Job Introduction
This Website and Digital Marketing Officer role is a maternity cover, for 13 months from the start of September 2023 until the end of October 2024. It is full-time, all year round.
This role comes at an exciting time for Westminster School, as we move towards full co-education. This is a significant change to the school’s historic shape, requiring careful communications management.
The Westminster School Marketing and Communications (M&C) department works across both schools within the wider charity: Westminster School (ages 13-18 senior school) and Westminster Under School (ages 7 - 13 prep school). The Website and Digital Marketing Officer will work across both schools, but will be based in Westminster School.
The post holder will work closely with the Director of Marketing and Communications, the Communications Officer and the Website Coordinator (who is the developer of all the School’s website channels).
The aim of this role is to help in the running of effective marketing and communications, by bringing all the School’s digital channels right to the heart of everyday thinking, using knowledge of SEO, analytics, and how different digital channels are best used, as well as a flair necessary to create the words, images and (increasingly) video to show the work of both schools to the outside world.
This role is not just about creating the marketing content, but also about how that content is best used across digital channels.
Previous experience and achievement within digital communications, marketing or PR is desirable, but personal attributes are equally important.
Main Responsibilities
The role has three principal areas:
Developing the School’s use of its current channels (YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn), ensuring best-practice on each.
The specific responsibilities of the role include, but are not limited to:
Use the tools available within WordPress to boost SEO
Write, edit and proofread copy for online content
Have oversight of the School’s social media channels, planning best use of content and investigating paid-for options
Maintain the digital photograph library
Manage and protect the School’s brand (images, logos, house styles etc.).
Help manage the production of printed materials (prospectuses, brochures, leaflets, posters, letters, school-branded stationery, etc.)
Coordinate professional photography and filming
Photograph school events on an ad-hoc basis, and organise for other members of staff to take photos when appropriate
Attend school events (including some out of hours)
Monitor the Communications inbox, and be a first point of contact for enquiries
Oversee and support the advertisement of all jobs, both on the website and on LinkedIn
Edit and circulate whole-school emails
Work with publications such as Good Schools Guide and Tatler Schools Guide to ensure School information is up to date, and to plan visits for reviews
The post will suit someone keen to work in a varied role; both an effective digital communicator and administrator, who can engage effectively with a wide range of stakeholders, including staff, parents, and pupils.
Whilst previous experience working in a school could be an advantage, there is no requirement for this.
This job description is intended to be enabling rather than restrictive, and will be subject to regular review to ensure it is suitable both for the School and the post holder.
Line Management
The post holder will report to the Director of Marketing and Communications.
Hours
The role is full-time, all year round, Monday to Friday, 09:00 - 17:00.
The role is based on site, but with the potential to do some work from home as agreed with the Director of Marketing and Communications. There is more flexibility for off-site working during school holiday periods.
All members of the Marketing and Communications team understand that media emergencies may occasionally require evening and weekend work at short notice.
Any planned evening or weekend work (to attend events as part of the role) can then be taken back as time in lieu.
All support staff are entitled to 25 days’ paid holiday per year (plus bank holidays).
The Ideal Candidate
Please refer to the attached person specification for further details.
Equal Opportunities
We are an equal opportunities employer. We therefore encourage candidates to apply irrespective of age, disability, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion and belief, gender identity, sex or sexual orientation.
Safeguarding and Child Protection
Westminster School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. Applicants must be willing to undergo child protection screening appropriate to the post, including checks with past employers and the Disclosure and Barring Service.
About The School
Working at Westminster
Westminster School is a busy, purposeful and vibrant place to be and an excellent workplace. The community is made up of 750 pupils, 120 teaching staff and 108 support staff.
Westminster School is friendly and welcoming, and all newcomers quickly become part of the rhythm of life here.
There is a real sense of community here as, being a boarding school many members of staff and pupils live on site and the School’s premises are very much treated as a home away from home. School life starts before breakfast and continues way beyond the working day; as a result, there is always a lively atmosphere in and around School and always someone to share a tea and biscuit with in the Common Room. Support staff as much as teaching staff are encouraged to embrace the School’s day-to-day activities, whether that be attending an evening concert or a morning service in the Abbey.
At Westminster we will always select the best candidate for every position. We do know, however, that we can only truly choose the best person on every occasion if a broad and diverse pool of candidates see the job advertised and are encouraged to apply.
As such, we continue to work on how our job roles are encountered, and particularly welcome applications from groups who have traditionally been underrepresented here.
Westminster School is for everyone, regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation or any other protected characteristic. We hope you are encouraged to apply.
The School
Westminster School is a selective day and boarding school for boys aged 13 to 18 and girls aged 16 to 18. There are approximately 360 boys in the Lower School (Years 9 to 11) and 400 boys and girls in the Upper School (Years 12 and 13). One quarter of the pupils board, and the School is structured and run as a boarding school, with an extended day and week and a strong House-based system of pastoral welfare, for boarding and day pupils alike.
Westminster is an ancient school, whose origins can be traced to a charity school established by the Benedictine monks of Westminster Abbey. Its continuous existence is certain from the early 14th century. Henry VIII personally ensured the School’s survival by statute and Elizabeth I, who confirmed royal patronage in 1560, is celebrated as the School’s foundress. Westminster is rare amongst long-established schools in remaining on its original site in the centre of London. Its proximity to Parliament and Westminster Abbey, and the use of the Abbey for its chapel, together with the stimulating diversity of the South Bank and West End, account in part for its special atmosphere and outlook.
The School is one of the foremost centres of academic excellence both in this country and internationally. Central to its academic ethos is the dialogue between teachers and their pupils, whether in the classroom or in tutorials, inspiring enjoyment of intellectual enquiry, debate and search for explanation and the development of skills of rational, independent thought well beyond any standard examination syllabus. The desired environment is happy, busy and purposeful; the pupils are intellectually, socially, ethically and politically engaged, with plenty of opportunities to develop initiatives and to articulate and defend their views, in line with the enduring values of the liberal tradition reflected in the School’s Charter. That tradition is fully committed also to the nurture of each pupil’s spiritual, moral, emotional and physical development and wellbeing – with a particular emphasis on drawing out individual talent wherever it lies - and to the preparation of young people for fulfilled private and public lives beyond School.
Package Description
Required for: September 2023
Location: Great School (Dean's Yard)
Contract: full-time, fixed-term contract (maternity cover)
Hours of work: 09:00 - 17:00, Monday to Friday
Salary: £35,000 per annum
The deadline for applications is Monday 31st July 2023. Interviews will take place w/c 7th August 2023.