Volunteer login

Information for STIMULUS volunteers

If you are considering volunteering for the first time, please follow the link for Prospective Volunteers, as well as browsing what is here.

• Guidelines for volunteers
• Information about schools and the curriculum
• Useful links
• Feedback

Guidelines for volunteers

There is a whole page of advice here.

Return to top

Information about schools and the curriculum

Many of you will have attended schools very similar to the ones you are visiting, although there will undoubtedly be some differences. For others, you may know little about the UK education system.

Pupils will be following the National Curriculum, which lays down the programmes of study in each subject at each key stage. Key stage 1 is age 5-7, key stage 2 is age 7-11, key stage 3 is age 11-14 and key stage 4 is 14-16 (when pupils study for GCSE).

The teachers may refer to the level a pupil is working at: pupils are "expected" to reach level 2 at age 7, level 4 at age 11, and level 5/6 at age 14. In practice, of course, they vary considerably, and the work will be "differentiated" to cater for pupils of different abilities. Particularly at secondary school and particularly in maths, this may be achieved partly by "setting" the pupils into ability groups; you may be told that you are working with set 2 out of 4, for example.

There are various links in the next section which may help you make sense of the jargon teachers might use.

Return to top

Useful links

You may need none of these, especially if you are just helping generally within the classroom, but they are useful if the teacher uses unfamiliar jargon, or if you are given the opportunity to plan work with a small group.

Level descriptions for maths

Level descriptions for science

Level descriptions for ICT

Level descriptions for technology

Unit plans for ICT KS1/2

Used by many of the primary schools.

Unit plans for ICT KS3

Used by some secondary schools.

Unit plans for technology KS1/2

Used by many of the primary schools.

National Curriculum online

Follow the links for the subject and key stage.

OCR, Edexcel, AQA

The three A-level and GCSE exam boards. Bear in mind, if you are given any responsibility for working with pupils preparing for exams, that the sample papers and most recent past papers may be used for mock examinations; use them for your guidance only.

Governornet

There's a link to a jargon buster at the top right!

NRICH

Maths enrichment resources for all ages - you can look for a particular topic using the Maths Finder, or look at the current month's problems (pupils can send in solutions and get them published the next month).

Institute of Physics

Resources for primary school physics topics

Feedback

We welcome feedback on how things are going. At the end of the term, we will ask you to fill in a questionnaire about your placement. Login here to fill in your questionnaire.

Don't forget, if you are having any problems with your placement, do raise them with the teacher you are working with, the school's link teacher, or the coordinator. In particular, if you have to drop out for any reason, please let both school and coordinator know.

If you have other questions, comments or ideas, then there are various ways of communicating them:

• Post them in the volunteers' forum.
• E-mail the coordinator
• Talk to or e-mail one of the student representatives (see contact details).

Times and places