AFIS Founder & CEO, Michelle Daniells reached out to AFIS Members in February, and we have been thrilled with the positive response so far.

If you recognise the importance of access for all to education, are a parent, staff member or supporter of independent education, or you have some time to contribute to a worthy cause, then this article is for you...

Dear reader,

As you may know, your new Association for Families of Independent Schooling only launched last December. I'm delighted to say that new members are joining us every day as awareness and interest grows.

I wanted to say a huge THANK YOU to you our AFIS members. Ultimately, it is only by growing our membership that we can hope to succeed in supporting our members, championing parental choice and advocating for fairer representation of independent schooling families.

We urgently need more people to help us. Myself and all the parents, head teachers and education experts currently on our team are volunteers. There is a LOT of work to do and I'd like to ask whether you would consider getting directly involved, if you have some time available to commit to our much-needed organisation. Even 2 or 3 hours a week would be greatly appreciated.

We are currently looking for people who are as passionate about our cause as we are to get involved with the following:

  • AFIS School Ambassadors: Raising awareness of AFIS within your own school(s) and acting as an AFIS point of contact
  • AFIS Regional Ambassadors: Establishing and managing an AFIS group in your region, planning regional events and content for members in your area
  • Digital marketing support: Including technical support, user experience and content creation
  • PR support: Especially media outreach
  • Fundraising: Including grant applications and philanthropic campaigns
  • Junior “reporters”: Interviewing members and school Heads and writing blogs
  • General administration
  • Partner Schools' communications: Relationship management and communications

We are not short on ideas and great opportunities; we simply do not have enough people, hours in the day, or financial resources to do everything well and quickly enough.

In time, when revenue permits, we plan to offer our original volunteers paid roles, where possible.

If you would like to find out more and can offer some time and expertise to get involved with a cause close to all our hearts, please contact hello@afis.org.uk as soon as possible.

Thank you, most sincerely.

Michelle Daniells
AFIS Founder & CEO