Information about Volunteering

Work Experience at Parkside School

Introduction to our School

Parkside School is a school for children with complex needs. Our children range from 7 – 16 years old.  Some of our children have social and emotional behaviour difficulties. Some of our children have speech, language and communication difficulties.  All our children have learning difficulties.

Parkside is situated in the area of Earlham in the West of the City of Norwich.  It can be found between College Road and Recreation Road and shares sports facilities with other schools in the immediate area. Pupils attend the school from a wide catchment area, ranging from North Walsham in the North to Diss in the South, Great Yarmouth in the East to East Harling in the West.

The school is divided into three main departments, lower school, middle school and upper school with each having a Head of Department.  In lower school pupils are generally taught by a class teacher and will see specialist teachers for such subjects as Music and Physical Education.  In middle school most pupils have a form teacher for registration and pastoral issues, but see specialist teachers for all other subjects.  Pastoral responsibility lies primarily with the class/form teacher and is supported by the Head of department.

Currently there are 20 full time teachers, including the Head Teacher, 34 teaching assistants and in general, class groups are of 12 or below.

Expectations

As a student on work placement, you will gain very valuable experience at Parkside School but in return we will expect you to work hard and with respect for the staff and children.

Parkside is a very busy school and we expect you to be proactive and take initiative. You will work in a designated class and support the members of staff by following any requests they may have to help the children.  You will not be expected to toilet or give personal care to any of the children.

All permanent teaching staff at Parkside are fully trained in how to physically intervene with the children and at times this may be necessary.

Due to the nature of our children, Parkside can be very different from your experience of a main stream school and there’s no such thing as a ‘normal day’.  If you have any concerns about anything you see or hear whilst working at Parkside please speak to the Head, Deputy or Assistant Head teacher who can help you to understand our children, their needs and our working practices.

In our school we are strongly committed to safeguarding procedures to ensure the well-being of children. All volunteers and work experience students will be subject to Enhanced DBS and vetting procedures.

All volunteers and students on work placement will be asked to sign a confidentiality agreement to protect the privacy of our children and staff.

Applying for work placement / volunteering at Parkside - We are unable to take on any volunteers at the start of the academic year but would look to have volunteers after October half term.

1. Please complete the Volunteer Application Form - Sept 2021 and return it to recruitment@parksidemail.co.uk
2. Once the application is received, we will contact you with a response.
3. If appropriate you will be invited in to school for an interview.
4. If accepted to do volunteering work we will arrange to do a DBS check and your starting date and schedule will then be agreed.