Speaker application – Islam RE Help

Apply to be a speaker

This form is for Muslims (Sunni) who are available to visit schools and answer questions about Islam. If you are from another faith or tradition, please apply via RE Hubs instead. We’ll read your application and get in touch before adding you to the site.

Basic details

https://

We’ll share this email address with schools so they can contact you about visits.

This should be your usual starting point, to work out mileages when visiting schools.

Background

A clear head-and-shoulders photo works best. JPG/PNG/WEBP, up to 8MB, max size 4000x3000 pixels. The photo will be resized to 400x400 so a fairly close up photo is ideal. You can also provide a photo later if you prefer and will always have the option to easily change it.

Practicalities

Please tick at least one.
This helps us decide which schools to link you with. You can always discuss exceptions directly with schools.
Not legally required for supervised irregular visits, but some schools have a policy to ask for or even require DBS for visitors, so it's helpful to note if you have one.

RE-Hubs training

There is a free online training for school RE speakers offered via RE-Hubs: https://www.re-hubs.uk/get-involved/school-speakers/ .

Payments

We use PayPal so that donations go directly to speakers. We will ask for a dedicated PayPal email address if you are accepted.

Our vision of speaking being sustainable for speakers and schools

Currently school visitors appear to be in one of two distinct camps: Either charging for their time or not:

  • A small number of Muslims have been attempting to cater for the demand for visits in a full time, professional manner and have fixed fees for visits. Some offer much needed training alongside speaking. The fees charged are rightly needed to replace other income they would have to make with their working week.
  • Other speakers, likely the majority, fit visits between their work and do not set a charge for their time. Some ask just for travel expenses to be covered, but they might accept donations to cover time if offered. Others refuse to take any money from the schools.
Both ways are hugely beneficial but have significant drawbacks. Only a minority of schools can afford professional fees for RE visitors and it will likely limit the number of visit requests. This could be especially true in rural and deprived areas most lacking diversity and exposed to propaganda.

In the case of speakers who don't charge; despite best intentions the pressure on their finances and time will inevitably limit the number of visits they can do and the distance they will travel.

There are some cases where an Imam is tasked with visits as part of his paid work but this seems to be rare and restricted to the most local schools.

Whichever best describes your situation, this project exists to support your efforts and inshaAllah enable them to flourish.
Our vision of an ideal situation is where all visitors can receive sufficient income from providing professionally done visits, to enable them to fullfil the enormous demand in a sustainable manner, for the long term inshaAllah.

If the funding for us to explain Islam to non-Muslims more properly came from the Muslim community, it would see requests for school visits rise and it become accessible for all schools.

This project attempts to make the transition seamless by enabling a flexible hybrid system where donations from the Muslim community can top up the various amounts received from schools who can afford to pay something, or fully fund visits to schools who cannot pay. Ultimately if enough donations can be sourced for the vital services of school speakers, we might no longer need to accept expenses from schools at all.

What you currently charge schools

£
£

What this project will ask from donors

This is used to work out a suggested donation for each visit.

Think about what you would normally earn for comparable work (for example your usual hourly pay). Some speakers choose a lower “community” rate, others use their normal professional rate. You can easily change this later if your situation changes. The key thing is we hope to increase peoples ability to do visits and make this work sustainable over the long term, so it has to be enough to make that a reality.

£
NB this amount is not shown to schools and is not a charge you are making to schools – it is used to come to a total amount that would reasonably cover each visit depending on the hours taken, plus travel expenses which are automatically calculated by distance. If you accepted money from any schools to part fund a visit that should be noted when you log a visit as part funding it. Donors can then see what remains outstanding and consider making up the shortfall to a more sustainable amount.

In case you are finding it financially very difficult to do visits, please indicate this below. You can change this later when you log visits.

Important – how funding works
This project does not guarantee any donations for visits.
We use a fair costing formula (time + travel) to calculate a suggested donation for each visit, and we invite donors to contribute directly to speakers.
Some visits may be fully funded, some partly funded, and some not funded at all.
You are always free to decline visits, and if you choose to do a visit, you accept that you may receive no money at all via this project for that visit.

Would you be willing to host occasional Zoom Q&A sessions for teachers?
Training or mentoring other speakers

Sometimes we may run short online or in-person sessions to help new speakers get started (sharing resources, answering questions, or offering feedback).

Do you have relevant skills or experience you could share by training or mentoring other speakers?

Zoom session and providing training hours can be requested from donors in the same way school visits are.

Because this project involves school visits and donations, we have a simple safeguard that applies to all speakers:
  • we ask everyone to confirm their immigration status (if relevant) allows them to do visits and receive donations
  • we do a light identity check once before listing you.
It’s the same process for everyone, just to keep things safe and transparent for you, schools and donors.

Anything else