Sara’s Volunteering Story
School Appeals Panel Members help to ensure all the appeals for maintained schools and academies are conducted in a fair and transparent way. These appeals can include admissions, exclusions, and transport.
Panel members can be either lay people or people who have experience in education, either through work or personal experience, of education in Somerset.
Jenny Oliver of the Central Volunteer Team spoke to Sara to learn more about her experience of being an Independent School Appeals Panel Volunteer.
What does your volunteering role involve Sara?
My role as a lay member involves ensuring that parents and schools have followed the legal processes and have had the opportunity to appeal against decisions, we examine anything specific to individual cases that may have been missed previously.
How long have you been volunteering for?
I have been volunteering for two years now.
Why did you start volunteering?
There were several reasons I started volunteering. I am now retired and so I have more time to spare. I met someone else who did the role and she discussed it with me, I thought it was interesting and something I could have a go at. I have volunteered a lot in the past and so have learnt a lot about being a volunteer and what a role should be. This role with the panel is useful, important, and interesting, and so it meets all the requirements for me!
What keeps you volunteering?
The role is interesting, important, and incredibly well organised. The training the team give is very good. I also find it fascinating and have gained a deeper understanding about people’s lives.
I retired from the NHS and have been comfortable in my life, it is easy to forget how hard life can be and what others are going through; in the context of my volunteering role this is what our parents are going through and the pressures of the educational system. This role has put me much more closely in contact with schools and our community.
What is your favourite thing about volunteering?
My favourite thing, if I had to choose one, is hearing people’s experiences and stories!
What difference has volunteering made to you? For example, making new friends or enhancing your skills.
My role has improved my knowledge about state education, and it has also improved my IT and interpersonal skills.
Volunteering virtually has helped me as I struggled during covid and volunteering with the panel has got me really thinking and fine tuning my communication skills as you have no body language to read, meaning that you must be more careful about what words you use. I am getting better at picking words and speaking clearly from the meetings, this is a skill that I am honing now.
What would you say to someone who has never volunteered?
Democratic Services, the team in the Council who manage the panel, have really thought carefully about what the role requires and how it is organised. They have an excellent process which is very well supported with training, and I know what to expect. They are incredibly reliable, and the system does exactly what it says that it’s going to. I know the dates that I am to attend meetings well in advance and the team are there for advice.
I have undertaken many volunteering roles in the past and sometimes the teams are unsure what they what their volunteers to do or if they are needed at all. This role and team are clear. The role does not require doing lots and lots, but it is definitely enough. I have found the team very professional as a volunteer, it has been an excellent experience.
Can you think of a good strapline to describe your volunteering?
Interesting, important, and useful!
If you think you could take on this role, you can find it and others here. What are you waiting for!