Primary School Maths Supporter South London

What will I be doing?

• We will train you how to interact with young children and how to use games and other creative activities to interest them in and help them learn maths.
• You will run weekly sessions one-to-one with children aged six to eight (Years 2 and 3) whose teachers have identified as needing support in maths. Sessions are during school hours but outside the classroom. The focus is on understanding the child's needs, building confidence, and creating an environment where the child engages in learning, both through "easy" activities such as games or puzzles/challenges and through "hard" activities learning or practising specific maths skills (presented in a suitable way for that child).
• Young children fall behind in maths for many reasons not connected with lack of ability, and your role will be to understand their gaps in understanding and help them overcome these. You are not a "teacher", you are an "obtacle remover" - the child does the learning.
• At the age we work with, maths is largely addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division using numbers up to 100 (Year 2) or 1,000 (Year 3). The volunteer does not need to be sophisticated in maths - they need to be good in encouraging children,.
• Working with young children is fun and rewarding. We hope you will enjoy volunteering!.
• Note that we have given the maximum 3 addresses in this advert. We partner with schools in 13 boroughs across London - including North London.

What impact will this have?

• Children who fall behind in maths at a young age can develop an attitude that "I am no good at maths" and find strategies to avoidthe subject. Some will develop "maths anxiety" and never learn. (Maths is the only school subject with its own official diagnosable condition!).
• You can help children realise that they can do maths and that it is interesting and useful. (Playing and winning games is a good start.) Success in learning with you, can give them the confidence to engage in classroom lessons and progress further. A change in attitude in this one area can improve their educational chances overall, as well as helping them acquire the basic skills in numeracy which they will need in practically any employment in the modern world.
• For many of the children we work with, sessions with you will be their only experience of interacting one-to-one with a sympathetic adult other than a parent, and it can be a growth opportunity for the child on many levels as well as an important educational boost.
• Eaxh year we ask teachers to evaluate the impact of our volunteers' work with children, and this has consistently been highly positive.

Commitment

• We train our volunteers to use games and other creative activities to provide one-to-one support to children in state primary schools who are behind in maths. We work with children in Years 2 and 3 (aged six to eight), as research shows that this is the best time to help children get back on track. Training will take about 7 hours, about half online and half at an in-person session.
• We ask for a commitment to attend weekly sessions in school during school hours throughout the school year (understanding that you may have to miss a week here or there for personal reasons). Your session with each child will be 25 to 30 minutes, and typically volunteers choose to work with two or three children consecutively.

What else do I need to know?

• We put our volunteers at a school in contact with each other for mutual support. We organise periodic social events for volunteers.
• Our staff liaise with our volunteers to provide any administrative support you may need - eg if there is an issue with the school. (Your Mentor - an experienced teacher also volunteering with us - will provide educational support.).
• We welome ideas from volunteers on what works in sessions with children.
• We very much encourage volunteers to become involved in additional areas of the charity.
• We support the diverse population of London children, and we are keen to have applicants from all backgrounds. We have had volunteers from 47 birth nationalities - we are keen to get to 50!.

Expenses

• We will pay necessary travel expenses as per our volunteer policy (available on our website)

Background checks

• A DBS check is required

Training

• We train you before you start in a school. This has both online and in-person components, and takes about 7 hours. The online consists of watching videos about maths learning, and also reading some material about early years maths and about the policies of the charity and the resources we provide.
• We also have former (or current) primary school teachers volunteering with us as "Mentors", and one of these will be available to provide you with support and advice throughout your time as a volunteer.
• We have periodic (aiming for each half term) web meetings which start with a 15 minute talk by one of our Mentors (or a guest speaker) on a subject of use to our volunteers and then include a question and answer session.