In the classroom, your volunteer work could include:

• Listening to children read. Reading is an extremely important skill for children to learn, but can be difficult to acquire. Any time and help that you can give could make a huge difference to children's future achievements levels in school. Additionally, you might be asked to read to children — this can be of great benefit to their language and literacy development.

• Sharing your professional skills. For example, if you're a doctor, you could talk about healthy living to give children an up-to-date, specialist perspective on an area of the curriculum.

• Helping on school trips. Schools need a certain number of adults to go with them on trips, but they can't always spare the teaching staff. If you can make up the numbers, it means they have the opportunity to give children these enriching experiences that they may not otherwise be able to have.

• Taking on classroom assistant duties. To support the teacher, volunteer classroom assistants might check children's planners, get them settled as they arrive in the morning, photocopy worksheets, design displays, answer questions in the lesson, work one-to-one or in small groups, and do story time. This gives the teacher more time to focus on teaching the lesson content — together, you can make an excellent team.

Volunteers in education settings help to improve the learning experience, and often have an impact even after they have left. They aren't accountable for the outcomes of the children they work with in the same way that teachers are, meaning that their roles can offer a way to work in education without the pressure of a permanent job.

Volunteers might be parents, college or university students, or other adults in the local area — you don't need any experience working with children in order to become one.