Sports Turf Operative / Groundsperson Apprentice

Summary

Colfe’s School is looking for a reliable, hard-working and self-motivated Groundsperson apprentice to join our in-house Grounds Team.

Annual wage: £22,308 a year
Minimum wage rates (opens in new tab)
Training course: Sports turf operative (level 2)
Hours: Monday to Friday throughout the year with core working hours being between 08.00 - 17.00, Monday - Thursday and 08.00 - 16.00 on Friday], with a one hour unpaid lunch break. Regular overtime is required at weekends when school matches often take place.
37 hours a week
Possible start date: Monday 9 December
Duration: 1 year 6 months
Positions available: 1

Work

As an apprentice, you’ll work at a company and get hands-on experience. You’ll gain new skills and work alongside experienced staff.

What you’ll do at work

Colfe’s School is looking for a reliable, hard-working and self-motivated Groundsperson Apprentice to join our in-house Grounds Team. The successful candidate will enjoy working in a busy and dynamic School; the estate comprises of three locations, all within close proximity, and contains various sports pitches, fields and garden/landscaped areas totalling nearly 40 acres.

Responsibilities:

Preparing and maintaining various multi-use sports pitches including rugby, football, cricket, athletics plus MUGA’s;
Setting up and removal of various sports and games related events, including manual handling of heavy equipment;
Grass cutting;
Verti drain;
Earthquaking;
Line Marking;
Pruning, strimming, weeding etc.;
Leaf collection;
Litter picking
Working closely with school keeping and maintenance staff and other colleagues within the Operations department on any areas of overlapping responsibility;
Any other task within capability as reasonably requested by the Headmaster or Bursar.

Personal Specification:

The ideal candidate has the following skills and attributes:

Able to work diligently and without supervision (essential);
Able to work with others in a small team (essential);
Proactive with a good eye for detail (essential);
Self-driven (essential);
Full driving licence valid for the UK, with fewer than 6 penalty points and no endorsements for serious convictions (essential)
Have a keen desire to improve standards (essential);
Sufficient fitness to carry out the manual handling aspects of the role;
Gardening and landscaping experience (desirable)
Cricket, football and rugby pitch preparation/repairs (desirable)
Experience in the use of various types of grounds machinery and equipment (desirable);
Experience in the preparation of good quality sports pitches and general grounds maintenance (desirable);

Where you’ll work

COLFES SCHOOL

HORN PARK LANE

LONDON

SE12 8AW

Training

An apprenticeship includes regular training with a college or other training organisation. At least 20% of your working hours will be spent training or studying.

College or training organisation

NORTH KENT COLLEGE

Your training course

Sports turf operative (level 2)

Equal to GCSE

Course contents

Apply the correct rates and range of materials to sports turf surfaces (e.g. grass seed, granular fertilisers, bulky top-dressing, turf and root zone).
Set and mark out the sports turf surface in accordance with the relevant governing body rules (including line marking, the 3-4-5 squaring technique, and marking arcs and semi-circles).
Prepare machinery and equipment to ensure their safe and effective use when carrying out sport turf tasks.
Maintain levels of soil moisture using either irrigation or drainage systems.
Inspect the condition of sports turf, make observations and communicate findings (e.g. PQS, weeds, pests, diseases, thatch content).
Prepare the ground and established grass areas as part of sports turf renovation tasks (e.g. overseeding, turfing).
Carry out cylinder mowing of sports turf surface(s) in accordance with set requirements.
Carry out repair of sports turf surfaces using relevant equipment and machinery (e.g. divot repair, foot hole repair, animal damage).
Prepare and safely operate a tractor and it's attachments.
Select and use relevant communication styles (e.g. verbal, written, digital) to convey information to different audiences (e.g. clients, staff, suppliers).
Adopts a systematic approach to troubleshooting and solving day-to-day resource or equipment issues.
Identify a range of turf grasses (vegetative and seed). (Including, perennial ryegrass smooth stalk meadow grass, annual meadow grass, fescue grass (fine), bent grass).
Carry out maintenance of sports turf surface using relevant equipment and machinery (including scarification, and aeration).
Dispose of waste in a safe and sustainable manner.
Apply the correct rates and range of materials to sports turf surfaces (e.g. grass seed, granular fertilisers, bulky top-dressing, turf and root zone).
Set and mark out the sports turf surface in accordance with the relevant governing body rules (including line marking, the 3-4-5 squaring technique, and marking arcs and semi-circles).
Prepare machinery and equipment to ensure their safe and effective use when carrying out sport turf tasks.
Maintain levels of soil moisture using either irrigation or drainage systems.
Inspect the condition of sports turf, make observations and communicate findings (e.g. PQS, weeds, pests, diseases, thatch content).
Prepare the ground and established grass areas as part of sports turf renovation tasks (e.g. overseeding, turfing).
Carry out cylinder mowing of sports turf surface(s) in accordance with set requirements.
Carry out repair of sports turf surfaces using relevant equipment and machinery (e.g. divot repair, foot hole repair, animal damage).
Prepare and safely operate a tractor and it's attachments.
Select and use relevant communication styles (e.g. verbal, written, digital) to convey information to different audiences (e.g. clients, staff, suppliers).
Adopts a systematic approach to troubleshooting and solving day-to-day resource or equipment issues.
Identify a range of turf grasses (vegetative and seed). (Including, perennial ryegrass smooth stalk meadow grass, annual meadow grass, fescue grass (fine), bent grass).
Carry out maintenance of sports turf surface using relevant equipment and machinery (including scarification, and aeration).
Dispose of waste in a safe and sustainable manner.

