Number Champions Annual Report and Accounts Year to 31 July 2021 1 ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS **For the year to 31 July 2021** Number Champions Annual Report and Accounts Year to 31 July 2021 2 ## **Contents** Chair’s Report ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... **3** Trustees’ Report ................................................................................................................................................................................................................. **4** Governance ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................. **8** Public Benefit Statement .............................................................................................................................................................................................. **9** Disadvantage and Diversity ...................................................................................................................................................................................... **9** Risk Management .......................................................................................................................................................................................................... **10** Trustees’ Responsibility Statement ................................................................................................................................................................. **10** Accounts for the Year Ended 31 July 2021 ................................................................................................................................................... **11** Notes to the Financial Statements ................................................................................................................................................................... **12** Thank you and your team for the work that you did do with our pupils. I am sure that the impact they had will be with those children throughout their schooling. ## **Maths Lead, Barnet, 2021** V- has made significant progress in maths this year and shows increased confidence in the subject. She has worked incredibly hard and reports that her sessions with M- were “really fun”. **Teacher, Haringey, 2021** Number Champions Annual Report and Accounts Year to 31 July 2021 3 ## **Chair’s Report** Schools have worked heroically under immense difficulty this year to support their students. However, as a result of the disruptions from Covid-19, primary school children have fallen behind in their learning, with those from disadvantaged backgrounds being worst impacted. Our work is, therefore, all the more important. Despite the pandemic, our volunteers were able to be in eight schools. This number would have been much higher, but a majority of schools wanting to partner with us decided not to have any non-staff members on their premises this year. Due to lockdowns and to classes having to self-isolate, volunteers provided fewer sessions than normal. Nevertheless, we received very positive evaluations and feedback, and I am particularly pleased to report that all of our eight partner schools have chosen to work with us again in the coming school year. As documented in the trustees’ report below, the charity made substantial further progress during the year in developing and strengthening its infrastructure. As we come out of the worst of the pandemic, we are well placed to resume our growth both in geographical reach and in the number of children we support. From September 2021, we will be partnering with a total of 24 schools across eight North and Central London boroughs. We will have over 70 volunteers in schools supporting well over 200 children. Our vision remains ‘to be in 1,000 schools in 2031’ and to create sustained change at a national level for primary school children learning maths. Thanks to the resilience shown by all of our volunteers through the pandemic, we believe we remain on track to fulfil this vision. ## Bernard Manson ## **Bernard Manson** , Chair Number Champions Annual Report and Accounts Year to 31 July 2021 4 ## **Trustees’ Report** ## **What we do** The charity was established in July 2018 to help transform the lives of primary school children who struggle with numeracy or lack confidence in maths. Our trained In-school Volunteers use games and other creative activities in one-to-one sessions with Year 2 and 3 children (aged six to eight) to enable them to overcome the ‘maths barrier’. Intervention at an early stage puts these young children back on track to achieve their full life potential, in a world where some fluency with maths and numbers is such an essential building block. Each session is 20-30 minutes at least weekly for, in principle, the full school year. Sessions are in school time, but outside the classroom. Former teachers, volunteering with us as mentors, train and support these In-school Volunteers and have helped us to develop dedicated resources for the volunteers to use with the children. We also have a former head teacher as our Safeguarding Officer. The school decides which children need help. Although this is based solely on maths achievement, it is no surprise that a very large proportion of the children we work with are from disadvantaged backgrounds, as measured by Pupil Premium. Research shows that disadvantaged children are over nine months behind in numeracy at the end of primary school and that this gap has widened during the pandemic – so our work is now even more vital. Other volunteers have supported us in specific areas such as safeguarding, IT, and marketing to schools. ## We are the first charity systematically supporting young children with maths. According to the teachers and educational organisations we have consulted, we are the first charity systematically supporting young children with maths. ## **Trustees’ update for the year** Despite the continuance of the pandemic, we have much that is positive to report for this year, both with regard to supporting children and to building the capacity of the charity. As it became clear that the pandemic would be prolonged, we assessed the feasibility of offering an online programme. However, we concluded that, given the young age of the children we support, remote working could not replicate the very rich and safe learning experience we provide in school where we use physical teaching aids and games. Accordingly, we have continued solely working in person. Because of the pandemic, many schools did not allow non-staff members on their premises this year. We are delighted that we were nevertheless welcomed into eight schools and thus able to continue to deliver our support to children. Currently, our activities are carried out entirely by volunteers, with the chair acting as chief executive and reporting to the board of trustees in this role. Our three main types of volunteer are: - **In-school Volunteers** – trained to work in schools one-to-one with children to deliver our intervention - **Mentors** – experienced primary school teachers who provide training and personal support to the volunteers and who observe them working with the children and provide feedback We do love Number Champions and want to continue with it. ## **Head Teacher, Islington, 2021** - **Area Leaders** – these assist at an organisational level to recruit volunteers and to manage the relationship with schools. Number Champions Annual Report and Accounts Year to 31 July 2021 5 We carried out periodic risk assessments on Covid, in order to ensure that our volunteers went into schools only when we believed that the environment would be safe, as far as was reasonably practical – and also only if the volunteers themselves felt comfortable going into the school. This meant both that we restricted our volunteers going into school for longer than the Government’s January to March lockdown, and that we required our volunteers and partner schools to comply with our ‘Covid-19 Protocol’ which specified precautions in line with Government advice. There is more information on this under ‘Risk Management’ on page 10. Apart from our volunteers’ work in schools, almost all our other activities this year have been carried out remotely. ## **Thank You to Our Volunteers** The trustees wish to thank all of our many volunteers. By generously giving of your time and skills to work enthusiastically with individual children or to help behind the scenes, you have made the work of Number Champions possible. We are especially grateful to our In-school Volunteers this year for going into schools during the pandemic. ## **Volunteers** ## **In-school Volunteers** This year we had about 29 In-school Volunteers, the majority of whom are volunteering again with us in 2021-22. Alongside them, several volunteers from 2019-20 who were not in schools this year will restart volunteering in September. In addition, we have recruited nearly 50 new In-School Volunteers for school year 2021-22 and we will train these over August and September. We will be supporting well over 200 children in 2021-22. As a result, we will be able to go from supporting about 85 children this year to supporting well over 200 children in 2021-22. ## **Mentors** We have now recruited 11 Mentors, and we plan to grow the team further. The Mentors have reviewed and developed our training materials, so that we will be able to deliver improved and standardised training this summer. We will have the capacity to repeat this standardised training as required going forwards. ## **Area Leaders** We now have a team of 7 Area Leaders. This means we have an Area Leader in all but one of the boroughs in which we will operate in 2021-22 – and we are continuing to recruit. The Area Leaders have now taken on responsibility for – and improved many aspects of – managing our relationships with schools and volunteers. Thank you to the amazing volunteers who come to our school and all schools. The children really benefit from your time and input! ## **Drayton Park School, Islington, on Instagram, December 2020** The girls say that they have enjoyed all of the maths that you have done with them and that it has boosted their maths and they love how you have taught them in fun ways. Thanks again for all of your help and enthusiasm. You’ve helped them a lot. ## **Haringey school’s feedback to volunteer, 2021** Number Champions Annual Report and Accounts Year to 31 July 2021 6 ## **Results** In previous years we have reported quantitative analysis of the impact of our intervention. However, for a number of reasons, we feel it is not appropriate to do so this year, despite having received positive evaluations on the progress of ‘our’ children relative to their peers. Firstly, due to lockdowns and to whole classes having to self-isolate, volunteers were able to see each child for a maximum of 14 sessions, whereas in a normal year they would expect to deliver a minimum of 24 sessions. Secondly, children’s education and home life were so disrupted through the year that there would have been many other factors impacting their progress in maths. Our underlying scheme is robust. The positive evaluations, very encouraging qualitative feedback from teachers and schools, and the fact that all eight of our partner schools ‘voted with their feet’ to continue to work with us in 2021-22, are evidence that our underlying scheme is robust. N-‘s attainment has measurably improved, as seen by his test scores. His mental arithmetic is improving, especially adding and counting in 2s, 5s and 10s. He is also a lot more willing to engage in maths lessons and seems to be enjoying maths a lot more than at the start of the year. ## **Teacher, Islington, 2021** S- has certainly benefited from having one-to-one help in maths. She