Number Champions

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← Back | Last updated on 20 Nov 2019

About Organisation

We support maths learning in state primary schools.

What is the need?

Numeracy, like literacy, is a core life skill.

However, some children have difficulty getting to grips with maths. This might be because they struggle to concentrate in class, but it can also be for a variety of other reasons such as poor school attendance, problems at home, or simply lack of confidence. Many children develop anxiety about maths and then find it difficult to engage in class. This can damage their self-esteem and negatively impact on their behaviour and education as a whole, with long term consequences for their future life.

How do we help to solve this?

Our trained In-school Volunteers run one-to-one weekly sessions during the school day, in school, but outside the classroom. The volunteer acts as a maths ‘tutor’ to the same child for a full school year and uses maths games and other confidence-building exercises to engage the child and make the 25-minute sessions fun and rewarding. The school selects the children who will most benefit from this skills-based help.

We work only with year-2 and year-3 children, as our research with teachers and educational organisations shows that early intervention is regarded as the most valuable.

‘One of the best moments for me, as our school’s maths leader, was overhearing a child get called to his [Number Champions] intervention, and him cheering and saying that it was the best part of his day!’ Head of Maths at Number Champions partner school in Barnet

We have current and former teachers acting as mentors who deliver training and on-going support to our volunteers, including observing them in a session with a child.

Although we focus on maths, our volunteers support "the whole child" and look to help them improve their confidence and engagement with education.


How much does it cost the school?

The majority of our funding is provided by donors, with the balance coming from a minimal fee per child per year (maximum £60) charged to each school. If the school finds volunteers from its parent community we reduce the fee per child to £30.


What evidence do we have of impact?

At the end of each year, we ask the class teachers to evaluate each child’s progress over the year compared to the rest of the class. This used a five point scale from ‘very much better’ to ‘worse’. In our only non-Covid year (we are a young charity) teachers rated 60% of the children ‘very much better’ or ‘noticeably better’. This figure was 53% in 2019-20, when our volunteers could be in school for only half the year. We anticipate better results in our first partly-post-Covid year in 2021-22.



Number Champions
07946 658 853
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6 Clovelly Avenue
London, NW9 6DT
www.numberchampions.org.uk/
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