Executive Administrative Assistant

We are looking for an Executive Assistant to work directly with our School Leader at our Athi River campus who is able to start at the end of June/ early July.  Nova Pioneer Athi River School is a campus that offers both the CBE and Cambridge curricula and serves Pre-Primary, Primary, Junior Secondary and Senior Secondary students.  

As an Executive Assistant, you will be required to have expertise and competency across systems creation and monitoring, communication, partnership creation and maintenance,  school wide events and teammate culture. You will be responsible for providing high-level administrative support to the school working closely alongside the School Leader. 

This is an exciting opportunity to be a part of an innovative network of schools that is developing generations of innovators and leaders who will shape the African Century.

ABOUT NOVA PIONEER

Imagine a world in which every young person across Africa attends a school that truly sets them up for success in the 21st century. A school that cares about individual students and allows them to explore the world around them. A school that focuses more on developing skills than on memorizing content. At Nova Pioneer, we have done more than just imagine this future, we are bringing it to life. Nova Pioneer is a pan-African, independent network of schools offering high quality, accessible education from pre-primary through secondary school. Nova Pioneer uses a unique, enquiry-based learning approach that encourages students to ask “why” instead of telling them the “what”. It allows them to form their own thinking through exploration, investigation and collaboration. Nova Pioneer currently has 16 schools in South Africa and Kenya with a vision to launch 100 schools and reach tens of thousands of students across the African continent in the next decade. To learn more visit www.novapioneer.com.

ABOUT THE ROLE

Key responsibilities of the role are:

In partnership and under the guidance of the School Leader: 

Organisation and Administration skills

• Provide administrative support to the School Leader. 
• Managing the school calendar ensuring that all Nova Pioneer global, regional and school events, activities and work streams are visible and being executed on by the school leadership team.  
• Weekly review and analysis of all data dashboards (academics, behavior, culture, enrollment, retention, transport, catering, stakeholder satisfaction, onboarding parents, students, teammates, finance etc) and follow up with leadership team members to ensure that all contributions are meeting and exceeding expectations. 
• Review and analyze PowerBi to ensure that budget expectations are being met with 0% variance. 
• Ensure the consistent updating and execution of all handbooks and policies.
• Ensure that campus teammate vacancies are closely monitored and follow up execution has been completed by the campus hiring manager. This includes recruitment of roles, hiring, onboarding and growth map completion. 
• Prepare documents ahead of internal and external meetings as directed by the School Principal (photocopying, binding, filing etc.) 
• Prepare documents for internal display on pin-boards or notice boards (brochures, posters, etc.)
• Communicate with internal and external stakeholders via telephone, in person and in writing through the drafting of letters, memorandums, reports, and emails.
• Facilitate logistical arrangements for weekly, monthly and quarterly meetings
• Provide administrative services and take minutes for various meetings 
• Assist in managing Executive PTA communications and meetings.
• Create and maintain filing systems, both electronic and physical

Communication

• Guide school leadership on internal communication tools and, based on need, coordinate internal communication events.
• Help to create and communicate key messages to defined target audiences aimed at establishing and maintaining goodwill for the school.
• Identify and lead the harnessing of creative and strategic promotional opportunities for the school.
• Regularly present articles/stories about outstanding school achievements or developments to the mass media. 
• Write and edit in-house newsletters/magazines, case studies, speeches, articles and reports
• Manage messaging to external stakeholders and creating talking points.
• Support the campus’ media relations, marketing initiatives and public engagement in collaboration with Admissions and/or school leadership e.g. open days, social media content creation, and media outreach.
• Lead the creation of promotional materials, e.g. school magazines, yearbooks, class photos, documentaries, etc. 
• Maintain and share an updated gallery (photo and video) and/or archive of all school events/activities.
• Prepare and supervise production of publicity brochures, handouts,  promotional videos, photographs, films and multimedia programmes.

