About voulentering at my Childs preschool...

[butterflyexperience]

I try to volunter at my Childs preschool once a month for part of a morning.
I really enjoy it as does my daughter.
I would like to do more in terms of how often I volunter, however I'm worried about stepping on staff toes and perhaps becoming over familiar in somebody elses work environment.
By the way I don't think there are any regular staff volunteers so I could be the only one.

Aibu to be so sensitive to a non situation and should I increase the frequency?

I mean parent volunteers

Certainly at primary level schools are often crying out for parent-helpers with reading etc. Especially men. Not a lot of those to be seen in primary schools, teaching or otherwise. And a lot of children need those role models as they are absent in home life.

But with regard to your question, you can only volunteer if they want your help. So ask. Infact you could tell a teeny white lie and ask for it as "work experience" as you want to enhance your CV.

Trois - that's interesting about men role models voulentering at schools. Will ask Dh to do so when we get to that stage.

Preschool have asked for help and the manager is happy for me too, just didnt want to upset other staff

The manager will probably have spoken to the other staff about the level of help they need, I doubt you would have been told that they were happy for you to help if anyone was uncomfortable with it. Go for it.

Definitely go for it. I loved helping out in DDs classes.
My only reservation is this. You could be seen as another employee - filling a gap and being used to save money.
It was this that stopped me volunteering in DDs school library. The librarian had been asking for an assistant for years. The school kept inviting parents in to help, thus filling the gap.
That was not in the UK.

My Dh is lucky enough to get every other friday of work ( He works an extra hour a.day ) He usually spends his friday off at the twins nursery.... He plays football digs the veggie patch starts bull dog/, stick in the mud games and has about.10 children permentley attached to his leg ;-)

He also sorts out their computer/tech problems as well - the staff love him being there the twins dont mind sharring daddy either ;-)

I've never heard of a parent helper upsetting staff.

The more you're there, the more you get to understand how things work and assimilate the routines without being told everything - a regular frequent parent helper can be a real asset and quite often end up getting more interesting stuff to do.

I speak as a pre-teacher-life parent helper and a teacher who has had parent helper.

The only thing I would say is that some parent helpers take the attitude that because they're volunteering, turning up is optional. That is really frustrating - it means that either the teacher has planned for you to take a reading/art group and then a group of children is left with no adult; the teacher might have left some laminating/display work for you which then doesn't get done; or they don't plan for you and you get "er, you could tidy up the ORT books..." which is a bit dull!

Just offer, they can only say no (doubt they will do though!!)

The only time it is likely to upset the staff is if you are used in the ratio of staff to children as that could be taking shifts off staff. You should only be used as an extra and not relied on. That way it is always a benefit to have an extra pair of hands and would be very welcome.