has enjoyed the sessions and they have given her a “boost”. She is quite positive about her maths and is more willing to give things a go during class discussions. ## **Teacher, Haringey, 2021** L- managed to achieve the expected level in a recent maths test. He is much more confident, particularly when using written methods for the four operations. I want to thank C- for all her hard work. She developed good relationships with all the children she worked with and was always so friendly and organised. C- asked me if there were any particular gaps in learning which she could work on. This enabled her to help the children make good progress. **Teacher, Camden, 2021** Number Champions Annual Report and Accounts Year to 31 July 2021 7 ## **Fundraising** In the first two years of the charity, we were trialling our work in schools and we did not feel justified in charging a fee. Following the success of our trial, we have – as planned – started charging schools this year. We are pleased that schools have been willing to pay our fee. This demonstrates the value they see in our scheme and also gives us a solid basis for financial planning. In the longer term, we aim to raise about a third of our income from fees to schools and the remaining two thirds from donations. We have submitted a steady stream of grant applications with some succeeding and some still in the pipeline. From the beginning of the pandemic until the vaccine roll-out we could not make firm plans, and so we could not approach funders for donations. Since the start of this calendar year we have submitted a steady stream of grant applications with some succeeding and some still in the pipeline. We are grateful to all the organisations which have given us grants this year. Their funding has supported our expenditure over the past 12 months and also increased our reserves – something which we will need for financial resilience in the future. A major increase in scale will require the support of professional staff, in due course to include a paid chief executive. However, the bulk of the activities of the charity and, in particular, its provision of support in schools, will always be provided by volunteers. ## **Thank You to Our Donors** We thank everyone who has made a donation this year to support our work. This includes The Horners Charity, the Peter Storrs Foundation, Young Barnet Foundation, and also various individuals. The economic position of state schools means that we are likely always to need to raise the majority of our funding from donors, and we are grateful to the growing number of organisations and individuals whose generous support is helping us to build our capacity to operate and to help children. ## **Other activities in the year** While the pandemic limited our access to schools, we were able to put effort into several strategic initiatives which will strengthen the charity in the medium-to-long term. Key projects included: **Volunteer Experience Review** – Anna Kasmir, an independent charity consultant acting pro bono, led this project aimed at ensuring that our volunteers had a meaningful, enjoyable, and rewarding experience. She analysed our organisational structure, volunteer role definitions, recruitment, training, induction, support, and management. In response to her recommendations we have implemented various improvements. For example, we have adopted a ‘safe recruitment’ policy which we have used in our recruitment of new volunteers since May this year. This improves our safeguarding framework and will support our growth in scale over the coming years. **Upgrade to information infrastructure** – this aims to provide a scalable and secure solution for the charity’s need to manage data on schools, volunteers, and children. This is a necessary foundation for us to meet our growth objectives for at least three years. It involves documenting process and data requirements, selecting a data and systems architecture, and migrating administration from spreadsheets on a single PC to a structured database on the cloud. We are nearing the end of the design phase, and implementation is scheduled for January 2022. Number Champions Annual Report and Accounts Year to 31 July 2021 8 The project is being managed by volunteers with experience at a senior level in process design and IT, and we are fortunate that the work is being done to a professional standard appropriate for a much larger organisation. ## Our Mentors have done extensive work to develop and standardise training. As we gain experience, we continue to refine how we deliver support to children. For example, we have put in place mechanisms to improve communication between teachers and our In-school Volunteers, and our Mentors have done extensive work to develop and standardise training. ## **Strategy** We have demonstrated the organisational and financial capacity to weather the extended disruption caused by the pandemic over the last 18 months, and the long-term strategy of the charity remains intact. ## In September 2021, we will be partnering with 24 schools to support well over 200 children. We have agreements in place to partner with 24 schools from September 2021 and to support well over 200 children; this marks a resumption of our planned growth interrupted by the pandemic. We will continue to seek funding; this will enable us to employ a part-time coordinator to support our growth beyond 24 schools. Our geographical strategy is to expand across London over the next four years, before starting to build a presence nationally. We will be active in eight boroughs in both North and Central London in school year 2021-22, and we plan to expand this range steadily in the coming years. In the medium term we are continuing to rely on an end-of-year evaluation from teachers to evidence the positive impact of our programme, but once we achieve a scale of working with over 500 children we will look