Number Champions ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS For the year to 31 July 2023
CONTENTS
Chair’s Report ................................................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Head of Operations Report ..................................................................................................................................................................4 Trustees’ Report .............................................................................................................................................................................................5 What we do ................................................................................................................................................................................................5 Impact analysis ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 6 How we work.............................................................................................................................................................................................8 How we support ourselves financially .................................................................................................................................8 Other activities in the year ............................................................................................................................................................9 Strategy .........................................................................................................................................................................................................9 Value for money ..................................................................................................................................................................................10 Governance ..............................................................................................................................................................................................10 Theory of change .................................................................................................................................................................................11 Public benefit statement .................................................................................................................................................................11 Disadvantage and diversity ....................................................................................................................................................... 12 Risk management .............................................................................................................................................................................. 12 Trustees’ responsibility statement ........................................................................................................................................ 12 Accounts for the year ended 31 July 2023 .............................................................................................................................13 Independent Examiner’s report ................................................................................................................................................13 Statement of financial activities ............................................................................................................................................. 14 Notes to the financial statements ......................................................................................................................................... 15
Quotes about children and about our volunteers are from teachers’ comments on the impact of our intervention this year. They have been anonymised, giving only the name of the borough in which the school is located.
“It has been amazing to watch A- grow in confidence during her maths lessons. When asked to explain different maths problems, she would give her explanation then share with the class that she had learnt that at Number Champions.”
Wandsworth
Number Champions Annual Report and Accounts for the Year to 31 July 2023
2
CHAIR’S REPORT
Number Champions has helped over 250 children this year to improve their skills and grow their confidence in maths. About 100 In-School Volunteers have run weekly one-to-one sessions in 29 primary schools across London, with the ultimate goal of helping children achieve their educational potential.
I am delighted that teachers’ evaluations continue to show strong evidence of the benefits of our intervention.
The charity has reached an important milestone with the permanent appointment of Lorraine Gerrard as our Head of Operations; this is a first step towards making the charity sustainable when the founding trustees move on.
Lorraine’s report below gives a flavour of her huge contribution this year.
There were two exciting, and very unexpected, recognitions of the work of Number Champions this year. In March, the Prime Minister’s Office presented us with its ‘Points of Light’ award[1] . This recognises ‘people who are making a change in their community’, which is an excellent description of our volunteers. Then in May, I was recognised as a ‘Coronation Champion’[2] on behalf of the charity, in a scheme managed by the Royal Voluntary Society in honour of the King’s and Queen’s service to the country. We very much appreciate these validations of the work of Number Champions and its volunteers.
We look forward to our continued steady expansion across London in the coming years, so as to improve the educational and life chances of a growing number of children.
Bernard Manson , Chair
“This scheme has increased the children’s confidence and love of maths and provided them with a ‘can do’ attitude.”
Barnet
“J-’s confidence and recall of basic number facts has improved greatly this year due to the variety of activities he has taken part in on the Number Champions programme.”
Islington
1 https://www.pointsoflight.gov.uk/number-champions/
2https://www.royalvoluntaryservice.org.uk/volunteering/coronation-champions-awards/
Number Champions Annual Report and Accounts for the Year to 31 July 2023
3
HEAD OF OPERATIONS REPORT
In September, when I joined Number Champions as its first staff member, I was already well acquainted with the charity through being an In-School Volunteer for the two previous years. I thus knew directly how Number Champions was already helping children, and I was excited by the opportunity to manage its operations and to help drive its development.
This year I have taken responsibility for most of the operational activity previously done by trustees, and I have also become the ‘Face of Number Champions’ to schools and volunteers.
A focus this year has been exploring how we can maintain and improve the quality of our intervention. Training is a key enabler for giving volunteers the tools they need for their sessions with children, and we have made changes to create better-targeted training for new volunteers in September. We have expanded the resources on our website and created more tools to help volunteers manage their sessions. We have also implemented half-termly online interactive sessions for our volunteers, where an experienced teacher gives a short talk on a relevant issue or covers how to teach parts of the curriculum, followed by a Q&A. These sessions have been popular with volunteers.
