So, tell me about...

[snowwhite]

We had a letter come home with Junior yesterday saying that 'an opportunity has arisen' for volunteers to go in to school to help/support children's reading. They are asking (quite reasonably) for people to write an application letter, which I'm in the process of drafting. What would your response be? They ask:

Tell us a little about yourself.
Why are you interested in this role? What do you hope to achieve in the short and longer term?

(Emphasis as original) - I find I'm waxing enthusiastic and idealistic about the joys, importance and benefits of being a bookworm... I'll edit, obviously, but meantime wondered what other book / reading / literacy / story enthusiasts m would write?

[HalcyonDaze]

Huh?
You have to apply?

Here it is put name down, do an orientation course, sign off on the child safety bit and go into the classroom and listen to kids read.


Link I put up today on FB on the importance of books in the house for academic success - not just in reading but carries through to maths and science.

There are also various studies that have mentioned having a parent help in the school boosts your kid, though maybe that would not go down well as you are meant to be there for all the kids.

Hm, short term giving the kids someone different to read aloud to can help their confidence when it is not a teacher or family member.

Long term - no ideas?? I assume it is still the levelled readers which are deathly boring really - at least by about Yr 2 and 3 there were some interesting non fiction books so it was easy to expand the kids knowledge by talking about what was included in the books. In one I had a discussion with the teacher later on how a photo had been reversed which made something historically inaccurate.

[snowwhite]

I don't make the rules. When I went to the office to ask about volunteering generally I was handed a form to fill in. It's a new thing, apparently. Not sure if they're trying to put people off, or there's some sort of accountability thing going on - given they need to improve, perhaps they want to check any volunteers can write in whole sentences / read the form at least?

My first draft for the short and longer term bit is:

In the short term, I hope to enjoy helping children learn to read, or improve their reading ability, as well as contributing positively to the school, in the longer term I hope to develop communication skills that will continue to help the school as well as letting me help my children in their learning and development.

It's asking what I want to achieve, not what I hope for anyone else. Dunno if they're hinting that any volunteers should be CV-building with an eye to becoming teaching assistants or teachers etc. Or maybe it's just a false equivalence with people applying for actual jobs.

[mei]

that sounds pretty good to me. but I'm also a bit surprised about the need to formally apply, you'd think they'd be happy with offers of help! (but maybe at your school there are more people offering than needed, who knows).

[sprite]

Oct 12, 2018 3:55:20 GMT -5 snowwhite said:

Tell us a little about yourself.
Why are you interested in this role? What do you hope to achieve in the short and longer term?

I don't read this as what i personally hope to gain from the experience, but you have the whole document so i may be missing some context.
I would write about how much I'd loved books as a child, and how I would hope to share that with children, and how many opportunities are open to children who enjoy reading.
I'd hope to show children that books aren't just one type of book, and how books are not somehow irrelevant because of the internet.

[snowwhite]

Oct 12, 2018 7:38:54 GMT -5 sprite said:

Oct 12, 2018 3:55:20 GMT -5 snowwhite said:

Tell us a little about yourself.
Why are you interested in this role? What do you hope to achieve in the short and longer term?

I don't read this as what i personally hope to gain from the experience, but you have the whole document so i may be missing some context.
I would write about how much I'd loved books as a child, and how I would hope to share that with children, and how many opportunities are open to children who enjoy reading.
I'd hope to show children that books aren't just one type of book, and how books are not somehow irrelevant because of the internet.

Not unreasonable, actually - my reading of it may be coloured from having filled the full volunteering form, which I think asked something similar.

ETA: I may say, I'm tempted to fill it in using a crayon.

[snowwhite]

There's a bit in the letter that says:

Please write a brief letter, using the form overleaf, expressing your interest in the role and telling us a little bit about yourselves, including why you would like to volunteer and what you hope to get out of the role. we will then select a number of volunteers to support us on a termly basis.

[sophie]

Here, volunteers working with children need to go through a background police check.. not sure if it applies to parents in their kid’s classroom, but anyone else has to get it. Perhaps this letter is a way to do an informal background check.

[snowwhite]

Yeah, everyone has to be checked - and the letter said so. I've already been checked anyway, this is something they've decided to ask for as well.

[sprite]

i wondered about the CRB. pita, but it's easier to share them between employers/organisations now.

you should select a miserable font, and fill it in with that.

[snowwhite]

I used a biro. I dunno, if you want people to volunteer, try not to make it harder than you have to. I think technically (having looked it up) the idea behind registration and transferability of CRB/DBS checks is that if you work in different locations within an organisation you don't have to get a separate check for each one - eg NHS doctors, or tutors in various adult learning centres etc. But since the school has already checked me, within the last year I'm fairly sure they won't NEED another one, but what would I know?

