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 2022/23).
- There is still money in this half-term’s awards budget (shown above the application form).
- You are applying for a specific project (e.g. activity, 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 supplier links.
- 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 and committed to the project.
Bids to avoid
Due to limited funds and our priorities, there are a number of projects that we do not, or very rarely, approve:
- Non-specified items/courses/events. eg "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
- You may fill in the Primary Award application form at any time during the school year (as long as our half-termly pot has not run out - 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 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.
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.