I had the opportunity over the year to attend an in-depth course on evaluating impact, and I have applied the learning to improve our evaluation process. The data from our partner schools has shown the positive impact of our intervention, and it is great to see how Number Champions can make a real difference.
A second part-time staff member is due to join in September 2023, and this should allow us to support more children while taking on additional responsibilities from trustees, thus continuing our longer-term transition to sustainability.
I have thoroughly enjoyed my first professional year with Number Champions, and I look forward to contributing to the charity’s development going forward.
Lorraine Gerrard , Head of Operations
Number Champions Annual Report and Accounts for the Year to 31 July 2023
4
TRUSTEES’ REPORT
What we do
The charity was established in 2018 to help transform the lives of state primary school children who struggle with numeracy or lack confidence in maths.
Our trained volunteers use games and other creative activities in one-to-one sessions with Year 2 and Year 3 children (aged six to eight) to enable them to overcome the ‘maths barrier’.
Early intervention can put these young children back on track to achieve their life potential, in a world where some fluency with maths and numbers is an essential building block.
Each session is 25 or 30 minutes, with a volunteer seeing each child weekly for, in principle, the full school year. Sessions are in school time, but outside the classroom.
Former and current teachers, volunteering with us as ‘Mentors’, train and support these In-School Volunteers and help us to develop dedicated resources for them 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 on the level of maths attainment, it is no surprise that schools report this year that 62% of the children we work with are from disadvantaged backgrounds. This reflects research showing that, historically, disadvantaged children are over nine months behind in numeracy at the end of primary school and that this gap widened during the pandemic.
“It’s fantastic having someone come and work one-to-one with those children that need it. J- was always enthusiastic and loved working with P-.”
Hammersmith and Fulham
Number Champions Annual Report and Accounts for the Year to 31 July 2023
5
Impact analysis
At the end of the school year, we asked teachers to evaluate the progress of the children our volunteers worked with. We have expanded our survey from previous years, so that we now ask teachers to evaluate across a range of metrics.
In particular, we gave five statements and asked the teacher to say whether they ‘strongly agreed’, ‘agreed’, ‘disagreed’, or could not say.
The percentage of teachers answering ‘strongly agreed’ or ‘agreed’ for each statement were:
----- Start of picture text -----
Statement Teachers answering ‘strongly agree’ or ‘agree’
The child enjoys maths more than they did 85%
The child's confidence in maths has improved 86%
The child is more engaged in maths lessons 79%
The child is less anxious about maths 73%
The child's maths skills have improved 83%
----- End of picture text -----
The breakout of these figures is:
[ Strongly agree ][ Agree ][ Disagree ][ Don’t know]
----- Start of picture text -----
12.6% 8.4%
5.6%
2.1%
28.0%
37.8%
Enjoys maths Confidence
in maths has
more than
improved
they did
57.3%
48.3%
16.1% 23.1%
4.9% 35.7% 29.4%
More Less
engaged 3.5% anxious
in maths about
lessons maths
44.1%
43.3%
14.0%
3.5% 26.6%
Maths
skills have
improved
55.9%
----- End of picture text -----
Number Champions Annual Report and Accounts for the Year to 31 July 2023
6
We also asked: ‘On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend Number Champions to a colleague or to another school?’ and received an average score of 8.2.
----- Start of picture text -----
10 36%
8-9 36%
6-7 19%
4-5 6%
2-3 3%
0-1 0%
----- End of picture text -----
“I have had multiple children working with the volunteers and all of them have made massive progress. Some children are still WTS [working towards the expected standard] but the gap in their knowledge has narrowed significantly.”
----- Start of picture text -----
Brent
----- End of picture text -----
----- Start of picture text -----
“The scheme is fantastic and I hope to continue working with Number Champions in
the future.”
