Parent volunteers

[Tigersteeth]

What jobs do you give parent volunteers in your primary schools? Since the publicity about budget cuts we've had a lot of offers, but I'm struggling to think of genuinely useful jobs they could do...
Maybe sticking in?
Obviously the old classic of 'hearing readers', but is that really helping anyone?!

Honestly, there's not many jobs where completely unqualified people turn up and expect you to find them work and be grateful! Politically, it's hard to turn them away though. Any good ideas?

People do volunteer at the community run coffee shops near here and do directed jobs/washing up/taking orders.

I don't think volunteers volunteer to teach but to help relieve some of the workload.

I agree funding in teaching is crap though at the moment.

If you don't need help from non trained staff just say so.

People volunteer to do the untrained work so you can get on with teaching.

It seems really odd that a teacher can't think of any jobs that support the running of a classroom/school that aren't teaching

Am a parent not a teacher but just want to say I get completely what you mean OP. You need more staff, not simply more parent helpers.

But doomhutch - assuming you're a teacher - if you have someone else washing your paint pots, supervising the reading corner or doing photocopies surely that frees up the qualified staff to concentrate on the kids who need the attention?

Er other workplaces do take volunteers it isn't unique to teaching.

Nobody has suggested that the volunteers should be teaching but can you think of nothing else that could be done by a layman and still might be of value in your school? lucky you if so!

Why can't you just tell parents no thanks?

Bora, it directly replaces teaching, when we take them out of carefully planned, thoughtfully differentiated lessons to read with a parent helper.
Children miss the input, or they miss the chance to put their learning into practice. If we use the afternoons, they miss the foundation subjects. Is reading to a nice grown-up more valuable than a trained practitioner?
Requesting donations over volunteers is politically difficult.. who wants to hear that their school can't afford to meet children''s emotional or learning needs? It's a very awkward balancing act!

I used to bake with small groups, other parents used to do gardening with small groups, others did wood and needlecraft activities. Fundamentally if you had a skill you shared it with small groups of children at dd's school.

Our school will request for parents to listen to the children read if there is a gap in a class. So I assume my DS's school find it useful.

I'd rather find something helpful they can do Snap8! Which is what I asked about originally. The good will of our community is important to us as a school.
I thought other teachers might have a good solution I haven't thought of. I wasn't expecting to find such a rich seam of offended volunteers in the Staffroom!

I don't know why people are having a go at you.
If you have more volunteers than you need can the head not point them in the direction of the pta and get them organising and fundraising?
I'd find out what their skills are. And then list all the things that need doing and then match them up. and if you don't need them, say thank you, we ' ll call you when there's a trip.

Displays? Costumes sets for the play? Litter picking? Recycling? Website maintenance? Gardening? Newsletter design? Lunchtime clubs? Crossing patrol? Classroom tidying organising?

If you can't fit reading into your schedule, then fine, give them something else to do.

I genuinely find it amazing that there are no non-teaching tasks to do in your school though.

I was approached in the playground by a year two teacher and asked to go in weekly to listen to children read. I guess that teacher didn't think it would be a waste of time

I've had parent volunteers refuse to do photocopying/resource making/sticking style jobs because they "didn't sign up for that sort of thing". It's not always easy to manage volunteers.

I'm guessing that your school is better funded/staffed than many if you really can't think of anything for parent helpers to do. Many schools don't have that luxury. TAs seem thin on the ground round here.

That said, my DD was being taken out of classes to read with a parent helper, but we read almost every day at home, so I asked for her not to do it as it wasn't helpful.

Obviously the old classic of 'hearing readers', but is that really helping anyone?!

Well thanks for that. I've been doing this in my kids school for four years. The teachers always seem grateful because they have a set amount of time they have to listen to kids read and sharing the load means they have less to do. We record notes in a folder for the teacher to look at and we make a note in their reading diary for their parents to see. As far as I can tell our help is appreciated. The TA's listen too, and the kids tend to get a broad spectrum of people hearing them read. The teacher tells me each week what she'd like me to do; cover punctuation, verbs, etc and I go over examples with the children.

Some of the parents have experience in education and are perfectly qualified to help out in a school. Although I appreciate that's not the same for everyone.

I've helped with swimming lessons supervision, class fun days, fetes, crafts, setting up for dinners, all sorts. The budget cuts are the same for everyone. Any help offered is better than none.

I volunteer to hear readers at my son's school, and there is a list of children who are identified as either not reading at home, or who need extra practice at reading. This is always done in the first half hour of the morning, when they are registering for lunch, doing their morning wake up shake up dance routine and handing in their homework books, not during a time when they would be missing out on lesson input. There is also a parent volunteer in each class who changes the children's library books on a particular day. She doesn't need special skills to be able to note down which books children have taken and brought back, but it frees up TA and teacher not to have to do that job. We also volunteer to go on local trips (our school goes on a weekly beach walk) and assist with other events where necessary. The school appears to be very grateful for our help (unless they are secretly resenting it....)

I have a list of jobs the length of my arm. Gutting the PE cupboard, a good sort out of the lost property, gutting the costume cupboard, taking down that corridor display that has been up since the year dot but isn't quite in view so no one can be bothered taking it down....

A good volunteer is worth their weight in gold.

I find that someone willing to come in every week is beneficial for hearing readers, but not a one-off.

Honestly, there's not many jobs where completely unqualified people turn up and expect you to find them work and be grateful!

You're a teacher, not a heart surgeon! You're acting as if parents are so beneath you, just say no if it's such a chore. I hope you don't work at one of my children's schools and I'm putting you out.

I think all those amazing people who do volunteer and help our schools are incredible. Thank you so much. We have targeted interventions for children who need them but anything extra is a bonus and I've found some of my vulnerabie/ SEN Chn respond beautifully to special visitors who come to read with them and they really look forward to it as apposed to seeing reading/ handwriting/ timetable as a chore. So really thank you so much. It's much appreciated :)

Find out about your helpers

Weave it into your teaching

Example - gardening planting seeds
Painting mixing colours
Dance class or yoga
Sports - swimming lessons
Yes to reading - give them some instruction on what to look out for - and expectations - some kids never read at home especially those who's parents can't read English or haven't been taught phonics - makes a high difference
Yes use cooking skills in maths
Working walls
Set up outdoor play areas - we did a beach one year took 3 of us 1/2 hour every morning
Music?
ICT skills

There loads!!!

Im not a teacher but the parent of 2 dc with dyslexia and i am really grateful that they were not handed over to an unqualified volunteer parent for their reading practice.
It would have been potentially humiliating for them and definitely unhelpful so good on you op for not even considering this as some posters seem to think you should.

As a suggestion maybe some of the volunteers are food at art? Would that be useful in anyway?

Getting a bit of a bashing here OP
If you put it another way....parents would soon have something to moan about if you gave jobs to an unqualified volunteer that should be handled by a trained Teacher/TA
For all the fantastic help they provide volunteers still have to be supervised to an extent which can sometimes make more work for you and then other volunteers just fit right in and are worth their weight in gold.

What year group do you teach OP?
If it's the younger ones could you send volunteer out with staff to supervise children so that staff can get on with observations etc
Going forward maybe do as others have suggested and make a cutting and laminating tray
Make a list of odd jobs that need doing and assign them to volunteers where possible e.g. Sorting out lost property/spare clothes, sorting out library, odd corrections in children's work that need doing but just require a little bit of support and supervision

Then there's school discos Christmas fair
Help with costumes at Christmas

Why would the children know if their adult was trained or not?

Like someone said some are great others just hang round