In many cases the offer of help (even if refused!) can stimulate thought on the part of the school and, once you have started you will never look back as you develop a more meaningful relationship with the school. You are likely to be asked to undergo a DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check (which used to be called a CRB or Criminal Records Bureau check) to ensure that you are a suitable person to be working with children.
1. Share your enjoyment of a hobby with a class or after-school group.
2. Offer to run a school club.
3. Offer your time and talents – computing, gardening, engineering, painting.
4. Offer to talk about life in a different country.
5. Offer to coach a small group of students in reading, maths, languages, computing, art or any other subject in which you are confident enough to help.
6. Help coach a team.
7. Offer to help with or start a music group.
8. Help children put out a school or classroom newsletter.
9. Volunteer to help on a school trip.
10. Help create a display.
11. Help build something such as a storage area for work in progress or a tree house.
12. Volunteer to answer the schools’ phone.
13. Demonstrate cooking from a particular country or culture to students.
14. Help bring senior citizens to school to watch a student production.
15. Share information about your workplace or chosen career.
16. Help arrange learning opportunities in the community such as an internship or apprenticeship for a student at your business, organisation or agency.
17. Host a one-day ‘shadow study’ for one student, or a small group of students, about your career in business or some other organisation.
18. Go on a local field trip with a teacher and a group of students.
19. Help to create a natural area outside the building where students can learn.
20. Join the PTA and increasingly play an organising role.
21. Help design a parent and/or student survey for the school.
22. Help arrange for a political leader (mayor, city councillor, MP) to visit the school.
23. Help write a proposal that would bring new resources to the school.
24. Donate books or materials to the school.
25. Help other parents develop their parenting skills.
26. Help organise a workshop for parents on ways they can help their children to learn.
27. Help write, publish and distribute a list of parenting tips.
28. Start a parents’ reading group or Twitter book group (see pages 199–201 for book ideas).
29. Start an Educating Ruby group www.educatingruby.org at school (you can print off posters and find lots of templates to use in your school and local area).
1 This list draws heavily on the list created by the Center for School Change at http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/
envrnmnt/famncomm/pa1lk20.htm. You can augment it by searching for ‘ways parents can help schools’.