----- End of picture text -----
----- Start of picture text -----
Haringey
----- End of picture text -----
Number Champions Annual Report and Accounts for the Year to 31 July 2023
7
How we work
We partnered with 26 schools from the start of this school year, across 12 London boroughs. Employing a Head of Operations gave us the capacity to have a second school recruitment round in January, bringing us to 29 partner schools. Just over 100 In-School Volunteers were active during the year, supporting over 250 children.
We plan to grow our staff team over the next few years to take on all operational and management tasks currently performed by trustees. However, the core activity of the charity of supporting individual children will continue to be delivered by volunteers.
We continue to refine our operating model as we gain experience.
Thank you to volunteers
The trustees and the Head of Operations thank all our many volunteers for generously giving of your time, skills, and enthusiasm, whether in school or behind the scenes, to help the ‘Number Champions children’.
How we support ourselves financially
We raise about a quarter of our funding from school fees, with the balance coming from donations.
Thank you to donors
We are grateful to the growing numbers of organisations and individuals whose generous support has enabled us to help children and to build our capacity for the future.”
We have received donations or commitments this year from the following trusts and charities:
THE HORNERS CHARITY FUND
Robert Gavron Charitable Trust
Number Champions Annual Report and Accounts for the Year to 31 July 2023
8
Other activities in the year
Academic evaluation – The Psychology Department at Queen Mary University (QMU) has defined a project for a PhD student to develop and implement an independent evaluation of the impact of Number Champions’ intervention. QMU is keen to pursue a partnership with Number Champions, and it is applying to multiple funding programmes for a project start in 2024-25.
Strategy
Our strategy continues to be to grow organically over the coming years in order to support more children, to make the charity sustainable , and ultimately to be able to exert influence on education beyond our partner schools.
We will widen our funding sources ; this will enable us to grow our administrative capacity to increase the number of children we support while simultaneously developing and implementing a succession plan for our founder trustees
Our geographical strategy is to expand across London for at least the next three years , before starting to build a presence nationally. In school year 2023-24, we will be active in at least 13 London boroughs both north and south of the Thames, and we plan to expand this range steadily in the coming years.
We use our end-of-year evaluation from teachers as our main evidence of the positive impact of our programme. It is a strategic goal to develop other evaluation techniques and eventually to have a rigorous independent statistical review . Our partnership with QMU is an important first step on this path.
Number Champions Annual Report and Accounts for the Year to 31 July 2023
9
Value for money
Dividing our total expenditure for the year by the equivalent number of children we have supported for the full year gives a cost per child supported of about £119. This is excellent value for money given, for example, the National Tutoring Programme showing a median price over £700 for a similar 15-hour one-to-one intervention. The value to schools is further increased by their paying only about a quarter of our costs, with the balance raised through donations.
Governance
Under our constitution, a board of trustees, meeting about every six weeks, runs the charity. (Brief trustee biographies are published on our website.) The Head of Operations also attends board meetings. 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 10 February 2019 Re-elected from 12 January 2022 to 10 February 2025
Ron Finlay
Elected from 12 May 2019
Re-elected from 26 April 2023 to 12 May 2026
Sarah Manson
Elected 15 July 2018
Re-elected from 10 June 2020 to 10 June 2024
Stephanie Sanchez Kuong
Elected from 10 February 2019
Re-elected from 12 January 2023 to 10 February 2026
Olivia Timbs
Elected from 3 August 2022 to 31 July 2025
No trustee received any remuneration in the year.
- “This child absolutely loves maths now and is totally engaged in lessons, putting up his hand to answer questions in class and even wants to have a go at
challenging questions. He loves going to interventions and has a great rapport with the volunteer.”
Barnet
Number Champions Annual Report and Accounts for the Year to 31 July 2023
10
Theory of change
Led by our Head of Operations, we have developed our theory of change as shown below to encapsulate why we do what we do and the outcomes we seek for children. We use this to explain our mission to our volunteers, partner schools, and funders and as a tool within the charity for focusing our activities. Our current evaluation of impact measures our success in achieving these outcomes at the end of the children’s current school year. We aspire to have a longitudinal study to measure the impact of our intervention at the end of the children’s primary school career.
