Groundsperson Apprentice
COLFE'S SCHOOL
LONDON (SE12 8AW)
Closes in 15 days (Friday 5 June 2026 at 11:59pm)
Posted on 21 May 2026
Contents
Summary
Colfe’s School is seeking an enthusiastic and motivated Groundsperson Apprentice to join our in-house Grounds Team and
help maintain one of South-East London’s leading independent school sporting environments.
- Wage
-
£25,280 a year
- Training course
- Sports turf operative (level 2)
- Hours
-
Monday - Friday, 08:00 - 16:30 with a 1-hour unpaid lunch break. Regular overtime required at weekends for school matches.
37 hours 30 minutes a week
- Start date
-
Monday 15 June 2026
- Duration
-
1 year 6 months
- Positions available
-
1
Work
Most of your apprenticeship is spent working. You’ll learn on the job by getting hands-on experience.
What you'll do at work
Set across three nearby sites totalling almost 40 acres, the school’s grounds include a wide range of sports pitches, training areas and landscaped spaces used extensively throughout the year by pupils, staff, leisure centre members, alumni sporting associations and visiting teams. This is an excellent opportunity for someone who takes pride in their work and enjoys working outdoors in a varied and active role.
The successful candidate will play a key role in preparing and maintaining rugby, football and cricket pitches, and wider landscaped areas to a high standard, helping to support a busy and well-used sporting environment. The role offers varied, hands-on work throughout the seasons, alongside opportunities to develop practical skills and industry knowledge within a professional school environment.
The role holder will be enrolled onto a Level 2 Sports Turf Operative apprenticeship training course at the North Kent College and will attend training one day per month at the Hadlow College campus.
This position would suit someone who is reliable, proactive and keen to contribute to maintaining excellent sporting facilities for pupils, members and the wider School community.
Key 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, Bursar or Director of Operations & Estates
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 7 penalty points and no endorsements for serious convictions (essential)
- Have a keen desire to improve standards (essential)
- A keen interest in sport (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
Apprenticeships include time away from working for specialist training. You’ll study to gain professional knowledge and skills.
Training provider
NORTH KENT COLLEGE
Training course
Sports turf operative (level 2)
Understanding apprenticeship levels (opens in new tab)
What you'll learn
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.
Training schedule
Sports Turf Operative Level 2.
An apprenticeship includes regular training with Hadlow College. At least 20% of your working hours will be spent training or studying.
Requirements
Essential qualifications
GCSE in:
- English (grade 4/C or above)
- Maths (grade 4/C or above)
Share if you have other relevant qualifications and industry experience. The apprenticeship can be adjusted to reflect what you already know.
Skills
- Communication skills
- Attention to detail
- Organisation skills
- Problem solving skills
- Presentation skills
- Team working
- Creative
- 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.
About this employer
For over 360 years we have educated the children of local families in south-east London. Life is co-educational and we believe school should be too. If you’re happy you will do well – we look after you to make sure you are, and you will.
Set in a leafy corner of south-east London, we have around 1300 pupils across both the senior and junior schools. With a reputation for academic excellence and outstanding pastoral care, our ethos is as a real-world school, grounded in its local community. We are proud of our history but not burdened or defined by it.
We understand that the journey to success in life beyond Colfe’s starts from the moment our pupils join us. Our mission is to inspire curiosity, ambition, enthusiasm and a love of learning that starts from a child’s very first day here. Colfe’s pupils are well-rounded, happy individuals who each contribute something unique to the school.
Academic standards are high. Pupils excel at both GCSE and A-level with outstanding results above the national average. Over 90% of Colfe’s leavers go on to their first-choice university.
We offer outstanding scholarship opportunities, including academic and co-curricular scholarships at Year 7 and Year 12. We are particularly proud to offer the groundbreaking Leatherseller Scholarship Programme, providing fully funded, means-tested Sixth Form scholarships awarded to talented pupils based on academic potential and economic need.
Our on-site resources are unique for a London day school. We are lucky to have such an abundance of green space on site as well as a performing arts centre, sports centre with full size swimming pool, two additional extensive sports grounds and a dedicated forest school for younger pupils nearby.
At Colfe’s you don’t just learn, you learn for life.
After this apprenticeship
You will have a full qualification in Sport Turf Level 2.
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 VAC2000032911.
Apply now
Closes in 15 days (Friday 5 June 2026 at 11:59pm)