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Volunteer Success Stories: Longsight Family Hub
As a single hub providing multiple integrated children and family services, the success of Longsight Family Hub is in large part thanks to the support of so many hard-working volunteers.
Many local community members have joined Longsight Community Primary, Longsight Nursery and Longsight Family Hub as volunteers, all working toward the shared goal of providing first-class care and education for children in the community.
“Volunteers are the backbone of our school”, says Rukhsana Ahmed, Head Teacher at Longsight Community Primary School.
“When we started our school almost 13 years ago, our first member of support staff was a volunteer. We then appointed her as a teaching assistant (TA), and she stayed with us for over 10 years.”
Many volunteers have stayed on to pursue development and training opportunities, even progressing into formal employment within Longsight Family Hub. Of the current team, there are five employed members of staff who all originally joined as volunteers. One of whom is Saira Ahmed, who joined Longsight Community Primary in 2024. As someone who had lived in the area her whole life, Saira wanted the opportunity to give back to her community and reconnect with her passion for working with children.
Saira said: “During my time as a volunteer, I realised how much I enjoyed supporting children’s learning and development, which motivated me to want me to progress into a teaching assistant. The encouragement and trust from staff at Longsight helped me in building confidence and developing the skills needed for this next step.
“During my time as a volunteer, I realised how much I enjoyed supporting children’s learning and development, which motivated me to want me to progress into a teaching assistant. The encouragement and trust from staff at Longsight helped me in building confidence and developing the skills needed for this next step.
Since joining two years ago, Saira has now completed her formal training and has been working as a TA in Longsight’s Reception class for the last few months: “Working as a teaching assistant at LCP has been very positive, and it feels rewarding to continue my journey within the same community”.
Similarly, Summaya Tariq began volunteering at LCP last January. Summaya shared that, as a volunteer in the classroom, she gained hands-on experience, which allowed her to pursue a career path as a TA.
Summaya said: “Mrs Rukhsana Ahmed and all the staff were always supportive and happy to offer guidance. They recognised my strengths and encouraged me to take on this new responsibility, which made the transition into training and a teaching assistant role feel possible. I feel fortunate to support a community that has supported me so much in return.”
Rukhsana Ahmed said: “There is so much talent and commitment out there, and people just need the opportunity to shine. We feel that we have given back too in terms of developing skills and CPD, and many of our volunteers have gone on to find other jobs in local schools.”
Hearing such positive stories from volunteers shows just how life-changing the opportunities are that Longsight Family Hub provide to the local community, and reflects the nurturing, supportive nature of the whole team working at Longsight Family Hub.
Find out more about volunteering with The Big Life Group here