Context and target group
Many children in school years 2 and 3 have not acquired age-appropriate maths skills
Assumptions
-
Most Year-2 and -3 children who are behind can catch up on relevant skills through an empathetic trained tutor working with them one-to-one
-
An intervention designed by experienced teachers along with training and mentoring for tutors creates high quality support for children
Activities Outcomes pathway (short, medium, long-term)
Impact
Weekly one-to- End of End of Long-term • Poor numeracy one sessions over school year primary school is removed as a school year • Enjoyment • No maths • Attain at least a barrier to between trained in maths anxiety Grade 4 in young people’s volunteer maths • Confidence • Expected level GCSE Maths aspirations tutors and children in maths in KS2 SATS • Comfortable with • Improved using games and creative activities • More engaged in classrooom • Attainment gap reduced between maths as tool in wider contexts educational and life chances maths lessons advantaged and • Functionally • Accelerated disadvantaged literate in maths cohorts progress • Improved maths skills
Public benefit statement
Our main objective is ‘assisting primary school children in acquiring and consolidating basic mathematical skills’. Since our inception, 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, we supported over 250 children. A majority of the children were judged by the schools to be from disadvantaged backgrounds. 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.
Number Champions Annual Report and Accounts for the Year to 31 July 2023
11
Disadvantage and diversity
This year, schools reported that 62% of children we supported came from disadvantaged backgrounds. This is far higher than the proportion of disadvantaged children in the general population, and reflects research showing that disadvantaged children are likely to be materially behind the non-disadvantaged in primary school education.
The gender split of the children was close to 50/50; the difference was not statistically significant.
The ethnic mix of students 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’.
We advertise for volunteers, trustees, and staff on public websites to ensure that we get the widest spread of applicants, and we follow a structured recruitment process to minimise bias.
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, our overall goal is to take steps to give reasonable assurance that we can achieve our 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.
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.
- “The sessions are important in providing a different view of maths for I- . The 1:1 support gives her time and the opportunity to ask questions and develop knowledge and she loves each session.”
Enfield
Number Champions Annual Report and Accounts for the Year to 31 July 2023
12
ACCOUNTS
Independent Examiner’s report
Independent Examiner’s report to the trustees of Number Champions
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of Number Champions (the Charity) for the year ended 31 July 2023.
Responsibilities and basis of report
As the charity trustees of Number Champions, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the Act’). I report in respect of my examination of the Charity’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
Independent Examiner’s statement
Having satisfied myself that the accounts of the Trust are not required to be audited and are eligible for independent examination, I have completed my examination. My examination cannot give the same level of assurance as an audit. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
-
Accounting records were not kept in respect of the Charity as required by section 130 of the Act; or
-
The accounts do not accord with those records.
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Peter Hill
Peter Hill FCIS 73 Priors Hill Wroughton Swindon SN4 0RL
11 September 2023
Number Champions Annual Report and Accounts for the Year to 31 July 2023
13
Statement of financial activities for the year ended 31 July 2023
Statement of Income and Expenditure for the Year Ended 31 July 2023
| Notes | 2022-23 | 2021-22 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| £ | £ | ||
| Total incoming resources | 1, 2, 3, 4 | 34,113 | 23,251 |
| Resources expended on: | |||
| Staf | 5, 6 | 20,091 | 3,669 |
| Website development and running | 1,309 | 1,381 | |
| Teaching materials | 643 | 556 | |
| Other charitable activities | 4,483 | 3,011 | |
| Total expenditure | 26,526 | 8,617 | |
| Net incoming resources | 7,587 | 14,634 | |
| Movement in funds | 7,587 | 14,634 | |
| Funds carried forward | 4, 7 | 34,497 | 26,910 |
Statement of Assets and Liabilities at 31 July 2023
| Notes | 2022-23 | 2021-22 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| £ | £ | ||
| Current Assets | |||
| Cash at bank | 34,497 | 26,910 | |
| Liabilities | |||
| Creditors | 0 | 0 | |
| Net Current Assets | 34,497 | 26,910 |
The notes on pages 16 to 18 form part of these financial statements.
