Secondary Schools Major and Minor Awards
Vital Checks
- Part-Funding: We prefer to fund an entire project as our Minor Awards aim to make a big difference with a little help. However, we will consider slightly larger projects with a preference for our contribution to be 50% or more of the total cost. If you are applying to us to fund part of a project, you must demonstrate that the additional funds are in place/committed to the project.
- The award will help pupils in a Hertfordshire state-funded secondary school.
- Your application is for a specific project (e.g. activity, resource, training, visiting speaker/workshop, trip etc.)
- Your project helps teaching/learning in one (or more) of our focus areas - STEM, PE or Learning to Learn.
- You include costings (ex. VAT) and supplier links.
- Your school has not applied in this area already this academic year (there's a table of grants awarded to help you).
Bids to avoid.
Due to limited funds and our priorities, there are a number of projects/items that we do not, or very rarely, approve:
- Non-specified items/courses/events. e.g. "to buy science equipment" or "to purchase a range of fiction books". Successful applications need to be for specific items/training/events etc for a project to improve teaching and learning effectiveness (inc. motivation) and/or extend the school’s current offering of subjects and activities. We need to know the specific items, their ex-VAT prices and have a link to them.
- Buy/replace large amounts of core equipment or course textbooks. As important as these are, we wouldn't be able to keep up with demand. Specialist textbooks/workbooks that will enhance learning/skills in a particular topic area because of a specific need will have a much better chance of funding.
- Transport Costs: Although we fully appreciate pupils have to get to a venue, we cannot justify granting large transport costs in terms of our application criteria. We will, however, consider a maximum contribution towards transport of 25% of the rest of the bid if the trip comprehensively meets our criteria.
- Projects with only a weak link to enhancing learning. e.g. an outdoor area with no teaching/learning facilities (e.g. no seating, covered area, tables, library shed, weatherproof whiteboards etc)
- Projects with limited longevity. e.g. 1 year subscriptions which will have no effective use/benefits afterwards, visits which will not substantially enhance learning after the event.
- Payment for supply cover.
Application Hints
- In the "benefit" section, tell us how/why your specific resources/training etc will enhance pupils' learning and motivation/wellbeing. This should be supported with any evidence that your project will actually achieve these particular benefits e.g. similar project results in your school or elsewhere, research, pupil voice, pedagogic reasoning etc.
- We advise you to word process your longer answers and paste them into the boxes in case of a submission glitch.
- You are very welcome to email any supporting documentation (e.g. a costs spreadsheet) to gareth@edufunduk.org - just tell us you have done this in the form.
When to Apply
- Minor Awards: You can fill in the Minor Award application form at any time during the school year (as long as our termly funding budget has not run out - shown above the application form).
- Major Awards: An application window is set each year, usually over the Spring/Summer terms. Please see the Major Award Application Form for this year's dates.
The simple application process and the friendly support are incredible.
- Barnwell School, November 2019
Secondary Schools Major Award Application Process
Please see the Major Awards Application page for notes on applying for our major awards.
You can register interest for all our awards and grant news here
Post Award Follow-up
A suitable time after you have used your grant, we would like to find out how well it went. The results can add to our bank of grant awards to help guide schools apply successfully. To save you time, this will usually be done using a quick online Feedback Form. You can fill this in any time after you have had a chance to assess the initial impact of your award - we will usually email a reminder to you a term or so after awarding the grant. If you have any photographs or a short account of your project/equipment in action, we would really appreciate you emailing gareth@edufunduk.org a copy for us to put on our website.
For major award winners, we would also appreciate a short, informal chat or email about the benefits your idea actually brought to your pupils. It would also be really useful to talk about any aspects that didn't go so well. This will help us and you tweak applications in the future so they give the maximum benefit to pupils. We would also appreciate some “Pupil Voice” feedback e.g. how the grant has helped them and any photographs of the project/equipment etc.
As we do need evidence of the actual use of the charity’s funds, we will not be able to consider further applications unless the feedback form has been completed within a reasonable time frame after our request.