wexsolve problems Charity registration number 1171037 Annual Report and Accounts for the period to 30th April 2024 () < 11 YJ WeSolveProblems.orÈ.u
We Solve Problems CIO Table of Contents Table of Contents Foreword by the Chair of the Trustees Objectives & Activlties Achievements & Performance Our plans beyond today Flnancial Review Structure, Governance & Management Reference & Administrative Details Statement of Trustees respon5ibilltles In respect of the Trustee annual report and the financial statement5 10 Independent Examiners Report li Statement of Financial Activities 12 Balance Sheet 13 Notes to the Financial Statements 14 Please note: permission has been granted for We Solve Problems to Ljse all included images.
We Solve Problerns CIO Foreword by the Chair of the Trustees Welcome to our seventh formal Annual Report. When we started our charity a few years ago, our ultimate goal was to bring the joy of mathernatics to a broad audience, by growing the number of locations across the country. However, we re31ized early on that this growth should not come at the expense of quality of our activities, and our intermediate efforts can now in retrospect be described as searching for a sustainable way to scale, not dissimilar to "startup" mentality prevalent in the commercial sector. We can now say that after a number of iterations, including our experiments with online learning and despite the disruption of the pandemic, we have honed a particular delivery format that best achieves our goal. Put simply, this means running an open weekend activity, in partnership with an academic institution of higher learning, and with tutors specializing in STEM degrees from that institution acting as tutors. During 2023124 year, we have started several new circles of this nature, and see a significant number of further potential sites in the pipeline. We have always prided ourselves on having a diverse student body, with children coming to our circles from different backgrounds (both educational and otherwise). It is now equally important to us that our Maths Circles are now geographically dispersed thought England and Wales. This allows us to bring the benefits of our method to an even broader audience. As usual, the credit goes to the team and partlcularly our general manager, Ignat, who has worked tirelesslyto put in place all the systems sustaining this growth, It is due to his effortsthat we are still running a lean operation and can use the lion's share of our resources to empower local teams to deliver the best experience for our audience. We are looklng forward to rnore problems solved, and more paths opened, in the years to come. Amlr Allev Chair of the Trustees
We Solve Problems CIO Objectives & Activities The charity was founded by three PhD mathematicians in order bring the benefits of advanced mathematical thinking to mathematically curious pupils in school years 7-11 (ages 12-16). WSP achieves this by encouraging creative mathematical thinking and helping to develop pupil's skills in communicating mathematical ideas and working collaboratively. These skills are gained through weekly Maths Circles and then honed once a term in a Maths Battle. We currently run Circles at several locations throughout the UK as a weekend club open to a broad range of participants from local area. We do not make any charges to the participants of Maths Circles. Our tutors are mainly Maths undergraduate and post-graduate students or professional mothematicians in their own right. The charily has been set up for the public benefit in terms of encouraging and helping children to understand mathemotics ond further their educational needs, The trustees have hod regord to the Charity Commission's guidance on public benefit. Our Bases During the period under report, we held weekly meetings on Saturdays during school term times in rooms provided by KCL, UCL, Keble College (Oxford University), University of Bath, Cardiff University and Warwick University. These events gather students from the local schools. With a typical circle running for a benefit of about 30 students, we had over 240 students attending a circle more than once during the academic year. Moths Circles Our Maths Circles encourage the two lifelong. and more importantly transferable, skills of problem solving and collaborative working through diverse mathematical topics such as elementary logic, probability. induction. and many others. Maths Circles are the training sessions, teaching pupils how to articulote and dissect mathematical concepts. A concept is introduced and discussions held over how it could be solved. Pupils try this then use that leaming to attempt similar problems, encouraging transferable skills.
We Solve Problems CIO Maths Battles Maths Battles are 'debating' competitions between two opposing teams. The teams are given a set of problem5 to solve." each team then presents their solutions for the scrutiny of the opposing team. The opposing team has the right to challenge their workings. A team wins by correctly solving more problems as well as successfully presenting their solutions. Database Presentation The problems.org.uk website is currently open to the public and being used by our own team which prepares the problem sheets for our Maths Circles. We regularly receive emails from the parent5 of porticipants of Maths Circles programme requesting access to the restricted part of the website, containing solutions to the problems. Foundation COMPOS In collaboration with the Physics Department of the University of Oxford we are providing online training in physics and mathematics to the overseas pupils and those of private schools.