Your training plan

You will be studing Sport Turf at Hadlow College one day per month.

Requirements

Essential qualifications

GCSE in:

English (grade 4)
Maths (grade 4)

Let the company know about other relevant qualifications and industry experience you have. They can adjust the apprenticeship to reflect what you already know.

Skills

Communication skills
Attention to detail
Organisation skills
Problem solving skills
Team working
Initiative
Physical fitness

Other requirements

Colfe’s School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. All applicants must be willing to undergo child protection screening, including checks with past employers and the Disclosure & Barring Service. Full driving licence valid for the UK, with fewer than 6 penalty points and no endorsements for serious convictions.

About this company

Looking at our modern buildings, it’s hard to believe Colfe’s is one of the oldest schools in London. Originally established by John Glyn in 1574, the school was re-founded in 1652 by the Reverend Abraham Colfe, Vicar of Lewisham. When Colfe died in 1657, he took the enlightened step of entrusting the School to the Worshipful Company of Leathersellers in the City of London. Colfe’s original vision was to educate the children of ‘the hundred of Blackheath’ and although today our pupils travel to the school from all parts of South East London, a strong sense of local community remains, with most of the pupils coming from the Boroughs of Lewisham, Bromley, Bexley and Greenwich. The School on the Hill, as it was known locally, stood on Lewisham Hill until 1944 when it was badly bombed. The pupils were evacuated to schools in Tunbridge Wells and Somerset and then spent many years in temporary accommodation before the school re-opened in 1964 on the site it occupies today. At that time it was a grammar school for boys, but Colfe’s became independent in 1977, thus ensuring the continuance of its tradition of excellence. Girls have been admitted to the Sixth Form for over 30 years, and the school has been fully co-educational since 1999. The school continues to move forward. In the 1990s we built what is now the Junior School, which educates some 450 children from 3–10. Since then we have added an all-weather playing field and the Beardwood Centre, which provides state-of-the art facilities for Art, Music, Drama and Media Studies. In recent years we have greatly expanded the space for EYFS and Key Stage 1 and opened The Stewart Building, a dedicated centre for the Sixth Form. School Aims The aims of Colfe’s School as determined within the strategic plan are: to promote excellence in all areas of school life and to develop each pupil’s abilities and character to the full, whilst ensuring that each child is happy and developing their unique potential; to provide innovative academic teaching which adds value and fosters learning and scholarship of the highest quality, together with a wide range of cultural, sporting and co-curricular activities; to nurture an awareness of spiritual and moral values amongst its pupils in accordance with the principles of the Founder, Abraham Colfe; to maintain a balanced and diverse community of children from varied backgrounds within the context of an academically selective school; to promote a purposeful, disciplined, supportive and respectful atmosphere in which all pupils are encouraged to achieve their full potential, staff find vocational fulfilment in their careers and all can use their talents for the greater good of the community and society as a whole; to be the co-educational independent school of choice in south-east London.

https://www.colfes.com/ (opens in new tab)

After this apprenticeship

The potential for a full time role to be offered may exist at the end of the apprenticeship

Ask a question

The contact for this apprenticeship is:

NORTH KENT COLLEGE

Lucy Penniall

lucypenniall@northkent.ac.uk

01322629400

The reference code for this apprenticeship is VAC1000279599.

Apply now

Closes in 4 days (Monday 25 November at 11:59pm)

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