“Is your school effective in carrying out its aims?”
It is a question that school administrators and bursars were recently asked by the School of Education Administration and Management. Almost everyone answers “yes”, which is reassuring.
However when discussions develop to cover specific processes and arrangements that are central to the running of the school’s administration a different picture emerges.
It is an interesting dichotomy, and one that is quite probably caused by the ever expanding and ever changing role of the bursar, SBM and administrators – an expansion and set of changes which in many cases have not been planned, but have emerged.
The fact is that change is everywhere – and unless one looks at both the overall process and approach of a school’s administration, and specific issues within the administration it is hard to see where the problems are and what needs to be done.
As a result, stress can rise as unpaid overtime rises (75% of school administrators now report doing unpaid overtime at least three days a week), and a sense of progressive improvement is replaced by a sense of making do.
However, school administrations that recognise change as an inevitable part of running the school’s systems and by accepting that the drive towards efficiency and effectiveness is part of the job that these various parts of the school process can be brought back into balance.
Hence the new edition of the Bursar’s Survival Guide.
The report opens with a single example idea, one idea that takes only a few minutes to implement but which could reduce the school’s non-salary expenditure by 10% at a stroke, without changing the quality of the goods and services provided.
After that the volume considers 57 separate topics that affect the role of the bursar and the bursar’s department in the school, and analyses each one in a way that is (in most cases, if not all) different from the way in which standard text books on bursaring and financial control approach the topic.
Finally, we have two reports from research recently undertaken by the School of Education Administration and Management. The first reveals the fundamental structural problem that the majority of schools face with the running of the school office, and shows the simple reform that will enhance productivity, and staff well-being at once.
The second analyses the single biggest problem that school administrations face, and shows how, without spending any money, schools have transformed their administrations by dealing with this problem.
With these two new reports The Bursar’s Survival Guide will help to ensure a smoothly run bursar’s office generating excellent results in all aspects of its work in the years to come.
You can see some sample pages at http://pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/bursar/T1795.pdf
Publisher’s reference: T1795EMN ISBN: 978 1 86083 885 9
Prices
- Photocopiable book £24.95 plus £3.95 delivery
- CD £24.95 plus £3.95 delivery
- Book plus CD £31.94 plus £3.95 delivery
Prices include VAT.
You can purchase the report… please quote the order ref: T1795EMN
- By post to First and Best, Hamilton House, Earlstrees Ct., Earlstrees Way, Corby, NN17 4HH
- By fax to 01536 399 012
- On-line with a credit card at
http://shop.firstandbest.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=26&products_id=416