BHA School Volunteers Training Programme: Swindon

Date: Saturday 22 February 2014

Time: 9:30am – 4:00pm

Venue: Bridlewood Primary School, Chartwell Road, SN25 2EX

This training course aims to prepare volunteers for their role in school helping young people learn about and from humanist beliefs and values.

If you are new to volunteering we hope that through the training you will increase your knowledge of how schools work and grow in confidence to be able to go into a primary or a secondary school as a BHA volunteer.

If you have experience of volunteering already then we hope that the sessions will provide an opportunity for you to share your expertise and to gain more ideas for how you might work with teachers to enrich the learning experience for pupils.

The training will, through discussion and activity, answer questions such as:

·  What might I be expected to do?

·  What does it look like in practice?

·  What resources are available to help me?

·  How can I best work with teachers to enrich learning for pupils?

The programme is also designed to model good practice in teaching and learning in schools so that you, together with the teacher, can provide stimulating and engaging learning opportunities. The training is also supported by a comprehensive BHA Volunteer handbook and many other resources which you can refer to and which you can add to as you develop your role as a volunteer.

0930 / Arrival, registration and refreshment
1000 / An introduction to volunteering / An introduction to the training and its aims and objectives.
1015 / The volunteering role
/ An exploration of your expectations and motivations as a volunteer.
Looking at the role of the volunteer in a school setting and the range of involvement this may include.
1030 / Humanism in the classroom /
This session will cover;
·  A discussion of the key messages about humanist values and beliefs
·  An exploration of learning approaches including those for handling sensitive and controversial issues in the classroom
·  An opportunity to experience different teaching and learning approaches
1130 / Comfort/coffee break
1145 / Schools Today / ·  An exploration of the curriculum opportunities to learn from and about Humanism;
·  A opportunity to plan for learning in different contexts
1215 / Lunch/planning
1400 / Sharing session / ·  The session will also provide an opportunity to share your own planning with others and to reflect further on the issues we raised in the first session about your role.
1430 / Getting Started / ·  An opportunity to experience more learning approaches
1500 / Building an effective relationship / This session will provide information to help you to get started in your role as volunteer and will include:
·  Building a relationship with the teacher
·  Tools for planning
·  Consideration of issues that may be a cause for concern when working with schools
1515 / Resources / This session will involve an exploration of :
·  the additional resources available for use in planning and delivery with schools
·  Documentation to help you and BHA in your volunteer role including evaluating your experiences.
1530 / Evaluating the experience & summary / This summary session will provide time for us to reflect on the training experience and to ensure that you are confident about your role as a volunteer moving forward.
1600 / Close

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