Gemma Reeve

When joining the Forest Federation as a School Administrator after 6 years I was promoted to Office Manager working closely with the School Business Manager. I support and guide a team of 5 members that work across 5 schools offering support, guidance and cover when needed.

My role involves monthly payroll for all staff, recording monthly top up payments, reconciling school bank statements, cover HR and organise and book school trips and residentials.

At year end I support the Business Manager with school budgets, year end procedures and the closing / opening of new years on the finance system. We also update the 3 year development plans annually.

I monitor purchase orders that have been raised on the school systems, invoice school to school salaries and carry out monthly budget monitoring along with quarterly VAT.

I carry out interviews within the schools and follow the full recruitment process, carry out all necessary checks that are required and ensure relevant training has been completed. Monthly checks are also carried out on the schools SCR records.

I look after the Health and safety and premises checks of the 5 schools and work with the site supervisors ensuring all necessary checks and works are carried out in a timely and efficient way. I keep log of all works / checks done and update the contracts register and feed back to the Executive Headteacher.

Toddleabout produce a quarterly magazine for parents with children ages 0 - 5 years.

I held a varied job role due to a small business on a day to day basis.

• Spoke with advertisers, toddler groups and children’s centres for updates to be amended in the magazine. ensuring the daily activity planner within the magazine was up to date with days, times and venues etc.
• Made relevant changes, checked changes with our clients, sent proofs, and verified all details were correct.
• Answered all incoming telephone calls and emails as main point of contact.
• Kept company website current, ensured all changes were carried out and added any new listings.
• Any new magazine adverts that were sold by the director i ensured customers were invoiced and arranged direct debits where necessary.
• Chased outstanding payments by checking customer accounts and sending monthly statements.

• Answering all telephone calls and taking customer bookings.
• Greeting customers.
• Raising customer invoices when jobs are completed in the workshop and taking payments.
• Contacting customers with any upsells.
• Ordering parts and service kits for bookings that have been taken.
• Generating customer reminders for future services and MOT’s and posting out.
• Filing all old job sheets and ensuring everything is kept in an orderly manor.

• Arrange call-centre bookings and record required booking details accurately.
• Raise job cards for customer visits and prepare necessary paperwork.
• Check Volkswagen system for vehicle recalls before each customer visit.
• Pass job sheets to service reception ready for upcoming customer visits.
• Greet customers at service reception and verify job sheets before workshop entry.
• Escort customers to courtesy cars and confirm collection arrangements.
• Track each job through the workshop and update customers on pricing and any upsell.
• Raise invoices and take customer payments on collection.
• Explain completed works and advisories clearly during customer collection.

• Opening all incoming Post,
• Keeping all export records on spreadsheets and keeping them all up to date with accurate information.
• Taking all export orders and getting relevant paperwork ready for vet visits.
• Working alongside the lab team to ensure all orders are present and correct.
• While working within the company I completed my NVQ training.