to have a rigorous independent statistical review. This will be an important step towards raising our profile with schools, government, and funders. Academics and educational organisations have advised us on structuring our activities so that we are well-placed for such an evaluation. ## **Governance** Under its constitution, the charity is run by a board of trustees which meets about every six weeks. (Brief trustee biographies are published on our website.) In addition to the board’s strategic role, at each meeting it reviews the operations of the charity and, as necessary, initiates corrective action. The board itself is responsible for recruitment of trustees, using a wide search to find candidates who bring independence and necessary skills. ## **Trustees who served during the year** ## **Bernard Manson** Elected 15 July 2018 Re-elected from 10 June 2020 to 10 June 2024 ## **Lisa Baglin** Elected from 10 February 2019 to 10 February 2022 **Ron Finlay** Elected from 12 May 2019 to 12 May 2023 ## **Sarah Manson** Elected 15 July 2018 Re-elected from 10 June 2020 to 10 June 2024 ## **Gelena Rozenberg** Elected from 10 February 2019 to 10 August 2022 ## **Stephanie Sanchez Kuong** Elected from 10 February 2019 to 10 February 2023 ## **Angela Smith-Morgan** Elected from 17 February 2021 to 7 May 2021 No trustee received any remuneration or any repayment of expenses in the year. We thank Angela Smith Morgan for joining as a trustee and regret her early departure following her unexpectedly being headhunted for a demanding full-time role as a charity CEO. In her short time as a trustee she brought valuable insights from her professional experience in the charity sector. Number Champions Annual Report and Accounts Year to 31 July 2021 9 ## **Public Benefit Statement** The charity’s main objective is ‘assisting primary school children in acquiring and consolidating basic mathematical skills’. Since our first year, we have focused our operational objective on ‘supporting children in state primary schools in Years 2 and 3 (six to eight-year-olds) who have fallen behind in maths’. During the year, the charity worked with a total of about 85 children in Years 2 and 3 in eight state schools in North London. The children were selected by their class teachers as having fallen behind the level of attainment in mathematics specified for their age under the National Curriculum. The pandemic meant that we worked in schools only in November and December 2020 and in April to July 2021. Also, some nine schools which wanted to partner with us could not do so because they restricted non-staff members being on their premises during the pandemic. ## ...a positive impact on overall educational and life chances. The benefit to the children we worked with was an improvement in their confidence and skills in maths, as evidenced by independent evaluation by their class teacher. We and the schools believe that this will also improve their chances of successfully acquiring appropriate maths skills in future, and that it should have a positive impact on their overall educational and life chances. The trustees have paid due attention to the Charity Commission guidance on public benefit when reviewing the charity’s objectives and activities. A- loved the sessions with J- and showed an improvement in his maths tests. I noticed a particular improvement in his mental calculation skills. J- kept me informed about the sessions and linked to learning in class. A– finds it difficult to concentrate on tasks and I think J- did a great job. ## **Teacher, Camden, 2021** ## **Disadvantage and Diversity** We use ‘pupil premium’ as a readily accessible measure to identify disadvantaged children. The average pupil premium percentage across our partner schools was 31.8%, compared with 27.8% for all London state-funded primary schools. Discussion with schools indicates that we work with a much higher percentage of students with pupil premium than each school’s average, but we have not yet carried out a formal survey. The ethnic mix across our partner schools broadly matches the average mix across all London schools. When we reach sufficient scale, we will obtain statistics of the actual children we support rather than assuming that they match their schools’. Number Champions Annual Report and Accounts Year to 31 July 2021 10 ## **Risk Management** The Trustees have given consideration to the major risks to which the charity is exposed and satisfied themselves that systems or procedures are established in order to manage those risks. Under our Risk Management Policy Framework, the charity’s overall goal is to take steps to give reasonable assurance that it can achieve its operational and strategic goals, even if adverse events occur. The Framework creates a rolling process whereby the trustees establish and review a risk register of potential events which could impact delivery of the charity’s objectives. For each risk, they assess and classify it according to its severity and likelihood, and put in place appropriate controls. This process is reviewed annually by the board to ensure that it is working effectively. There is also an item on risk at each board meeting to review any risk identified as having emerged or altered due to changing circumstances. Regarding the pandemic in particular, we have made repeated risk assessments of having our volunteers in schools, and we developed a detailed Covid-19 Protocol defining the steps they and the schools should take to protect their safety. Because schools were closed during the summer term of 2019-20, we were not able to discuss arrangements with them until September 2020. In the event we were able to work actively with eight schools. In July 2021, government public health instructions to schools and to the public became far less directive. However, we have kept our Covid-19 Protocol in place and we will carry out a risk assessment