Is it possible to volunteer in a school? How?

[user1471523870]

My best friend's daughter is coming to stay with us for a week next month. She is 17 and English is not her first language (but she's fluent), so she's looking for opportunities to immerse into the local language and culture.
Do you think it would be possible for her to help at a local primary school, perhaps at the breakfast club/after school club/these sort of things?

I think she would need a DBS check and these take a little while to come through, plus they cost the school money so probably not economic for them if she is only there for a week. Maybe contact some schools and ask if there is anything she would be able to help with?

Not without a full DBS due to safeguarding otherwise any random person could rock up and ask to interact with children.

Try local charity shops

Yep I agree it’ll probably be a no although schools do very much welcome volunteers. Are there any community spaces near you, like cafes or charity shops? They might let her help out for a few days, worth asking.

Ours asks for volunteers to go in to read with the younger children, they don't ask for DBS checks but the volunteers are supervised and never left alone with the children.

She can ask but she’d probably need a dbs and those can take weeks if not months to appear and I’m not even sure it would work at all for a person who is not a uk resident.

You can get dbs for non U.K. people.

It just takes a lot longer because they request info from the police of the country you normally live in.

You could try your local Beavers/Cubs/Brownies- they only meet once a week but the group I help run would love to someone who lives in another country to come in as a visitor as part of our international badge. It's not much but a chance to speak to leaders and children and perhaps get a discussion about cultural/language differences and similarities etc. She'd not need a DBS as a fully supervised one-off visitor.

Or perhaps have a look at what's on at a local community centre. Ours has a regular coffee and chat session for older residents and I bet they'd welcome visitors.

How about at a local church? Or library?

i wouldnt ahve thought it but you could ask the school, as long as she wasnt left alone perhaps they might accept her
most places want a dbs

I think it might be possible to volunteer without dbs as she is 17. Work experience students from local secondaries aren't dbs checked before coming into school. It would be down to the individual head teacher though.

Amazing suggestions, thanks all!
I didn't think about the DBS check, and it probably doesn't make sense if she's only staying for a week (I hope she will return regularly and maybe stay longer next time). But I will still ask the school just in case there is anything she could do supervised. And will go around asking charities.
She's also been a Scout all her life, so that's also something I can explore locally!

If all she really wants is to help out and interact with some british kids, why not just host some playdates?

All "official" options require dbs or at the very least, references. Charity shops require references.

Quite rightly, too.

Ps sorry I assumed you have young kids as you mentioned primary school. If you don't, my playdate suggestion won't work

Definitely contact the local scouts. She’d probably be welcome to a meeting.

As @sockarefootwear said - a Scout visiting from another country would be welcomed with open arms in most sections.
Do try and contact the District rather than just the one group, if she would be willing.
Another place she could 'drop in and chat with people' would be any of the Warm place of Welcomes.

It might still be worth asking at the school - if a class is learning about the country she's from our school I can imagine ours loving her coming into talk about her life back at home.