[shilgia]

Do they have more volunteers than spots? If so, then this is a better solution than, e.g., the head of the school asking her favorite parents.

[sophie]

They want to check the literacy level of the parents?

[sprite]

Yeah, if you've been checked and it hasn't expired, you should be fine. Possibly someone's forgotten, or they didn't write it down? Do you have a paper copy?

I'm having to take all my documentation into a workplace because that boss is updating paperwork, and didn't specifically write down the date when she saw my physical documents--she only has images of them, which doesn't count. i don't mind so much, except that she and i never work at the same time, so i'll have to make a special trip up there just to flash some paper.

[snowwhite]

They haven't got as far as checks yet - I have a copy of mine and it will probably be fine.

Given they've just sent a letter home with every kid, they don't know how many volunteers they will get, but i don't get the impression there are many people going in very often - and I know one or two people who've tried in the past and got stuck on the admin. Plus I know someone now who's a bit upset with some things that have been going on, but her kid is really keen for her to do it, so she probably will, but otherwise wouldn't want to.

Proof of literacy / some motivation is a more plausible thing.

Meantime I got a letter today, dated 28th Sept and referring to an absence request for 25th Sept (for Junior to attend my dad's funeral, and Mr Snow was away at the time, so I couldn't have gone myself without taking him) saying that the request has been granted under exceptional circumstances. Did I mention they phoned me on the day anyway, because nobody had put it in the diary?

[sprite]

How did I miss that your father died??

sounds like their admin is either overworked or not up to it.

[snowwhite]

Oct 15, 2018 11:32:59 GMT -5 sprite said:

How did I miss that your father died??

sounds like their admin is either overworked or not up to it.

I don't know - it was on here (GT) and fb.

Yes, I'd probably go with over-worked. I'm really not unsympathetic, and I let a nice member of the pastoral team know about the letter, making it clear I wasn't complaining, (because if they don't sort it out, someone else will likely get upset sooner or later).

Spoke to someone else I know today, who until recently worked as a TA at another local school and she's as incredulous as everyone else about the need to apply for this stuff. She also said that from what she'd seen of volunteers, a fair few were either after jobs, and thought volunteering was a way in OR just wanted to get into their kid's / kids' classroom(s) to see what was going on - both of which are understandable motivations imo.

[sprite]

were i a teacher, i think i'd want a veto on a parent of my student coming in to my class. I'd be concerned about favouritism (natural, but undesirable) or being spied on by someone with a vested interest. i'm paranoid like that.

i wonder if the head is worried about future problems and wants to be able to document that they were as careful as possible? there's a lot of pressure on them to be perfect right now.

i'm not on GT, and i've been minimally on fb--plus the their crap algorithms. I'm really sorry to hear about your dad.

[Liiisa]

Oh Snow - I'm sorry to hear about your father.

[snowwhite]

Thanks Liiisa and sprite - obviously I don't know who reads stuff without commenting here (and I don't mind if that's what happens, I really don't), and I didn't keep track of who was reacting or commenting on fb - there were a lot of people, which was nice.

[snowwhite]

And for anyone interested, I got a letter yesterday asking me to come in on Monday and discuss how it all works (and asking for id so they can do a check, but then I spoke to one of the people who signed the letter and she said since I had one already that was fine). So we'll see how it goes. Dunno if it's just me, or if others will be there too.

[HalcyonDaze]

Yay.

And I had a later thought on my response - while hearing reading in the classroom is open to any parent, there are some volunteer positions in the school that are more invitation only. I remembered that the parents who are involved with the reading recovery or multi lit programs are generally asked to help, and they are usually people who either have teaching degrees from other states (state based registration here), or parents who were teachers in the past etc. So there is that degree of knowledge wanted if you are helping with the more intensive programs.

[snowwhite]

Hum, well, I'm not a teacher... but equally I'm not sure exactly what they're looking for, and the letter I just got says something about discussing any training necessary. I saw both the signatories (Y2 teacher, who is also English lead and the Reading Advocate), briefly after I got the letter and they were both very smiley and positive.

[ozziegiraffe]

Sounds good, Snow. Sometimes educated people who aren’t teachers have great things to offer in schools. It also depends what skills are available in the community where the school is.

[snowwhite]

One of the staff members leading this was off-sick for the meeting yesterday. There were six of us volunteers (I didn't know any of them) and we got told we'd be working not only with children who struggle with reading, but also those who read well, but whose comprehension needs work, or who aren't engaged with reading, and other less obvious things. We'll be given resources to use, and we were also asked about our availability. We're going back next week, when the other staff member should be back, and able to give us a timetable.