Partnerships

• Lead specific partnering projects in all the phases of the partnering cycle: scoping and building; managing and maintaining; reviewing and revising; and finally sustaining outcomes. This will encompass scoping, identifying, building, planning, structuring, mobilising, delivering, measuring, reviewing, revising, scaling and moving on. 
• Establish a stakeholder management process by building and maintaining a contact database and a communication plan focusing on key stakeholder groups.
• Lead the creation of a partnerships policy and partnerships planning, as well as reporting to the School Leader on issues related to partnerships.
• Monitor publicity and conduct research to establish the concerns and expectations of the school’s stakeholders. Presenting such findings and recommendations to school leadership.
• Conceptualise and lead the implementation of next-level school programming (e.g. Innovation Week, Innovation Hub, Community Service Week, concerts, networking meets, etc.) 
• Manage the public relations aspect of a potential or actual crisis situation.

Teammate Culture and School Wide Events 

• Create a strategic plan to ensure positive teammate culture.
• Create and execute on teammate culture yearly, termly and monthly calendar.
• Manage all Nova Culture Events: Nova Cafes, One Team Day, Community Contemplation, Nova Talks, Central Team Breakfast etc.
• In partnership with the school culture champion manage culture hero selection.
• Manage logistics and events coordination for graduation, annual sports day, annual swimming gala, prizegiving etc. 
• Plan and coordinate the training of relevant team members and external stakeholders on issues related to partnerships and communication.

ABOUT YOU

• Bachelor’s degree/ Diploma in Office Administration/Management / Business/ HR
• You have 2-4+ years as an Administrative Assistant, preferably of an established startup, large company or a school coordinating day to day operations
• You are experienced or open to learning the Google software suite (Google Calendar, Docs, Sheets, G Mail, etc.) as well as Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint)
• You are experienced and proficient in MS Suite with strong writing skills (for office communication) and are skilled in making posters and certificates
• You have excellent organizational, planning and time management skills - you are able to handle many moving parts while maintaining high standards of excellence
• You demonstrate capacity to analyze complex situations and solve problems
• You are a great communicator. You are able to provide a clear and effective written and verbal communication to the leaders and school team

HOW TO APPLY

Does working at Nova Pioneer excite you? If so, then apply now!

To apply, please complete the form on the right hand side of this page. We cannot process applications that are emailed to us.

Please note: You are encouraged to attach your resume in PDF format to protect formatting.

There are a series of stages in the Nova Pioneer interview process and candidates will be moved forward in the process depending on their success in the previous stage. The process is as follows:

• Phone interview: a short conversation to understand your skills and experience a little better.
• Practical demonstration of what you can do: you will complete a written task or a demonstration related to the role you are applying for. Teachers sit an assessment and deliver a lesson to a class.
• Final interview: you’ll have a final conversation with the hiring manager before decisions are made.

WORKING AT NOVA PIONEER

Nova Pioneer is a place where our people experience tremendous growth, fast! We invest heavily in the growth of our people because it leads to greater mastery in both us and our students. “Novaneers” work harder and work longer hours than at most schools but as a result, the growth they experience is extraordinary. We offer consistent and ongoing professional development and provide clear career pathways that ensure that our people are always achieving their personal and professional best. Nova Pioneer has a highly energetic, entrepreneurial environment where our people get to bring their creative and innovative ideas to life. We look for people who are flexible and who are able to adapt and respond quickly to adversity with a positive, can-do attitude (there are no problems, only solutions!). We welcome challenges and roll with the punches because it makes us, and our students, better. There is no problem too big for us! We work hard but we also have a lot of fun together. We bring infectious energy and enthusiasm to everything we do because joy fuels the hardest work and learning. Read more about our culture principles here

Nova Pioneer will never request an application fee from candidates. If you are contacted with a request to pay a fee from someone claiming to be a Nova Pioneer Talent or Recruitment representative, please do not pay them and report it to us immediately on talent.ke@novapioneer.com or talent.sa@novapioneer.com.