Area Leaders

Good communication and interpersonal skills are essential. You will need to be both enthusiastic and methodical. Ideally you will have had a work or volunteering role which has involved managing people or working with external organisations.

Experience of being a volunteer in a primary school would be very helpful, for example with Number Champions itself or with one of the reading charities.

The overall time commitment is flexible and can generally be adapted to whatever works best for you. Much of the role can be done at times to suit you; however, meetings with schools generally have to be in school time – though these meetings can almost always be remote.

Typically, Area Leaders will give five to ten hours a month, although this will be spread irregularly over the year. The larger the area you choose to cover, the more volunteers and schools you will work with, so the greater the time commitment.

One of our trustees or another experienced Area Leader will guide you through the initial process and will invite you to shadow them. You will also attend training sessions for our In-School Volunteers so that you understand what we are providing to schools.

We will connect you with Area Leaders in other areas.

We will also introduce you to local ‘Mentors’ to share knowledge of schools and In-school Volunteers. (Our Mentors are experienced teachers who support our In-School Volunteers as needed on educational issues. They are also volunteers – for further details, please see our Mentors page.)

You will manage the recruitment process once a potential In-School Volunteer has contacted Number Champions.  This includes an initial phone call with the prospective volunteer, then meeting them for an informal interview online or in a local café.  If they are suitable, you will request ID documentation and references, and help allocate them to one of our local partner schools.

You will attend training sessions and introduce the volunteers to one another, helping to create a sense of community among the volunteers. For further details, please see our In-School Volunteers page.

Optionally, you will also liaise with organisations in your area which can help find new in-school volunteers.

You will certainly liaise with each of our partner schools in your area to establish a good relationship and to resolve any issues. As part of your own development you will ideally visit some schools to build your understanding of how they operate, and you will probably choose to visit each of our partner schools in your area over time. If you work full time, you can replace school visits with remote meetings.

As part of our marketing you would meet with prospective partner schools in the period December to March. Initially this will be with the Chair or Head of Operations, but as you become experienced in your role you will take the lead in this.

For further details about our partner schools, please visit our Schools page.

We appreciate that you are a volunteer and that you have your own life to lead, and  we accept that you will sometimes take breaks during term. However, we would ask you to advise us of any unavailability and we will supply an alternative contact at Number Champions for you to pass on to your schools and volunteers.

Area Leaders manage the overall relationship with our partner schools, while Mentors may visit the school to share a session with a volunteer or may occasionally discuss specific educational issues with our staff contact at the school. For further details about our Mentors, please visit our Mentors page.

As per our Volunteer policy, we pay reasonable travel and other expenses. We encourage all our volunteers to use public transport, but we will pay car mileage and even parking costs if there is no reasonable alternative. We require evidence of expenditure, but there are circumstances where we can accept a log book rather than receipts.