Primary Award Winners Autumn 2024 - Details
Here is a round-up of the primary awards granted so far in the autumn term of 2024. Each successful application has to satisfy our award criteria which you can find here. We wish all the schools every success with their wonderful projects and are very pleased to have helped them "make a big difference with a little money".
| School | Location | Subject Focus | Details |
| Sandon JMI | Buntingford |
Outdoor Learning |
A range of curriculum-based equipment for outdoor learning focussing on STEM and English including an Early Maths Outdoors Kit and a Language Through Stories kit amongst others. By learning outside, their children can explore abstract concepts in a different, real-world context using robust equipment designed to last through many cohorts of children. |
| Kingshill Infants | Ware | English | A Read/Write Inc training day and challenging RWI phonics books at the higher levels of the programme to enhance the effectiveness and consistency of writing teaching and improve age-related expectations in KS1. The books will also be available for children to take home for extra practise and to involve parents in their learning. |
| Widford Primary | Ware | English | A Pearson's Bug Club Phonics Top-up book pack (276 books) which covers all phases (1-5) to help the children in this small school have a consistent method and progression to practise and apply their phonics learning. The pack contains a great mix of fiction and non-fiction with 6 copies of each book to facilitate guided reading and group work as well as individual reading. |
| Hillshott Infants | Letchworth | English | Half-class sets of Little Wandle phonics books focussed on the higher phases to challenge and inspire their more competent readers. They have successfully embedded the Little Wandle scheme for all readers and now want to add a wider variety of books to stretch their improving readers. |
| Larkspur Primary | Ware | Outdoor Learning | A variety of outdoor STEM equipment for EYFS to foster a love of investigating maths and science topics amongst their young cohorts, the majority of whom are FSM, many living in overcrowded homes and no access to safe, outside space. Curriculum-focussed activities outside will not only build their curiousity and excitement about the subjects but also foster social and communication skills and a sense of learning being fun. |
| Simon Balle All-Through School | Hertford | STEM | An interactive STEM presentation and workshop for Year 6 by Wonderstruck. Focussing on forces and motion, the sense of awe and wonder is kicked off with a rocket show which then leads into a highly interactive workshop building vehicles to race which will add a real-life context and interest to their theory in lessons. Teachers will be able to enhance their schemes of work and add in the activities themselves for future cohorts. |
| Gade Valley | Hemel Hempstead | STEM | A range of food technology equipment, including two portable ovens/hobs, to facilitate a full practical aspect to the food aspect of their new D+T scheme of work. They have very limited food technology equipment at the moment and this innitiative will not only enhance children's curriculum knowledge but also develop their life skills and foster a love of healthy eating. |
| Markyate Village | St. Albans | Multi-Focus | 9x tablets and protective covers to support teaching and learning across the school in many ways such as recording and feeding back on activities in practical lessons to facilitate self and peer evaluation, to share work with parents. The devices will also be used work to mirror/project children's work onto the digital screen for evaluation and modelling and also for bespoke learning for individuals using e.g. Maths Frame and Oxford Reading. |
| Hertingfordbury Cowper C/E | Hertford | English | A wide range of fiction/poetry titles to build their recently introduced reading spine throughout the school. Sharing the rich and varied texts as a class will help the children become immersed in reading, close cultural gaps and push up reading and comprehension levels. Disadvantaged pupils will also be able to take the texts home for reading. |
| St. Margaret Clitherow R/C | Stevenage | STEM | A selection of hands-on maths equipment (e.g. magnetic fraction builders, geometric solids and place-value sliders) to enhnance children's understanding of key concepts in a fun and practical way. The manipulatives and visual aids wil deepen and consolidate understanding of abstract maths concepts more easily and increase the engagement and motivation of children at all levels with differerent learning style preferences. |
| Woolenwick Junior | Stevenage | Multi Focus | A 3-year Clicker software license for 10 laptop computers to help SEND children catch up with their writing and spelling. The software allows for progression using tools such as making sentences from limited word selection, reading words aloud and dictation to expanding word choices, typing and predictive text. Using Clicker will be particularly useful for their dyslexic children as well as well as enhancing progress for all children struggling with spelling and writing. |
| Oak View | Hatfield | STEM | 2x BeeBot (6) and docking station packs and 2x Ozobot Bit+ Entry kits to resource the coding and computational thinking areas of computing with equipment they currently have to borrow when they can. Seeing the abastract code enacted in the real world will not only help lower-ability children engage and understand programing concepts but also enable higher-ability children to push themselves with challenging tasks which they can evaluate in real time in the physical world. |
| Christ Church C/E Infant /Primary | Ware | Outdoor Learning | A variety of habitat building, monitoring and investigating equipment (e.g. nesting boxes and cameras and pond-dipping kits) which will expand the range of living things and their habitats which the children can study. Being able to create and constantly monitor a range of habitats will bring this aspect of the science curriculum to life but also greatly benefit their Eco Club activities and make full use of their Eco-School Award pond and sensory garden areas. |