These financial statements together with the text on pages 3 to 13 are authorised for issue on 11 September 2023 by the board of trustees, and signed on their behalf.
Bernard Manson , Chair
Number Champions Annual Report and Accounts for the Year to 31 July 2023
14
Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 31 July 2023
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.
As its income is over £25,000, the charity has to have an independent examination of the accounts or an audit. The charity has elected to have an independent examination.
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 together with its lowest projection for income are adequate to pay all its budgeted expenses to 31 July 2024, and they 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) Restricted funds
Where donations are restricted to specific purposes, there are controls in place to ensure that the funds are used only for these purposes. The amount and nature of each class of restricted funds brought forward, received and used in this year, and carried forward at year end are reported in these accounts.
f) Legal Status
Number Champions is a CIO whose registered address Is 6 Totnes Walk, London, N2 0AD.
In the notes below, previous year figures are given in brackets.
Number Champions Annual Report and Accounts for the Year to 31 July 2023
15
2. Income
Of the income of £34,113 (£23,251), £8,795 (£6,760) is fees from schools, £25,227 (£16,491) is from donations, £91 (£0) is interest and other income.
3. Expenditure on raising income
There was £216 (£216) expenditure on raising income.
4. Restricted funds
Restricted funds of £2,442 (£6,513) were carried forward at 31 July 2023.
Certain donations given in financial year 2021-22 were restricted (i) to be used to support the employment of a Head of Operations but only for the pro-rata expense in certain boroughs and (ii) for all costs of the charity but only for pro-rata expense in Inner London boroughs. These donations were only partially spent in 2021-22. A second tranche of the donation under category (i) was received in 2022-23. Another donation in 2022-23 was restricted to the purchase of ‘teaching’ kits for volunteers.
Restricted donations are from John Lyon’s Charity, The Portal Trust, and the London Mathematical Society.
These restricted funds and their usage (with all figures £) were:
| Category | Head of Operations in certain boroughs |
All expenditure in Inner London boroughs |
‘Teaching’ kits for volunteers |
Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brought forward | 3,805 | 2,708 | 0 | 6,513 |
| Income in 2022-23 | 0 | 13,500 | 200 | 13,700 |
| Expenditure in 2022-23 | 3,805 | 13,766 | 200 | 17,771 |
| Carried forward | 0 | 2,442 | 0 | 2,442 |
The total restricted funds carried forward are thus £2,442 out of total reserves of £34,496.
5. Staff
The charity had one part-time employee. The average full-time equivalent number of employees for the year was 0.54. No employee earned £60,000 or over.
6. Staff pensions
The charity offers a defined contribution pension scheme to all staff in proportion to gross pay, with the charity making a percentage contribution (unless the staff member waives this). There is no defined benefits scheme for any present or past staff.
Number Champions Annual Report and Accounts for the Year to 31 July 2023
16
7. Reserves policy
The charity seeks to hold reserves of between 75% and 100% of the costs budgeted for the following financial year. This is to give resilience against future short-term fluctuations in income, so as to enable the charity to plan on a rolling twelve-month basis for continuance of employment of staff and for continued operation.
Reserves at 31 July 2023 are within this range.
8. Payments to trustees
There were no payments or other benefits to trustees or connected persons.
9. Payment to the Independent Examiner
The Independent Examiner acted pro bono and no fee was paid.
10.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.
Number Champions Annual Report and Accounts for the Year to 31 July 2023
17
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 2023
Illustrations were commissioned by Number Champions and are © Hannah Robinson 2022. The artist hereby asserts her moral right to be identified as the creator of the Illustrations. Report design: 1st Impression Creative Ltd • www.1st-impression.org