective parents and pupils
• Heads of Department
• Boarding staff
• Bursary team

SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES

The Admissions Registrar will be responsible for the administration of the admissions process from the initial enquiry until the pupil joins the School such that recruitment targets are met. The post holder will have responsibility for ensuring communication is prompt, personalised and friendly, that all the steps of the admissions process are followed and that the management information system is up-to-date and accurate at every stage. The overall aim is to secure pupil enrolment by nurturing every enquiry through the admissions process.

Admissions process

• Respond promptly to enquiries via phone or email, sending relevant material/ information and adding a record on to the admissions database
• Build and maintain for as long as necessary an inclusive relationship between the School and prospective family, identifying any particular points of interest
• Gather comprehensive information about each contact with a family, updating the admissions database throughout the entire process, so that subsequent stages can be continually tailored and personalised
• Book appointments for visiting families, liaising with all the relevant College parties to ensure the visit meets the family’s needs, briefing pupil tour guides and preparing staff prior to the visit
• Ensure relevant and up-to-date information about visiting families is available to the Head and other senior staff prior to their visit
• Follow up all enquiries and visits by appropriate methods of communication, staying in touch with families throughout their admissions journey as outlined in the College’s admissions process
• Acknowledge all registrations and deposits, updating the admissions database and liaising with bursary colleagues about payment
• Assist with the organisation of and preparation for the College’s Open Days and other recruitment / promotional events, including sending mail merged invitations
• Attend the College’s Open Days and thank attendees for coming
• Support the Director of Admissions with the administration surrounding entrance and scholarship examinations and assessments, liaising with the Deputy Head of Academic and Heads of Department as instructed
• Maintain proactive and timely communication with families throughout the admissions process, notifying all scholarship candidates of specific arrangements
• Liaise with the bursary department regarding applications for bursary assistance.

Other responsibilities:

• Take part in the School’s performance management process
• Undertake relevant training as identified and agreed
• Undertake other tasks as reasonably required by the Director of Admissions

QUALITIES AND KEY SKILLS REQUIRED

Affinity with the School’s culture

The Admissions Registrar will need to be at ease in promoting the values of an independent Catholic day and boarding School and be able to embrace and articulate with conviction the benefits of the School’s ethos.

Professionalism

This includes such qualities as integrity, smart personal and professional appearance, treating confidential information with respect, being discreet, punctual, polite, measured and having a relentless focus on customer service.

Excellent interpersonal skills

Build close and harmonious relations with colleagues and work co-operatively and supportively with others. The post holder will be a person who is at ease with persons of any culture or background.

Excellent communication skills

Critically, the post holder must have an excellent telephone and personal manner, the ability to write correctly and communicate ideas and information in an imaginative and compelling manner.

Enthusiasm and energy

Persistence, stamina, optimism, hard working with a sense of fun.

Intelligence

The Admissions Registrar will be articulate, logical and organized, able to multi-task effectively with a strong eye for detail. S/he will have a sufficiently high level of academic qualification to perform the role.

IT and database skills

High level of competence with software packages(such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel) and experience of databases or data-input.

The Admissions Registrar will be expected to work such hours as are necessary to meet the job specification. Normal working hours will be 37.5 hours per week, Monday to Friday with some evening and weekend commitments.