Vacancies

Office Manager

Location: North Essex
Hours: Monday–Friday, 09:30–13:30 (20 hours per week)
Hourly Rate: From £15 per hour dependent on experience
Contract Type: Part‑time
Start Date: As agreed

About Birch Hall Adventures

Birch Hall Adventures is a small Christian outdoor centre in North Essex, committed to providing high quality residential and non-residential adventure experiences for schools, churches, and youth groups. Our aim is to create an environment where young people can grow in confidence, character, teamwork, and faith.

Role Summary

We are seeking a highly organised and friendly Office Manager to support the smooth running of the centre. This role is ideal for someone who enjoys variety, is confident communicating with people from a variety of backgrounds and settings and is able to work independently in a small team environment.

A commitment to the Christian faith is essential, as our work and values are rooted in our Christian ethos. Each week the team meet together to read the bible and to pray.  You will be expected to join in and on occasion, lead these prayers.

Key Responsibilities

Supporting the Centre Director – Assisting the Centre Director in all areas of the life of the charity. These responsibilities range from updating and reviewing the staff handbook, facilities management, reviewing policies and procedures, seeking grant applications, reviewing risk assessments, as well as providing administrative support for the recruitment of staff.

Management of all bookings – you will be required to manage the centre’s mailbox and booking system – regularly liaising with local schools, churches and other customers that may like to book the centre.

Summer Adventure Camps: Each year we run Summer Adventure Camps, and you will be the main point of contact for parents from the booking stages all the way through to the camp reunion.

Event planning: Birch Hall Adventures runs a number of events throughout the year. You will be expected, together with the help of the Centre Director to plan, recruit volunteers and deliver at these events.

Recruitment – Each year Birch Hall Adventures recruits seasonal workers for our busier months. You will help with job descriptions, advertisement of the posts on our website and on social media, organise the interviews, help with the selection process and then manage the process going forward (i.e. writing the contracts, liaising with the new staff, organising the induction process, DBS checks, maintaining electronic files etc)

Bookkeeping – You will be expected to ensure that all the accounts are kept up to date, maintaining the sales ledger as you create invoices and chasing outstanding payments, and the purchase ledger by paying invoices. We currently use Xero as our accounting package.

Website Management– You will need to update our website (www.birchhall.com) with new information in order to keep it fresh to our viewers. You will need to be technically able so that you can easily upload photos, create pages, add different products to be sold and then advertise these through our social media pages and direct to our customers.

Volunteer Management – we have a pool of volunteers that we work with on a regular basis. It will be your responsibility to manage them, inform them of events and ensure that they are DBS checked.

Trustees – The trustees meet on a regular basis either online or in person. It will be your responsibility to arrange these meetings, take the minutes, circulate relevant documents and prompt the trustees about their ongoing responsibilities and commitments (i.e. if they are due to give an update on their area of expertise/ if they need to arrange a finance meeting with the Centre Director.)

Person Specification

Essential:

• A personal commitment to the Christian faith and alignment with the centre’s values.
• Excellent organisational skills and time management skills
• Strong attention to detail and levels of accuracy.
• Confident and friendly communication style, both written and verbal.
• Ability to work independently and manage time effectively.
• Ability to work under pressure and manage different projects simultaneously.
• Proficient in use of Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook) and comfortable learning new systems.
• Previous administrative experience
• Basic understanding of finance or HR administration

Desirable:

• Experience working in a school, charity, church, or outdoor education environment.
• Familiarity with website content management (training provided if needed).
• Keen learner, both as a self-starter, but also teachable.

How to Apply

If you would like an informal chat about the role, please do not hesitate to contact Alex Phillips on 01255 258307.  Please send your CV and a cover letter explaining why you feel you are suited to this role, with particular reference to the key responsibilities above, to: info@birchhall.com

Closing date: 16^th May 2026. Interviews to take place on Wednesday 3^rd June 2026. We will close applications upon finding the right candidate for the role.