Primary Award Application Process
(up to £1000 per school, per academic year)
Vital Checks
- You are a Hertfordshire state-funded primary or special school.
- Your school has not already been awarded the maximum £1000 for this academic year (see Primary Awards Winners).
- There is still money in the current period's awards budget (shown above the application form).
- You are applying for specific items/activities (e.g. resource, training, visiting speaker/workshop, trip etc.).
- You are improving learning in one or more of our focus areas (STEM, PE, English, Foundation, Outdoor Education and/or Learning to Learn).
- You include ex-VAT costings and product/service links.
- Part-Funding: We much prefer to entirely fund a project which ties in with our objectives of “making a big difference with a little money”. If your project total exceeds £1000, can you perhaps split this project into stages and just apply for the first stage or perhaps leave out some items to purchase a little later from another source? If you really can’t split the project (e.g. a single piece of equipment costing over £1,000) we will consider projects where our contribution is at least 50% of the total cost (i. e. you can apply for a contribution of up to £1000 towards a project that has a maximum total cost of £2,000). However, if you do this, you must confirm that the excess funding is already in place and committed to the project and tell us the source (PTA, department budget etc).
Bids to avoid
In line with our application criteria, there are a number of projects 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 item(s), the ex-VAT price(s) 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.
- Projects with only a weak link to enhancing learning. e.g. we will only fund outdoor items which directly facilitate/enhance teaching/learning (e.g. seating, covered area, tables, library, weatherproof whiteboards, tools 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 and consumables such as seeds and fertilizers.
- Transport Costs: Although we fully appreciate pupils have to get to a venue, we cannot justify granting transport costs in terms of our application criteria.
- "Shopping Lists": Long lists of various items (apart from books/book sets) rarely gain funding as we have to understand and agree the educational benefit of every penny spent and this would require applicants to write a strong educational argument for of each specific item which few of you have time to do. It is far better to apply for 1-2 larger items or multiples of the same item (e.g. a class or half-class set) and spend time explaining how it/they will enhance learning, teaching and motivation.
- Payment for staff cover.
Application Hints
- You may fill in the Primary Award application form at any time during the school year (subject to our monthly awards budget - the remaining balance is shown above the application form).
- Applications can be made as a single bid or multiple bids over the year up to the maximum (£1000).
- Remember to tell us how/why your specific resources/training etc will enhance pupils' learning and motivation/wellbeing to strengthen your application. The "benefit" section should be supported with any evidence that your project will actually achieve particular learning benefits e.g. similar project results in your school or elsewhere, research, pupil voice, pegagogic reasoning etc.
- Reading over our Selecting the Successful Bids page will give you a good idea of what we are looking for in an application.
- 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.
That's it. We will get back to you with a decision as soon as we can.
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 approximately two terms after awarding your grant if you haven't already filled in the form.
We do need evidence of the actual use of the charity’s funds. After we have emailed our feedback form reminder, we will not be able to consider further applications from your school until the form has been completed.