People choose to give their time to volunteering for so many reasons. Here, local resident, Liz Maglaras, tells us why she works with Llanbedr Church of Wales Primary School and what volunteering means to her.
I recently started volunteering at my children’s local school, Llanbedr Church of Wales Primary School. It is one of a few small schools left, with about 35 full time pupils. It has very good dedicated teachers, assistants and parents, who work well together to provide the best for the schools children. The advantage of it being a small school is that the children get more individual attention. I have seen shy children be given the space to come out of their shells, where as in a bigger school they might get over looked.
I work with the children on a one to one basis listening to them read. Reading is such an important skill and there are so many amazing story books out there. I enjoy sharing the stories with them and it is nice to know that I am freeing the teachers up to do other important tasks. I have also just started a construction after school club, where the children get to build using a number of different materials, their favourite being Lego! It has proved to be really popular and in demand. It is lovely to see how much the children enjoy it! In January I will be running a creative after school club too. I felt it important to offer more after school activities, as this helps in a number of ways.
Parents get very affordable childcare and their children get to enjoy the activity. The money from the construction club has been reinvested in buying more construction toys for the school. Who knows maybe one of the children will be inspired to become an engineer!
I chose to volunteer as I wanted to do something positive with my time and I haven’t work since my eldest was born 7 years ago. I thought it would be good to get more involved in the school and help to maintain the good standard of care the children receive.
I feel by volunteering it benefits the school, parents, children and me. What could be better than that- It’s a win-win!
‘If any readers have any Lego that they would be willing to donate to the school, we would be extremely grateful’.
