Headlines from a dramatic 2024
2024 was a truly extraordinary year for our charity. We faced substantial adversity, but having overcome our challenges, we now have more people than ever in our community, ready to tackle 2025 head-on! We’re so excited to have supported a record number of young people this January, as well as welcoming new team members to the community. Here are some headlines from the year just gone.
Joss’ diagnosis and absence
In February our director, Joss, received a cancer diagnosis out of the blue. This led to an immediate 3-month absence whilst he underwent chemotherapy. As such a small, close-knit organisation, it was a huge challenge to operate without our most senior member of staff at such short notice.
Thanks to an incredible effort by our trustees, team and partners, the charity not only survived this adversity but thrived - even increasing the number of young people we supported during this period. Joss resumed his role at the Foundation in June - in time to wrap up the academic year and lead the team into the new term in September.
Joss’ treatment has been going well and we’re delighted to have him back working full time. We can now reflect on how proud we are to have an organisation and a community that is so resilient as to flourish in the face of such a great challenge. Well done and thanks to all involved in the effort.
Expanding the Maths Circles programme
2024 also saw the introduction of Maths Circles to our roster of programmes, having agreed a partnership with Axiom Maths in 2023. Starting with just under 150 students in January, we have worked with our community of tutors and with Axiom to expand the programme each term. At the start of 2025, we’re extremely proud to be working with more than 400 students on this programme alone.
One of the most exciting things about growing this programme has been welcoming so many fantastic Maths Circles Mentors to the community. A huge Tutorfair welcome to the 18 new members of our Maths Circles delivery team - and a welcome back to those of you who worked with us in 2024!
Our partnerships
2024 wasn’t just about Maths Circles. Our wonderful volunteer community continued to deliver fantastic one-to-one tutoring to students from our partner schools and charities. We connected our volunteers with students from SEO London, Urban Promise UK, The Mentoring Lab, ChapterOne, Hestia and more! Thanks to our volunteers and partners for all of their hard work throughout the year.
We couldn’t wrap up our 2024 without acknowledging the enormous contribution of the Harrison-Frank Family Foundation, who supported us with an incredibly generous grant at the end of the year. HFFF has been a long-time supporter of our work, and their generous grantmaking has been pivotal to our progress. Their 2024 donation will make a great difference to the Foundation in the coming year - allowing us to expand our team and drive the quality and scope of our work for young people. A huge thank you on behalf of our whole community!
As always, if you’d like to volunteer with the Foundation, please register online. If you’d like to discuss support for the young people you work with, get in touch here.
New team members
Finally, we are delighted to welcome the newest members of our programmes team! This year, Beatriz, David, Mary and Beth will be joining Ben, Callum, Carla and Joss in supporting our ever-expanding activities. Without your help, we couldn’t do what we do. We look forward to a fantastic year ahead!