Education & schools

A large number of our volunteers are involved in the field of education. This group is managed by Dorothy Jones, Joy Wymonham and Jean Lamont who are themselves volunteers in primary schools or education projects.

We are helping in around fifteen local schools, many of which have several of our volunteers helping with a whole range of activities. Some volunteers prefer simply to listen to children reading, others are happy to help with any task that requires an extra pair of hands. Teachers and volunteers agree the work together.

Some of our schools have invited volunteers to become school Governors and others help with outings, the school play or other special projects.

Twice a year we have a social meeting for volunteers in schools, when there is an opportunity to talk and share news or problems together

World War II is now on the National Curriculum and a group headed by Jean Lamont visits schools with gas masks, tin helmet, shrapnel, ration books and other genuine wartime memorabilia collected by the members and tells the children what it was like being a child during the War. This group has been featured in The Times national newspaper, Saga Magazine, My Weekly and elsewhere. As a result of this, the project is now being replicated in other parts of the country. RSVP would be interested to hear from any other local schools which would like a talk by one of our speakers.

To mark the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII, this group has produced a collection of war memories from RSVP members entitled "Our War Stories: memories of the 2nd World War" which has been sent to local schools for use as a teaching aid and to local museums, libraries and local history societies. These stories  are included on the BBC WW2 website "People's War".

We have also been asked by schools to give talks on the games we used to play, with examples, and our holidays.

We are also involved in other aspects of education such as homework clubs, mentoring etc.