Teachers' FAQ

Teachers requesting a volunteer speaker for a talk at their school often have questions about how it all works. Here we try to answer ten common questions.

Is there any cost to the school?
None. All we ask is that you’re willing to fill in a simple, brief, evaluation form after the visit has occurred.

How long is the talk?
The session is usually an hour long. The speaker will usually talk for 20 minutes, leaving the remaining time for questions and discussion.

What is the visit like?
The volunteer will talk about their research or work, what role animals play in this, and how they feel about it. They use visual aids, props and class exercises to make the session more engaging.

Who are your volunteers?
They are mostly research scientists and animal technologists.

Are volunteers CRB checked?
No, it is not necessary. A condition of having a speaker is that a teacher is present at all times.

What AV facilities do we need?
All the speakers have a PowerPoint presentation which includes video clips. However, PowerPoint facilities are not necessarily essential for the visit.

What age is the talk for?
The age range is usually between 14 and 18 as this is when the issue enters the curriculum. However we have organised visits for younger pupils in the past.

How big can the classes be?
Variable – we find that discussion is easier in standard class sizes of about 30 or fewer. However, we can cater for larger groups.

Can we have multiple talks on one day?
Often, yes. But it depends entirely on the availability of the speaker. They are taking time from their jobs to do the visit. If they have time to do more than one talk they will, but we cannot always guarantee it.

Will you be showing any gruesome images or videos?
No. There are some images and clips of animals undergoing simple procedures but nothing that is upsetting. See some examples in our image and video libraries.

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