Who we are

We are a UK charity.

We believe that every child deserves a good education, leading to better opportunities in life – and numeracy is a crucial part of this.

We set up Number Champions in 2018 to transform the lives of primary school children who are struggling with numeracy.

Everyone at Number Champions is passionate about helping to improve children’s educational and life chances.

Historically, we have been run entirely by volunteers, but we are now recruiting a Head of Operations as our first paid role.  We will give more information when the HoO is recruited.

Our trained In-school Volunteers span a wide age range, come from a variety of backgrounds, and all share an enthusiasm to help children gain skills and confidence in maths. For more details, please visit our In-school Volunteers page.

Supporting our In-school Volunteers, we have Mentors all with extensive teaching experience in primary schools and some with specialist skills in teaching maths. For more details, please visit our Mentors page.

In each geographical area where we operate, we have – or will have – an Area Leader who manages the recruitment of our In-school Volunteers and their placement with local schools. For more details, please visit our Area Leaders page.

We are committed to safeguarding the welfare of children and have appointed a dedicated Safeguarding Officer. For further details, please visit our Safeguarding page.

We have a number of other wonderful people volunteering to help us on specific projects. If there’s a way that you would like to be involved with Number Champions that isn’t listed on our website, please do get in touch as we are always interested in hearing new ideas.

Bernard Manson is our chair and co-founder.

He has a postgraduate maths degree and both of his sisters are maths teachers. Maths education – and where it goes wrong – has been an interest for many years. Following a career in banking, he is now taking the opportunity to contribute to maths learning in schools.

Lisa Baglin was, until the end of 2019, the Managing Director of Cass Art, a leading UK independent retailer of art supplies. She has worked in retail for nearly twenty years and is a qualified Chartered Accountant with a degree in Modern History from Oxford University. She has two children (age 12 and 15) and believes passionately that the early primary school years are key to laying the foundations for enjoying and understanding maths.

Ron Finlay is a communications consultant who is passionate about making the complex simple. With a degree in Economics from Cambridge University, he has always been as enchanted by the beauty of mathematics as bewitched by the power of language. He is an Associate Lecturer in Business Communication at the University of the Arts, London, and an experienced charity trustee.

Sarah Manson is our other co-founder.  She worked in academic and children’s publishing for many years, was a professional school librarian, and subsequently ran a literary agency.  She has founded and run several charity projects and is excited that Number Champions can deliver much-needed support to young children and also provide a rewarding opportunity for volunteers.

Gelena Rozenberg has worked in financial services in the US and the UK.  She is currently specialising in business strategy, product development and change management.   Before entering finance, she obtained a degree in elementary education, since when she has been involved in a number of volunteering initiatives focusing on development, education and empowerment.

Stephanie Sanchez Kuong is a Portfolio Manager at Enko Capital Management having previously worked as a rates trader. She has a degree in Finance from Oxford University and in Applied Mathematics from Ensimag, Grenoble. Having tutored many students, she realises that the first obstacle children face in maths is a psychological one, with small difficulties snowballing into big fears – so she is very enthusiastic about Number Champion’s focus on building confidence.