| Little Reddings | Bushey | English | A wide range of texts to build phonics and vocabulary skills themed on areas such as the seasons and growing. There are also a number of texts to replace and build on their Little Wandle phonics resources. These books will be invaluable resources for their new peer-coaching scheme to boost reading, writing, phonics and spoken language across the school and, in particular, their high numbers of SEN and FSM children. |
| Stevenage and North Herts. Writing Project | Letchworth | English |
We are delighted to be supplying the books and contributing towards other expenses of this fantastic project once again. This academic year, the initiative will benefit 16 Hertfordshire state-funded primary schools (plus others) - estimated at reaching an amazing 5,000 pupils! The project involves schools working together on a common text with a written outcome agreed. Schools use a range of creative ways, such as drama, artwork and cross curricular activities, to teach the writing skills and explore the text to write a competition piece. The project culminates in a celebration awards evening where the children’s achievements, efforts and endeavours are celebrated. A great inititative which involves a lot of teacher collaborations to share best practice. |
| Belswains | Hemel Hemstead | English |
8x Read Write inc phonics books packs to extend their successfully implemented RWinc scheme resources as the school moves from one to two form entry. These packs will mainly be used from YR - Y4 in and out of school, however, they will also greatly benefit SEND pupils in upper KS2. Phonics is a focus of their school development plan and they have invested heavily in the scheme and staff training (teachers and TAs) and the new books will help get the most out of that investment in time and money. |
| Alban City | St. Albans | STEM |
2x Crumble class sets and 1x Crumble starter set of computer controlled model resoures. The class kits will allow primarily Y6 pupils to more effectively build their coding and problem-solving skills by working in pairs and the starter kit will be particularly beneficial for SEND children working 1:1 or in small groups to close their learning gap. Compatible with their existing Chromebooks, the physical computing kits will help children understand abstract coding principles in an exciting, motivating way. |
| Albury C/E | Bishops Stortford | English | Badger Learning Hi-Lo bumper pack of books for UKS2 pupils with reading ages of 6-9. These 150 books all have dyslexia-friendly features and allow reluctant or struggling readers in the upper school to build up their reading skills, confidence and enjoyment with approprate and interesting content written at a level they can access. |
| Cockernhoe | Near Luton | English |
10x half-class sets of books to facilitate whole-class reading lessons as the school is migrating to from guided reading. Recommended by a national leader of education, the new system will allow every child to read every day and be heard by a member of staff. The range of books will benefit all classes across the school, affording opportunites to model, demonstrate and practise reading aloud with fluency and expression and facilitate real-time addressing of grammatical and vocabulary points. |
| Therfield First | Royston | PE |
4x portable basketball poles/nets to be used across the school and in breakfast, lunchtime, after-school and youth clubs. Therfield First is one of the smallest schools in the country and the resulting tiny budget has stopped them being able to offer a wide range of sports/activities. Facilitating basketball will allow them to address many NC PE requirements (particularly "participate in team games") in a new and motivating way as well as build teams for local basketball competitions. |
| William Ransom | Hitchen | English |
12x reading pens, a set of Barrington Stoke dictionaries and their Little Gems fiction pack and a range of Hi/Lo fiction books all aimed at their children who are dyslexic or otherwise strugling with their reading. The pens read text out loud, the dictionaries are phonetic based and the Hi/Lo (High-Interes, Low-Ability) books have content geared towards older children with a lower reading age. |
| Nash Mills | Hemel Hempsted | STEM |
3x KNEX Project Sets - Intro. to Machines to help with both specific topics in science/D+T (e.g. forces, gears/pulleys) and more generally in STEM-based learning, particularly in the neglected realm of engineering. With 1100 in each pack, the sets will allow their children to work in groups of 2 or 3 to investigate, explore, create their own test and evaluations with full engagement. |
| Moss Bury | Stevenage | STEM |
4x multifunction ovens and a food mixer to get their food room up and running. Initially catering for their deaf students, the facilities will be extended to small groups of mixed mainstream pupils and the Phoenix Group (charity) during holidays. The equipment will enhance learning in the food side of D+T in both KS1 and 2 as well as developing essential life skills for all pupils. |
| Wymondley | Hitchin | English |
31x sets of Little Wandle Fluency books and resources covering reading speeds of 60wpm upt to 120 wpm. The books will help develop fluency which, in turn, will aid the range of comprehension skills and builds upon the successful implementation of Little Wandle phonics in Reception/Y1. The books will also be available to take home for further practice. |
| Reedings Junior | Sawbridgeworth | STEM |
A 3D printer, primarily for Y6, to enhance learning and motivation in their 3D modelling unit by creating their designs in real-life and to help them fully understand 3D printing across industries. Staff and digital leaders will also be trained on the equipment to facilitate its application across the wider curriculum and year groups. |
Primary Award Winners 2023/4 - Summary
Primary Award Winners for 2023/24
This table is primarily to check if your school has already been awarded the maximum of £1,000 for this academic year
Click on the school name for further details of the awards won
(Focus Key: MF = Multi-focus E = English F = Foundation STEM = Science, technology, engineering, mathematics PE = Physical Education) L2L = Learning to Learn O/L = Outdoor Learning)
Primary Award Winners: Summer 2024 (Details)
Here is a round-up of the primary awards granted so far in the summer term of 2024. Each successful application has to satisfy our award criteria which you can find here. We wish all the schools every success with their wonderful projects and are very pleased to have helped them "make a big difference with a little money".