of the situation at the start of September and take appropriate action. This will take into account both the underlying state of infections in the community and the health and safety stance of our partner schools. As before, our goal will be to endeavour to ensure that the environment in which we ask our volunteers to work is safe, as far as is reasonably practical. We also want our volunteers to go into schools only when they are comfortable doing so. Given the uncertainties as to the progress of the pandemic, we are aware that we may again have to stop and restart our work in schools. As regards other risks arising from the pandemic, our financial risk management means that we had not committed to any unfunded expenditure, and our reserves and frugality give us financial viability for the medium term regardless of restrictions on our operations. ## **Trustees’ responsibility statement** The Trustees are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and regulations. The Trustees have elected to prepare the financial statements on a receipts and payments basis. Number Champions Annual Report and Accounts Year to 31 July 2021 11 ## **Statement of Financial Activities for the Year Ended 31 July 2021** **Statement of Income and Expenditure for the Year Ended 31 July 2021** ||_Notes_|2020-21|2019-20| |---|---|---|---| |||£|£| |**Total incoming resources**|_1, 2, 3_|7,176|4,287| |Resources expended on:|||| |Website development and running||597|1,466| |Teaching materials|_4_|1,012|357| |Other charitable activities||1,227|606| |**Total expenditure**||2,836|2,429| |**Net incoming resources**||4,340|1,858| |**Movement in funds**||4,340|1,858| |**Funds carried forward**|_5_|12,276|7,936| ## **Statement of Assets and Liabilities at 31 July 2021** ||_Notes_|2020-21|2019-20| |---|---|---|---| |||£|£| |**Current Assets**|||| |Cash at bank||12,276|7,936| |**Liabilities**|||| |Creditors||0|0| |**Net Current Assets**||12,276|7,936| The notes on page 12 form part of these financial statements. These financial statements together with the Trustees’ report on pages 3 to 10 are authorised for issue on 9 September 2021 by the board of trustees, and signed on their behalf. ## Bernard Manson **Bernard Manson** , Chair Number Champions Annual Report and Accounts Year to 31 July 2021 12 ## **Accounts – Notes to the Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31 July 2021** ## **1. Accounting Policies** ## a) Basis of accounting The accounts are prepared on a receipts and payments basis, in accordance with applicable accounting standards and law. This option is available to the charity as it is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) with income less than £250,000. Under the exemption available to CIOs with income under £25,000, the board of trustees has chosen not to have either an independent examination of the accounts or an audit. Number Champions meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102: ‘An entity whose primary objective is to provide goods or services for the general public, community or social benefit and where any equity is provided with a view to supporting the entity’s primary objectives rather than with a view to providing a financial return to equity providers, shareholders or members’. - b) Going concern basis The Trustees have ascertained that the charity’s current cash balance is adequate to pay all its budgeted expenses to 31 July 2022, and are therefore of the view that the charity is a going concern. ## c) Financial instruments The charity has no financial instruments. ## d) VAT The charity is not registered for VAT, and it records VAT on expenditure as an expense. ## e) Employees The charity has no employees. ## f) Restricted funds £240 of the income in the year was restricted to training on safeguarding and was spent on this. The comparative figure for 2020 was £500 of income being restricted to purchase of educational materials for training and for use by volunteers in schools. The full £500 was carried forward and spent for these purposes in 2020-21. No restricted funds were carried forward at July 2021. - g) Legal Status Number Champions is a CIO whose registered address is 6 Totnes Walk, London N2 0AD. ## **2. Income** Of the income of £7,176, £1,746 is fees from schools and £5,430 is from donations. ## **3. Expenditure On Raising Income** There was £36 expenditure on raising income. ## **4. Teaching Materials** The increase in expense on teaching materials in 2020-21 relates to the purchase of equipment to be used to train new volunteers at the start of 2021-22 and materials for the volunteers to use in schools. ## **5. Reserves Policy** The charity seeks to build reserves over a number of years to 100% of annual staff costs. This is to give it resilience against future fluctuations in income. Until the charity has paid staff, the reserves policy is to minimise expenditure so as to maximise reserves at the end of the period, in order to allow continued operation even if there is a short-term reduction in income. ## **6. Payments to Trustees** There were no payments or other benefits to trustees or connected persons. ## **7. Guarantees and Charges** As required by the Charities Incorporated Organisations (General) Regulations 2012, this note states that the CIO has given no guarantees and has no outstanding debt secured by any charge. It is great that the children get extra time out of class to do Maths. They really enjoy the activities. ## **Drayton Park School, Islington, 2021** Number Champions Annual Report and Accounts Year to 31 July 2021 13 ## **www.numberchampions.org.uk @NumberChampions** Number Champions Charitable Incorporated Organisation[•] Registered Charity No. 1180340 (England and Wales) Registered address: 6 Totnes Walk, London N2 0AD © Number Champions 2021 Report design: 1st Impression Creative Ltd[•] www.1st-impression.org _Photographs are from stock libraries_