We Solve Problems CIO Achievements & Performance Events This year we started two completely new Circles: at University of Bath {April 2023) and later on at University of Warwick (November 20231. Due to the popularity of the Warwick Circle, we started the second session there in February 2024. In September 2023 we ron the now traditional London Verbal hAaths Challenge {for I l O participants} as a screening event to fill in two additional sessions at the Circles at KCL and at UCL. 2023 wa5 finished with, again now-traditional. Inter-school Maths Battle at King's {78 participants), where teams from our Circles and other London schools took part (8 teams in totall. In January 2024 we ran another edition of the London Verbal Maths Challenge to select the pupils for the yet another Ithirdl session at KCL, our most popular location so far. Our Maths Circles and Baltles have been well attended over the year, with about 240 pupils in total regularly present at the Circles about twice the number as compared to the previous year.
We Solve Problems CIO Our plans beyond today hAore Locations We actively work to keep expanding our Circles both in terms of the number of pupils attending, and in terms of the number of locations. The Maths Circle at University of Bristol will be started in November 2024, and a new (third) session at UCL will be operational by the same time. We are currently in a number of conversations with universities around the UK to explore their participation in the programme, including those of Leicester, Loughborough, Manchester, Newcastle. and Imperial College London. Inter-school Maths Battle Aiming to create additional motivation for the students of the Maths Circles we run intro-circle Maths Battles twice a term. In addition to that we will keep organising Inter-school Maths Battle twice a year where the best representatives of our Circles are invited to participate. along with teams from other schools and institutions. These events include a public lecture by well-known authors and mathematics popularisers. For the season of 2024/25 the lecturers will be Dr Simons Singh and Dr Tom Crawford. London Verbal Maths Challen The concept of the London Verbal Maths Challenge, introduced in previous years, is to be polished and improved. There will be two events per school year: autumn and winter editions. During the event, the pupils are given a number of advanced maths questions from different mathematical areas and at different levels of difficulty. Once a question is completed, they will verbally present their answer to one of WSP'S adjudicators, all of whom will be Masters or PhD students, or professional mathematicians in their own right. Office Mana ement Our General Manager during the period. Ignat. has been home working for us overseeing the charity's administrative and marketing tosks.
We Solve Problems CIO Financial Review The charity received gross donations of £126,530 and tutoring fees of £27,086 for the period ended 30th April 2024. With a total of £121.974 resources expended this left a surplus of £31 ,642 to be caThied foward for future trading periods. Added to prior year surpluses. the total accumulated funds carried forward as ot 30th April 2024 were £58,739. None of the charity's funds are restricted but they must be used to further the charity's objectives. To date WSP has been funded mainly through the philanthropic activity of Amir Aliev. one of our Trustees. Without his vision and unswerving support, we could not have achieved what we have. We realise that we need additional and alternative revenue stream, and our General Manager will be charged with investigating this. It is our intention to continue offering most of our services free of charge. Risk Mana emerit The major risks to which the charity is exposed have been identified and considered. They have been reviewed and systems established including a formal risk register which has been subjected to review. The most significant risk relates to the care of children whilst in our charge. To mitigate this all those involved with the children are subjected to DBS checks and appropriate details are kept on children such as emergency contact numbers. Reserves olic The charity intends to build a reserves policy equivalent to at least three months operating expenditure during the next year. Goin Concern The trustees consider the charity to be a going concern for the foreseeable future, and for a period of at least twelve months following the date of this report.
We Solve Problems CIO Structure, Governance & Management We Solve Problems {WSP) was registered as a Charilable Incorporated Organisation under registration number 1171037 on the 9th of January 2017. The charity is governed by its Constitution. The trustees named on page 11 have served throughout the year and since the year end. Appointment of trustees is governed by the Constitution of the charily, whereby the existing trustees have the power to appoint further trustees as required. Appointed trustees must be oppointed for a term of three years upon resolution. In selecting individuals for appointment. the trustees musl have regard to the skills, knowledge and experience needed for the effective administration of the charity. If any further trustees were appointed, they would be introduced to their new role and given copies of the Constitution and a guide to the policies and procedures adopted by the charity. A number of publications from the Charity Commission would also be provided to ensure that new trustees would be aware of the scope of their responsibilities under the Charities Act. Fundin To date WSP has been funded through the philanthropic activity of Amir Aliev and Vassiliy Filippov, both being our Trustees. Without their vision and unswerving support, we could not have achieved what we have. Additional funds were raised by tuloring overseas students through the Foundotion COMPOS initiative. We realise that we need additional and alternative revenue stream. We started the Fundraising Campaign in 2023, and hopefully new sponsors will support the charity in the future. According to our arrangements with all the Universities we work with, we are provided rooms at no cost to ourselves. This. together with our General Manager working from home, has meant that we do not need to invest in office buildings at this point.