| School | Location | Subject Focus | Award Details |
| St. Nicholas C/E | Stevenage | STEM | A Crumble controller class pack and 3x buggies plus a range of robotic equipment to provide enhance the understanding of the relationship between algorithms and code across the school in a fun, practical and motivational way. St. Nicholas will train their 24 pupil digital leaders to support teachers and pupils in class with the new equipment, not just in computing but cross-curricularly in English, humanities, DT and science. |
| Markyate Village | St. Albans | English | Badger Learning book packs for Y1, Y2, LKS2 (Challenge) and new Spring books for 4-11. The younger books will help re-stock their newly refreshed library space, the Challenge pack will stretch Y3/4 and all the titles feature a wide range of charcters from different backgrounds, cultures and races to help all their children see more protagonists like themselves as well as their friends. |
| Alban City | St. Albans | STEM | 2x Intelino Smart Trains + expansion packs and a range of other robots and controllers to reduce barriers to the learning of abstract coding concepts like sequence and selection. Some of the equipment will help bring the youngest children into computing but other items that link to BBC micro:bit technology can be used to stretch the older learners. |
| St. Mary's C/E | Ware | English | A year-group set of Macbeth texts and a 2x workshops (lower/upper KS2) Macbeth workshops to introduce Shakespeare to children in an exciting, accessible manner. The books retell Macbeth in more natural language and understanding is enhanced by engaging illustrations and context notes and the workshops are highly interactive with the pupils using their own words to retell the play with costumes and props supplied. The school has planned a rich programme of follow-up work to capitalise on the stimuli. |
| Cherry Tree | Watford | Outdoor Learning Learning | A subsidy for PP pupils to attend a residential course at the Garden Classroom centre with a focus on geography and science curriculum-linked activities. As well as bringing subject learning to life, the planned activities will also develop their resilience, confidence and independence and help a struggling cohort to bond with each other and their teacher in Year 6. |
| Holy Family Catholic | Welwyn Garden City | English | A wide range of fiction and non-fiction to refresh their stock of aging library books. Many of the books have been selected to better reflect the lives and backgrounds of the children at the school and the lives of others to promote a love of reading and understanding people of different backgrounds. The higher than average proportion of disadvantaged pupils will benefit from having access to the new and exciting books, made easily accessible by the addition of a free library in the playground. |
| Harvey Road | Rickmansworth | STEM | A selection of indoor and outdoor construction equipment for EYFS and KS1 to support their understanding of curriculum concepts such as the properties of shapes and basic engineering principles with practical and fun tasks. The equipment will also help vital early-years skills such as collaboration, problem solving, creative thinking and language skills. |
| Icknield Walk First | Royston | English | 6x Bigmack robust recording/playback devices for a range of SEND children including those with dyslexia for recording their answers and giving them time to write it down, non-verbal children to give them a "voice" and at independent working stations to playback teacher instructions. Also, some button-opperated devices for the nurture unit to help their children associate positive results with button pressing. |
| St. Roses Catholic | Hemel Hempstead | STEM | 5X chromebooks for SEND children to allow them to go through teaching materials and tasks in their own time and/or in a small group or quiet room. They will also be used to record children's work via photos and film. |
| Benington Primary | Stevenage | Multi Focus | A wide range of fiction and non-fiction books. The non-fiction will support their use of the Cornerstones foundation subjects curriculum. The list includes dyslexic-friendly texts and a range of books on the same topics but accessible to different ages/reading levels. The bid builds on a successful EdufundUK award from last year and now resources this small school with books to teach across the whole wider curriculum. |
| Thomas Coram | Berkhamsted | STEM | 5x VU data loggers and charging tray to allow students to independently gather data and generate, compare and explain graphs in science, computing, maths and geography. The real-life, real-time data will engage pupils and make the data relevant to them and the easy-use data loggers will be a real improvement as they don't have any at the moment. |
| Colney Heath | St. Albans | STEM | 6x data loggers, 6x pulse meters and motors, buzzers and slide-switches to enhance children's investigation, data gathering and graphing skills, and enable more hands on experimentation/investigation. The equipment will be particularly useful in an EEF scientific investigation research project they have signed up for and allow the staff involved in the project to then cascade theory and equipment use down to other teachers. |
