HR Officer - Independent School - Leeds

HR Officer – Independent School – Leeds

Start Date: As soon as possible
Contract: Full-time, Permanent
Salary: Paid to scale

School Information:
This is a prestigious 3 to 18 co-educational Independent School located in Leeds, widely recognised for its academic excellence, nurturing pastoral care, and forward-thinking educational philosophy. The school has a long-standing reputation as one of the leading independent institutions in Wales, committed to developing confident, articulate, and well-rounded young people. With outstanding facilities, a diverse student population, and a highly supportive staff culture, the school offers an exceptional professional environment for individuals working within its administrative and operational teams.

The school is built upon values of integrity, respect, and ambition. Behaviour across the school is exemplary, supported by clear routines, strong pastoral systems, and a community ethos that promotes kindness and responsibility. Staff wellbeing is a priority, with a range of development opportunities, coaching programmes, and wellbeing initiatives designed to support employees at all stages of their career.

Leadership at the school is strong, collaborative, and deeply invested in continuous improvement. The school has recently enhanced its digital infrastructure, safeguarding processes, and human resources operations to ensure efficiency and compliance across all areas of employment. It offers an ideal landscape for an HR Officer who is passionate about high-quality HR practice, employee support, and operational excellence.

HR Department:
The HR Department is a crucial part of the school’s infrastructure and plays a central role in ensuring the smooth running of staff operations. As the HR Officer, you will be working within a highly professional, well-structured HR team that supports the full employment cycle for teachers, support staff, senior leaders, and visiting specialists.

The HR office is dynamic, fast-paced, and central to key areas such as safer recruitment, onboarding, employee relations, policy implementation, professional development, payroll liaison, and record maintenance. The department acts as both a strategic partner and a frontline support service for the whole school community.

Your role as HR Officer will include responsibilities such as:
• Managing end-to-end recruitment processes, including drafting job descriptions, advertising vacancies, shortlisting candidates, arranging interviews, and liaising with hiring managers.
• Ensuring all recruitment follows safer recruitment guidelines, including DBS checks, reference collection, Right to Work verification, and staff vetting.
• Coordinating new starter processes, delivering induction briefings, and ensuring staff have access to training, system logins, timetables, and policies.
• Maintaining the Single Central Record (SCR) with absolute accuracy and in full compliance with ISI/Ofsted standards.
• Advising staff on HR policies, employment terms, absence entitlements, performance processes, and general HR matters.
• Supporting employee relations cases, including informal meetings, welfare discussions, note-taking, and liaison with senior leaders.
• Monitoring staff attendance, managing return-to-work meetings, and updating HR systems such as SIMS, Arbor, or iTrent.
• Supporting the annual appraisal cycles and coordinating CPD bookings and documentation.
• Ensuring digital and hard-copy staff files are secure, up-to-date, and compliant with GDPR.
• Working closely with the Finance and Payroll teams to ensure staff payments, overtime, and contract changes are correct and processed on time.

The HR department values warmth, professionalism, discretion, and attention to detail. The team fosters a culture of trust and support, ensuring that staff across all departments feel listened to, guided, and appreciated.

Requirements:
• Experience working in an HR role, ideally within an educational or public sector setting (highly desirable).
• Strong knowledge of UK employment law, safer recruitment guidelines, and HR best practices.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to support and guide staff at all levels.
• Strong administrative and organisational skills with exceptional attention to detail.
• Confidence using HR databases and Microsoft Office applications.
• Ability to handle confidential information with integrity and professionalism.
• A proactive, calm, and solution-focused approach.
• CIPD Level 3 or Level 5 qualification (or willingness to work towards it) desirable.

Application – HR Officer
To apply, please send your CV as soon as possible.