We Solve Problems CIO Reference & Administrative Details Our legal framework is as follows: Full name of charity.. We Solve Problems CIO Registration Charity Number: 1171037 The correspondence address is.. Delmon House 36-38 Church Road Burgess Hill West Sussex RH159AE The bankers are,. Unity Trust Bank 9 Brindley Place Birmingham BI 2HB The accountants are". Sigma Partners Delmon House 36-38 Church Road Burgess Hill West Sussex RH159AE Our Trustees are: Amir Aliev Elena Boguslavskaya Vassiliy Filippov Our General Manager: Ignat Fialkovskiy
We Solve Problems CIO Statement of Trustees responsibilities in respect of the Trustee annual report and the financial statements Under charity law, the Trustees are responsible for preparing the annual report and the financial statements for each financial year which show o true and fair view of the financial performance and position of the charity. In prepartng these financiol statements, generally accepted accounting practice entails that the trustees: select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently; make judgments and estimates that are reasonable and prudent; state whether the recommendations of the Statement of Recommended Practice have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; state whether the financial statements comply with the trust deed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements,. prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue its activities. The Trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records, sufficient to disclose at any time, with reasonable accuracy, the financial position of the charity at that time, and to enable the trustees to ensure that, where any statements of accounts are prepared by the Trustees under section 132(1 l of the Charities Act 2011, those statements of accounts comply with the requirements of regulations under that provision. The Trustees have general responsibility for taking such steps as are reasonably open to the Trustees to safeguard the assets of the charity and to prevent and detect fraud and other irregularities. Signed on behalf of the Trustees: Amir Aliev (Chairl 10
We Solve Problems CIO Independent Examiners, Report to the Trustees of We Solve Problems I report on the accounts of the Charity for the period ended 30 April 2024 whlch are set out on pages 12 to 16. Res ective Re5 onsibilities of the Trustee5 and Examiner The trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The trustees consider that an audit Is not required for this year under section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 (the 2011 Act} and that an independent examination is needed. It is my responsibility to: examine the accounts under section 145 of the 2011 Act; to follow the procedures laid down in the General Directions given by the Charity Commission; and to state whether particular matters have come to my attenlion. Basis of Inde endent Examiners, Re ort My examination was carried out in accordance with the General Directions given by the Charity Commission, An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the Charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and the seeking of explanatlons from you as trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required In an audit and, consequently, no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a 'true and fair view and the report is limited to those matters set out In the statement below. Inde endent Examiners, Statement In connection with my examlnatlon, no matter ha5 come to my attention: (11 which give5 me reasonable cause to belleve that, in any material respect, the requirements.. to keep accounting records in accordance with s.130 of the Charities Act 2011; and to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and to comply with the accounting requirements of the Charities Act have not been met: or 121 to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the account5 to be reached. ("{ . Name of principal: S P Lea Name of firm.. Sigma Partners Relevant profe55ional qualification or body: ACCA Address: Delmon House 36- 38 Church Road Burgess Hill West Sussex RH15 9AE Date: IG/.,I 11
