There is scope for secondary schools to develop greater use of volunteers, research from the National Foundation for Educational Research has found.

Almost all primary teachers (98 per cent) reported that parents volunteer in their school and 76 per cent also have help from members of the local community, such as local companies or retired people. But the survey found that just 64 per cent of secondary teachers work with parental volunteers and 57 per cent said that their school uses community volunteers.

The research found that schools with the highest proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals also have the lowest proportion of parents volunteering. Although they have slightly more help from the community, this is not enough to offset the gap in parental involvement.

The Teacher Voice survey questioned 1,567 teachers in 1,211 schools.