At Acorn, the child is the at the heart of everything we do, and as part of this, we recognise the importance of having key persons who work with the children to meet their individual needs through play and meaningful interactions. Obviously, children need a lot more than just play and interactions throughout the day, as mealtimes, intimate routines and sleep times are just some of the other elements of a child’s time and experience whilst at nursery. Our employees are key in supporting children with these times to ensure individual needs are met and children are supported sensitively, which means this can take our key practitioners away from the play elements. This is why we promote our ‘Volunteer Involvement Programme’ VIP, to welcome parents, carers and volunteers from our local communities into our settings to provide an additional ‘helping hand’ when supporting children. Our volunteers play an important role in supporting children’s play and interactions, by talking to the children, facilitating their play, sharing ideas and role modelling different techniques in play styles. For example, we had a volunteer who came into help the children to cook using a range of ingredients that are prominent in their own culture to create rotis. 

There are significant benefits to the volunteer programme for both the volunteer and the setting. Often our volunteers are seeking to gain experience working with young children to support applications such as adoption and fostering, which provides soon-to-be parents the opportunity to build their confidence, but also gain an understanding of how to support young children’s development though sensitive and stimulating interactions. We also work closely with domestic abuse survivors who we support with their transitions back into the workplace, which has a huge impact on self-belief, mental wellbeing and health. Our volunteers are supported by a mentor and have appropriate inductions and training opportunities to help understand Acorn’s values, ethos and the early years sector. We cannot pay our volunteers, but any of our parents or carers who join the programme are entitled to free childcare during the sessions attended; either as additional sessions or as a credit on their account. 

We have had several volunteers supporting with gardening, reading books and some that have supported play at times when our key practitioners are most busy, for example at the beginning and the end of the day. Our volunteers have made comments such as "it has increased my self-confidence so much, and the team I work with are so friendly, they are like my family!" whilst others have shared that "it has helped me to understand the needs of children and how I can support them to learn". 

The impact on our volunteers and children has been extremely positive, providing children with additional support, over and above ratios. Our practitioners work in partnership with the volunteers to ensure there is a joint approach to supporting children’s learning and development which maintains consistency and continuity for the children. 

If you are interested in becoming a volunteer at any of our settings, please take a look at our vacancy section of our website Volunteer and Placement Opportunities | Acorn Early Years Foundation or email us on [email protected]

Laura Tingey

(Acorn's Head of Early Years & Compliance)