Schools & Extended Services

Volunteering at schools
The support of volunteers is vital in helping young people to get the maximum benefit from their years at school. Their roles, for which they receive training, include:

supporting teachers

acting as governors

involvement with parent teacher associations

assisting with libraries and lunches

Some volunteers are later recruited to be teaching assistants or move into teacher training, demonstrating a progression route from volunteering to employment.

Parents, grandparents and family members
Parents and other family members are particularly valuable as volunteers in schools. Parents can become more involved by volunteering to take part in a range of school activities, such as helping in the classroom, in the school library, with school trips or by coaching sports. As well as helping to enrich children’s learning experiences and often giving the parents new skills, schools that involve parents in reading, numeracy and other areas of the curriculum can see levels of achievement rise. Parents can also stand as parent governors and help manage the school itself.

School governors
School governors are the largest volunteer force in the country, giving their time freely and generously to help schools achieve the highest standards. There are currently 370,000 governor places in the 24,000 maintained schools in England. Governors play an important role in setting the school’s strategic direction and ensuring that staff is accountable to the wider community for pupil achievements. Working as members of corporate governing bodies their main role is to promote high educational standards for all the pupils in their school.

For information or advice on volunteering in a school or children’s centre contact your local Volunteer Centre.