WE SOLVE PROBLEMS STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES For the year ended 30 April 2024 Including summary income and expenditure account Unrestricted Endowment Total Funds Funds 2024 2023 Note Incoming Resources Donations Tutoring Fees Receivable 126,530 27,086 0 126,530 27,086 77,744 6,990 Total Incoming Resources 153,616 0 153,616 84,734 Resources Expended Charitable Expenditure Management and Administration 80,216 41,758 80,216 0 41,758 32,285 32,294 Total Resources Expended 121,974 0 121,974 64,579 Net movement In funds for the year 31,642 31,642 20,155 Total Funds brought forward 27,097 0 27,097 6,942 Total Funds carried forward 58,739 58,739 27,097 There were no recognised gains or losses for 2024 or 2023 other than those included in the statement of Financial Activities. 12
WE SOLVE PROBLEMS BALANCE SHEET As at 30 April 2024 Unrestricted Endowment Funds Funds Total 2024 2023 Note Flxed Assets Website Computer Equipment 8,382 269 8.651 8,382 269 8,651 7,082 14 7,096 Current Assets Stock of Prizes Tax Refund due Paypal Cash at Bank - current account 350 41,750 642 11,614 54,356 350 41,750 642 11.614 54,356 175 16,750 4,512 21,437 Current Liabilities Creditors and Accruals 4,268 4,268 1,436 Net Current Asset8 50,088 50,088 20,001 Total Net Assets 58,739 58,739 27,097 Funds 58,739 58,739 27,097 The charitable company is entitled to an exemption from audit under section 477 of the Companies Act 2006 for the year ended 30th April 2024. The members have not required the charitable company to obtain an audit of its accounls for the year ended 30th April 2024 in accordance with section 476 Companies Act 2006. Approved by the Trustees on . 031od /202r and signed on their behalf. AAliev-T stee 13
WE SOLVE PROBLEMS Notes to the 3ccounls For the year ended 30 Aprll 2024 Publlc Benefit Entlty We Sofve Problerns is constituted as a Charitable InccKFAiralad Orgarisalion 8nd r8gist8r In the United Kingdom. It is a Public Benefil Enlity. Accounting Polici Basis of preparatlon of accounts The financial staLements are prepared und•r Ihe historirAI cosl convenfjon ond In 8cwdan¢e th thg Chadtable SORP Flnancial Rawrtlng Standard 102. Going Concèrn Th8 Irust88s considgr that Gharity %ill b8 a golrKJ conc8rn for a parknfj of 8t18asl tW81vè monlhs follohing Ihe (Jal& ol the awlll re. Incomo Dcm81ions are acGounled lor iecsivod by th* tharfly. 2.4 Resou9$ Expend•d Expendllure Is Includod on an a¢rJu81s b8sIs. Managen)8nt and administration cornprise5 cc¢ts lor the nJnnlng ol Ihg charity ilsell a8 an oiganisation. Fund Accountlng Detall8 ol the nature end pu058 of e8ch lund is s•1 In Note 9. Flx•d Assets Fixed assets are held al hl8torl¢81 rml198s 8morti8811on, tjepwabon and Impaimenl provlslons. AmortlsBllon Is chBrg•d on the Webslt8 over a P8riL•J of 5 yaars. D8praclalion is chargad on Compul¢r Equipmenl al a rale 0133% on t1. Charltable Expgndltura Charil4trAe expendlture Is CompSed ol- 2024 2023 Contraclor5 prov¢ding lullion Events. prfzes & compeiitlon cos18 8(KJks & educBllonal materials Vonve Hlre & Calerlng FurdrBlslng asslstanc& Problems Dal8bBse 71,956 2,871 27,962 3,169 1,154 1,410 3,036 80.218 32,28b M•noggm•nt and Adrnlnlstrntlon Man8gernenl end admlnl$lr8llon exp&n8es are eomprlsed of: 2024 2023 Adminlslrativa Salaries Empk)yaVs Nl Panslon Costs Trav81 Prlnl, Posl & Sladonery Computer Costs Advertising, Markeling & Promolion81 k4at&rials Sundri6s Insuranc8 Account2ncy Legal & Professlonal Fees Bank Charg85 Arnortisation - Websile D8pre¢lallon- c(Pu1&r Equlpment 28.750 19,231 875 2.833 1.334 518 437 1,807 1.222 1,886 250 2.326 2,019 2,858 118 1,769 4go 92 2.538 147 14
WE SOLVE PROBLEMS Notés to tha accounls For the year &nded 30 Aprtl 2024 staff Costs and Trusteès R•mun•ratlon No remvnerBllon was paSd lo the twslees in Ihe y, any trusteos, expenses reimbursed. All dvuès vAr8 k*rformad by the Irustèas Ih8fflsefv8s. 1th on8 memb8rof 3drninistratW6 slaff. No emrAoyea recebved remunerallon In ex¢688 of £50.0. Intanglblo Flxod A$88ts 2024 Wabslte A8 at 01.05.2023 8.851 AddltiLYbS 3,838 As al 30.04.2024 Amo Isa lon A8 8101.05.2023 1,769 Chargè lor Yéar 2,538 As Al 30,04.2024 NBV Ag 0130.04.2024 As o130.04.2023 Flx•d A8•al$ X124 Computar Equlpmènt As 8101.05.2023 1A84 AddStsons 402 As al 30.04.2024 De recAB As a101.05.2023 1.470 Charge l(x Year 147 As al 30.04.2024 N8V As al 30.04.2024 AB a130.04.2023 14 Crèdltor8 and Accrual$ 2024 2023 Accjuals Expenses due Wag8s dua PAYE dua Pensions due 1,621 678 2.105 403 139 -791 109 15
WE 80LVE PROBLEMS Notes to th• accounts For the ar ended 30 April 2024 Funds Unrastricted funds compdse those fvnds Ihe Irusiaes ¥e free lo us8 in aca)rdanca with the charilabl6 objectives. io Rèlatèd party transactlons DonatKJn5 of £100.CQO hav8 been rKeivad in th8 year from A Aliev. a Irusiéè of thè charfly12023 - £52.OLKJI. No donallon5 have been re¢eivwJ *) th6 ar Irom V FNW. a Irusl¢o of the tharfly (2023- £10.0001. 16