"It makes a good break in the working week to do something totally different and to help someone else."

Volunteer

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Employers

Small, medium and large sized organisations are all welcome to take part in Number Partners, whether from the private or public sectors. Everyone can contribute and make a difference!

Depending on the structure of your organisation and the scale of the commitment you can offer, several different parties might be involved. Senior management might need to approve and champion participation in the programme, identifying likely benefits and objectives for employees. A volunteer coordinator may need to take responsibility for the organisation and smooth running of the programme. Individual employees will need to sign up as volunteers, and, of course, volunteers need to be equipped, trained and police or criminal record checked before beginning.

Number Partners in 10 easy steps!

  1. Register for the programme on this site.
  2. Find a local school to partner. You may want to ask employees if they have links with a school.There may be a school close to your location or you may have been contacted by a school. Alternatively, you may wish to consult a broker. Further advise can be found on the Employers' Guide to employer engagement in education or the businessinschools site.
  3. Identify a volunteer coordinator who will recruit volunteers to register individually on this site.
  4. Volunteers complete the online training and assessment on this site, as well as police checks.
  5. Volunteer coordinators ensure that volunteers have their Number Partners certificates and police or criminal record check documentation in preparation for school visits.
  6. School and Volunteer coordinator agree arrangements for the programme such as time, duration, number of volunteers, dates for review and games required.
  7. School coordinator selects appropriate students.
  8. Volunteers have an induction with school staff (eg, the numeracy coordinator, a particular class teacher or the headteacher) and students as an introduction to the school and its aims.
  9. Volunteers go into schools at an agreed time once a week to work with an assigned group of two or three students each.
  10. Coordinators check the scheme is running smoothly, arrange a review, collect and, if requested by the Number Partners Consortium, help in the evaluation of the programme. Volunteer and school coordinators may also wish to include employer or school level evaluations in their own approaches.

Further advise can be found on the Employers' Guide to employer engagement in education. This guide has been designed to help employers of all sizes get more involved with schools and colleges.

You can also contact us by emailing the administrator at info@numberpartners.org if you have any questions regarding the programme.