Are you passionate about railways and keen to make a positive impact on the young people in your local community? Then we need you!
In partnership with Siemens, South East Manchester and Crewe to Manchester Community Rail Partnerships are introducing a new Rail Safety programme to primary schools close to the stations on our various lines. Find out which stations this includes on our website here, or on the South East Manchester CRP website here.
We’re seeking volunteers to deliver the Rail Safety sessions and help us to ensure the next generation grow up understanding the risks of the railways and knowing how to keep themselves safe.
Sound interesting…but what’s involved?
Volunteers don’t need any experience, just enthusiasm and the confidence to speak to a group of children. We will provide training, advice on handling any tricky questions (you know what children can be like!) and share a power point presentation that can be delivered at the school. We will also make sure volunteers have the additional resources needed, such as leaflets or information booklets.
The sessions will likely be an assembly, with teachers present, and we will pair up our volunteers so you’d never be alone with the children.
Ideally, we’d like our volunteers to be able to deliver 4-6 sessions each academic year. These would take place during school hours on a week day, with each session lasting about 1 hour. You’d also need to factor in your travel time and any preparation, such as signing in at the school and meeting a teacher/s, so we would recommend allowing 2 hours in total.
Volunteers would need to have their own transport to get to the school, although we are able to re-imburse any expenses incurred. You shouldn’t have to travel far – we’ll try and find a school close to you to make it easy! You may already have connections with one of your local schools. If so, let us know and hopefully we can arrange for you to volunteer there.
Finally, we’d provide annual refresher training sessions to help you, so volunteers would also need to be available to attend these.
If you’re interested, drop us a line at communityrail@stockport.gov.uk and we can arrange an informal chat to explain more about the role and answer any questions you may have.