Notes for school coordinators
First steps
All schools taking part in Number Partners must appoint a school
coordinator to take responsibility for the way it runs at school.
As a school coordinator, you will need to:
- register
your school on this site to become a member of Number Partners and
receive updates and useful information
- understand what your school hopes to achieve by establishing a
relationship with a local business or employer
- agree your school's commitment with the head and teaching staff
in order to release students from their timetabled lessons or over
lunchtime
- consider the minimum and maximum numbers of volunteers that you
will need for the programme to be viable
- find a local employer able to
provide volunteer Number Partners
- find a suitable space and time for Number Partners sessions to
take place each week
- with assistance from other staff, choose suitable students to
take part in the programme
- have an initial meeting with your business partner's volunteer
coordinator
- meet and brief the volunteers before their first session with
students; this may also be an induction to your school
- check that all volunteers have successfully completed their
Number Partners training and assessment and police or criminal
record checks by asking to see a copy of their Number Partners
certificates and police disclosure or CRB documentation
- liaise with volunteers as often as possible to keep up to date
with progress, and to advise on students' performance and
behaviour; you may want the volunteers to write in existing
learning diaries
- stay in touch with the volunteer coordinator on a regular basis
to suggest and hear ways of improving or developing Number Partners
sessions, to discuss holiday dates in advance etc.
- if requested by the programme administrator, help evaluate the
programme at the end of each year and, perhaps, undertake
evaluation as part of your own approach to ensure that objectives
are being met
- discuss any evaluation with the volunteer coordinator in order
to identify ways of developing the programme in the following
year.
Evaluation
As a school coordinator, you may be contacted by the Number
Partners administrator responsible for evaluating the programme.
You may be asked to consult those involved in your programme at the
end of each year, so that it can be properly appraised. For
example, you may be invited to distribute evaluation forms amongst
your students to obtain feedback. Volunteers are also invited
to be involved in the evaluation.
You may wish to use comments provided to find out if any changes
can be made to improve the programme and make sure that students
are making the most from their sessions.
Request registration for your school with the
Number Partners programme here.
Take a look at the resources available for those involved in the
programme here.
Download the Coordinators Handbook.