Payroll & HR Assistant (22 hours per week)

Based at St Martin’s School, Brentwood, Essex (DET Central Team office) 22 hours per week, 52 weeks per year Essex Scale 5 (£28,423-£29,793 FTE inc. Fringe) Pro rated actual salary £16,900-£17,715 based on a 22 hour working week (year round) We are seeking a proactive and detail-oriented Payroll and HR Assistant to join our Central HR Team on a part-time, year-round basis. In this role, you will support the Payroll Manager in the day-to-day administration of payroll services, ensuring processes are accurate, timely, and efficient across our secondary schools, while also providing support to primary school colleagues as needed. You will play a key role in preparing and checking payroll reports, maintaining strong working relationships with internal stakeholders, and contributing to the smooth delivery of HR and payroll operations. This is an excellent opportunity for someone looking to develop their skills, with potential for future progression and access to further training through the Apprenticeship Levy (following a successful probationary period). Please note that this is a year round post (not a term-time position), however there are some options for remote working in school closure periods. We are flexible on number of days worked/start and finish times for the right candidate. It would be helpful if you could please state a preferred working pattern in your application. Information about the School Discovery Educational Trust, formed in 2014, is a successful and established multi-academy trust based in South Essex, comprising just under 4000 pupils and 500 staff, across 5 schools. Our schools are: Chase High School (Westcliff-on-Sea) St. Martin's School (Brentwood) Hogarth Primary School (Brentwood) Kelvedon Hatch Community Primary School (Brentwood) Larchwood Primary School (Brentwood) We aim for each of our schools to become the school of choice within the community, offering a broad and exciting range of extracurricular activities to enhance the opportunities within their formal curriculum. Our vision is that strong and effective leadership places our children and young people at the heart of everything we do. We value relationships, which are open and honest, underpinned by kindness, trustworthiness and compassion. We offer ongoing training and professional development for all staff in a supportive and collaborative environment. We offer the following benefits for employees: Pension scheme - also automatically includes Life Assurance Generous Referral Bonus for employees who refer quality candidates to join Discovery Educational Trust Two-week October half term (term time staff) Employee savings and discounts Employee Assistance Programme - free confidential wellbeing support for employees and dependants Mental Health First Aiders - we have qualified MHFA England trainers within the Trust and continue to add to our pool of trained MHFAs Bike2Work scheme Ongoing training and professional development in a s