Working in Schools

Passion for Learning is a professional service recruiting, training, resourcing and supporting volunteers who work in schools with children who would benefit from some special time to support their learning and experience in school.

Our Volunteer Team members have all undergone a full day’s training before they are introduced to schools. Their training includes a module on safeguarding that covers the Prevent agenda, disclosures, signs and symptoms of abuse and our own very comprehensive child protection policy. Once in school the volunteers are very well resourced and supported by our staff.

How Does It Work?

Typically a volunteer will work with three children coming into school for an hour and a half twice a week to give each child half an hour’s one to one attention on each occasion. The volunteer sees the same children every week often staying with them for a year or longer depending on the challenges that each child might face. In this way we can ensure that we know the children well, work with the school to support them appropriately and resource our sessions on an individual basis. We work with schools and the volunteer to understand each child’s learning needs and develop sessions for them that are fun and inspiring.

We have hundreds of books, games, craft materials, jigsaws, science sets and more which the volunteers have full access to at any time. In addition, if the child or volunteer wants something very specific, then we will acquire it for them. Our Volunteer Sessions are diverse and based on the child’s own needs and motivations.[/fusion_text][fusion_text]

Our volunteers often work with children with a wide range of potential barriers that can impact on their learning. Often the children that we work with lack self-esteem and confidence and some, though not all, will have fallen behind their classmates in literacy and/or numeracy.

We provide frequent specialist training days that have included conferences on autism, ADHD and communication skills all given by highly qualified outside organisations. Where possible, we invite our partner schools to these events free of charge.