Primary schools do a great job teaching maths but inevitably have limited resources, and the support that children receive at home varies. New figures show that a shocking 73% of children who do not achieve “Expected Standard” in their SATS maths test at the end of primary school go on to fail GCSE maths, shutting the door to educational and employment opportunities. For children from disadvantaged backgrounds – who are twice as likely not to achieve Expected Standard – the figure is 83%.In 2018, we created Number Champions to help tackle these issues. We seek to transform the lives of children in state primary schools who struggle with numeracy; we were the first and are still the only UK charity with this mission and a scalable volunteer-led model. By helping children improve their confidence, enjoyment, and skills in maths, we support their wider development. We have a particular focus on children from disadvantaged backgrounds.We recruit and train volunteers who run weekly one-to-one sessions with each child for the full school year, during the school day but outside the classroom. They use games and other creative activities to engage the child and to enable them to build confidence and skills. We work with children aged six to eight (school years 2 and 3), as research shows that this is the optimal time to help children get back on track. Class teachers select the children who can best benefit from thesessions. We also have a smaller number of experienced teachers volunteering with us as “Mentors” to provide training and support. This year, Number Champions will support about 440 children in around 50 partner schools across London. We will achieve this with about 150 volunteers and a a staff team of five, all part-time, led by our Chief Executive Officer, Beth Silver. She is responsible to the trustees for all aspects of running the charity.We have proven that our intervention has highly positive impact for the children we support, and identified that there is demand from schools and availability of volunteers to enable us to grow. We have an effective organisational model which can support our growth. Our strategy is to grow steadily the number of children we support and to cover more of London, while maintaining the positive impact of our programme. What will you be doing?As a trustee, you would join our board and contribute to the development of our strategy and oversight of its delivery. You would use your experience, skills, and current awareness to identify risks and opportunities to bring to the board’s attention, and influence other trustees to follow your ideas through to implementation. Ideally you would lead for the board on some aspect of the charity. We are a small, agile, and ambitious organisation with capable staff and an enthusiastic team of trustees, and we can act quickly to put new ideas into action. You will therefore have the opportunity to propose new initiatives which make a direct impact on the work and the outputs of the charity.The board of trustees meets about seven times a year, alternating between in-person in London and online. It sets strategic direction, reviews all aspects of the charity in rotation over the year, and takes corrective action where it identifies that we are not achieving our planned objectives. All trustees are expected to study the papers for each meeting and to contribute to all discussions. We encourage trustees to meet our volunteers and staff to learn from them, and to ensure that their experience and voice is taken into account in directing the charity. What are we looking for?We currently have seven trustees, with one having just finished her term of office and one retiring next May. We are therefore looking for two new trustees, whose skills and commitment can help us to continue to develop to support more children year by year. We are in an exciting period of new developments in the charity. Last September we appointed our first CEO, who has now taken on all aspects of running the charity within the strategy set by the board. Under our succession planning, we will be advertising for a new Chair in January 2027 to allow our founder Chair to leave in April. Our Vice Chair and continuing trustees will help provide board continuity over this transition.We are looking for two new trustees, whose skills and commitment can help us to continue to grow to support more children while maintaining quality of delivery. The Role Specification below details required attributes and useful additional skills; fundraising/networking or volunteer recruitment would be particularly valuable specialisms.The core capabilities we are looking for are that you:• Bring relevant senior experience from any sector, including educational, business, professional, or pro bono roles. You do not need specific experience as a charity trustee.• Have skills and/or a network of contacts which would enhance the capability of the board, either immediately or during our succession process.• Function effectively as part of a team, thinking creatively and strategically, listening, stating your position clearly and succinctly, and accepting group decisions.• Are open, deliver on commitments and show attention to detail without losing sight of the big picture, and understand your own strengths and weaknesses.• Are enthusiastic about Number Champions’ mission to help children achieve their potential.• Are able to devote time to reading papers and attending board meetings and also to progressing issues as needed between meetings.If you cannot demonstrate all of the bulleted requirements but you believe that you would still be an asset as a trustee for Number Champions, please apply and explain the strengths that you would bring.We serve the diverse population of London children. This diversity is reflected fully in our volunteers but only partly in our current board - and this matters to us. We therefore particularly encourage applications from London communities who are under-represented on charity boards, including people from minority backgrounds and those with hidden or visible disabilities.