If you regularly have time on your hands and would like to make a positive difference to the lives of our pupils with special educational needs, we'd love to hear from you.     We have a range of opportunities which include:- 

Lunch-time Helpers

Working alongside Avenue staff, you will help with lunch-time duties which includes ensuring the children eat their lunch (or helping them if necessary) and playing with them in the playground. 

Reading Buddy

Under the guidance of a teacher you will support individual pupils with their personal reading journey, motivate them to succeed and help to instil a love of books and reading.

Class-Room Support Assistants

You will work alongside a team of experienced professionals to help prepare and deliver learning activities to small groups or individual pupils under the guidance of a teacher.

Gardener 

If you like gardening, why not come and help our children plant and grow vegetables and keep our vegetable patch weed-free:)

Alternatively, if you have a passion for a particular sport, art, craft or hobby and feel you can make it accessible to pupils with special educational needs, please talk to us about the possibility of running sessions during lunch-time or during the school day.   You would be fully supported. 

Why Volunteer?

Aside from the personal satisfaction of knowing that you have made a positive difference to the lives of children and young people, volunteering can offer the following benefits:

• the opportunity to develop valuable, transferable skills and experience to add to your CV
• a character reference from The Avenue School to use when applying for paid employment
• the opportunity to meet new people and be part of a friendly, committed, dynamic team of professionals 
• for people wishing to enter a career in teaching or working with children, work experience within a school will strengthen applications for PGCE, Schools Direct and other child-care related courses. 

To be a volunteer, you would need to complete an application form.  You would then be invited in to have a look round our school.  We'd also take up references and get an Enhanced DBS Check. 

For further information about the voluntary positions outlined above, please contact: Vanessa Carrick, HR Manager on 0118 214 5257 or email her on vcarrick@avenue.reading.sch.uk.

In addition to the above opportunities for individuals, we also have a number of projects that might be of interest to large companies and organisations that are able to offer financial and practical support to charities within their local community (Please see About Us, How to Support our School). For further information on our school development projects, please contact:

Andrew Green, Lettings and Development Officer:

Tel: 0118 3389030

Email:  agreen@avenue.reading.sch.uk

To access our Volunteer Policy PLEASE CLICK HERE