We surveyed parents at Victorian public schools about their experience of volunteering at their children’s school.
In a separate survey, we asked schools for a ‘snapshot’ of volunteering in their school community.
Here are the results.
Demographics
There are some very clear trends in the school level, location and level of involvement amongst respondents to the parent survey:
- 80% of respondents had children at a primary school.
- 83% of responses came from Melbourne metropolitan schools.
- 83% of respondents are current volunteers at their children’s school.
Volunteer activities
We asked parents what activities they currently do as volunteers. The most common answers were:
- Organising social or community events. (Slightly more than half of these events were reported as also being fundraisers.)
- Providing support for school-led events (e.g. catering, setup, pack-down)
- Classroom helpers
- Fundraising through sale of goods
- Organising Mothers’ Day / Fathers’ Day or similar stalls
- Organising information or support sessions for parents/carers (e.g. guest speakers)
The school survey respondents agreed that these were the most common volunteer activities.
We provided an “Other” category to give parents the opportunity to add any volunteer activities that weren’t in our list of options. The responses covered a wide range, including Breakfast Club, library duties, excursions, applying for grants, helping at sports days and running the second-hand uniform store.
Who runs them
According to the school survey, volunteer activities are primarily co-ordinated by the following groups, ranked from most to least common:
- A formally constituted Parent Club
- A sub-committee of School Council
- Teachers
- School leadership
- An informal parent group
- Non-teaching school staff
What helps…
We asked parents what would encourage or motivate them to volunteer more. Common answers were:
- Feeling welcomed and valued
- Clear information about what is needed
- Opportunities that fit around work or caring responsibilities
- Flexible or one-off opportunities
- Knowing how my contribution helps the school
- Volunteering alongside friends or other parents
…and what doesn’t
We asked parents what factors make it difficult to volunteer at their local school. Top answers were:
- Work commitments
- Lack of time
- Caring responsibilities
- Volunteering feels like a big or ongoing commitment
- Feeling unsure if my help is needed
- Previous negative experience
The school survey agreed that time constraints on parents are the most common obstacle to volunteer involvement, and also added concerns about regulations and compliance as a significant obstacle to volunteering.
Finally we asked parents what the school could do differently to make volunteering more accessible or appealing. Some of the ideas and suggestions were:
- Give plenty of notice when calling for volunteers
- Volunteering is dominated by an ‘in-group’ who do not welcome newcomers
- Better ways of communicating e.g. using online communication methods
- Acknowledge volunteers – show them their work is valued
- Offer more opportunities to volunteer in the classroom
- Consider working parents when scheduling volunteer events
- Break up volunteering into small manageable tasks rather than one big task
- School could have a dedicated staff member who facilitates volunteering opportunities – not extra work for teachers, a specific role to involve parents.
- Give parents a say in what volunteer activities/events are run.