‘You can really make a difference in this job’

I’ve worked here for five years and I manage the whole of the estate and a large team of 48, maintenance, grounds, security and cleaning staff. I’m a chartered engineer by profession and before I joined BGS I worked in newspapers for years, looking after engineering and production facilities around the country for the largest regional newspaper producer, Newsquest.

The best thing about this role now is that there’s no average day. There are so many aspects to the job – the site covers 28 acres and we’ve got 1040 children and more than 250 staff, so that in itself produces lots of challenges.

As well as the day-to-day work there’s also new build work that we look after. We have just completed our £4m sports facilities which I project managed and there’s also future planning for any legislative changes that may be made, such as health and safety on site. We’ve refurbished and redeveloped several different areas of the School and you can really see it making a difference to the children’s learning experiences.

The day is so varied and that’s what I like. I find this job to be very rewarding. In my former life I didn’t think I was able to make a difference, but in this job you really can. One of my biggest achievements has been saving the School around £5,500 per month just on our electricity bill. We’ve spent a lot of time getting the right systems in place, doing things like fitting LED lighting, variable speed drives for plant and machinery… as a result our total consumption of electricity has dropped by 32 pc since I started.

Another enviable result is zero percent of our site waste goes to landfill, good environmental and waste management is a key driver as we all have a responsibility to look after our wider environment.

We’ve got a fantastic estates team in place, the staff really do go that extra mile to ensure our facilities and grounds are maintained and presented to the highest standards.