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Volunteer of the Month: September 2024

1 Oct 2024

By Laura Hill, Volunteering Manager

We’re pleased to celebrate Jess Thomas as our Volunteer of the Month for September.

Jess is a member of The Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) and Investment Manager at Rathbones Incorporating Investec Wealth and Investment 

Photo of Jess giving an assembly

Jess delivered her first ever My Maths Story assembly and supported two Maths in the Real World class sessions at Newall Green Primary School in Manchester. Both activities were hugely successful!

The school said: "Jess was fantastic and the children really enjoyed their morning. In the assembly Jess used a simplified example of a business which she might consider buying and the questions she would need answers to which was easy for the children to understand. The classroom sessions were excellent. The examples really got the children thinking about their hobbies and how they incorporate so much maths. It was inspiring to see how different strengths in different areas of maths can apply in real world jobs."

Jess said:"In the assembly the children got really involved with my questions, it flowed nicely, and in the class session I really liked chatting to the children in smaller groups."

In 2023, the CISI Future Foundation kindly granted National Numeracy with funding to support our overall work with young people in disadvantaged communities, as well as the expansion and development of our parental engagement programme in the North-West of England, a key area of need.

We have been delighted to recently welcome some of their committed colleagues and members onto our corporate volunteering programme, helping us to inspire children to see the value of everyday maths, and build numeracy skills as a key first step to financial literacy.

Well done to Jess, a great start to the new school year!

Last week we trained 35 new volunteers and look forward to matching them with schools across the UK to inspire children to see the value of maths in the real world.