| Wheatfields Junior | St. Albans | English | 4x sets of Collins KS2 banded reading books to update and replace their aging stocks across the school and compliment their new spelling curriculum. The books will increase interest in reading with up-to-date themes and can also be used by the more advanced readers for their sister infants school. |
| Parkgate Junior | Watford | STEM | 2X Adventurer 3 Pro 3D printers and associated equipment to use in D&T and Computing lessons and in the school's Code Club. As well as helping bring these subjects to life and foster a range of skills such as problem solving and collaboration, the equipment will also be used cross-curricularly for example, to create historical artefacts in history and geometric shapes in maths. |
| Haprenden Academy | Harpenden | STEM | 2x Intelino Smart Trainer, 2x Code & Go Coding Critters, 2x Let's Go Code activity Set, 2x Sphero Indi Robots to enhance their computing curriculum particularly in EYFS and KS1. The equipment will show the children their coding in action in real life to help demistyfy the more abstract side of coding and build up engagement and excitement. The equipment can also be used for initial coding sessions in higher age groups and in coding club to help children become mini-experts and teach their peers in class. |
| Therfield First | Royston | STEM | An exciting range of science equipment including a life size skeleton model, feet, hands, teeth and torso models and light boxes and dark dens. The school gave great thought to the science curriculum areas for each year group that most needed equipment to give children hands-on experience as well as using the equipment cross-curricularly (e.g. English and music through the Funny Bones stories) and in STEM competitions and put on display in a proposed science zone. |
| Park Street | St. Albans | English | A wide ranging book list for their new HGfL writing program covering all year groups. The new program will provide teachers with essential subject knowledge, tools and resources to teach writing effectively and the book list is an integral part of the scheme, providing exciting, diverse and inclusive texts to study. |
| Ponsbourne St. Mary's | Hertford | Multi- Focus | A 55-inch interactive whiteboard to equip a new teaching pod in their playground for small teaching groups to primarily catch up with their reading and phonics. The iwb will greatly help with this, using applications such as Little Wandle Letters & Sounds and Fred's Teaching as well as many others. The bod and iwb will also be used by their wrap-around and holiday club providers as well as providing a perfect space for their own children who need a sensory break during lunchtimes and breaks. |
Primary Award Winners - Spring Term 2024 (Details)
Here is a round-up of the primary awards granted so far in the spring term of 2024. Each successful application has to satisfy our award criteria which you can find here. We wish all the schools every success with their wonderful projects and are very pleased to have helped them "make a big difference with a little money".
| School | Location | Subject Focus | Award Details |
| Moss Bury | Stevenage | STEM | A class pack of Crumble Controlers, one Sphero robot and six Beebot floor robots with docking station for computing lessons and to extend their computing club offer to KS1 and LKS2. The equipment will help children of all ages to grasp programing and also be used cross curricularly eg in geography to create routes on a map, in D+T for controlling models such as a fun fair and in science for circuits. |
| Wymondley JMI | Hitchin | Multi Focus | A 65" interactive touchscreen to enable the school hall to be used for teaching throughout the week as well as for assemblies. The hall is increasingly needed as a teaching space to allow splitting of mixed-age classes for certain subjects and the teaching of specific groups. The whiteboard facilities such as slideshows, interactive quizzes, casting pupil screens and audio-visual presentations will create a new effective teaching space quickly and cheaply. |
| St. Margaret Clitherow | Stevenage | English | The Pathways to Write programme for the whole school to develop vocabulary, reading and writing using the mastery approach. With clear lesson plans, presentations and resources all linked to high quality texts, the programme ensures appropriate challenge to all levels and will help the school bring the their writing attainment in line with their reading and maths levels. |
| Hertingfordbury Cowper | Hertford | English | Dictionaries and a wide range of fiction and non-fiction books to help extend the children's vocabulary and improve spelling as well as integrating the texts into both the reading and writing curriculum. |
| Barley First | Royston | Multi | An outdoor library to extend their outdoor learning space for both literarcy and cross-curricular learning. The library will be used for interventions and outside of literacy classes to allow pupils to extend their reading and will be particularly useful for their cross-year reading buddy program and reading with the elderly from a local care home. |
| Barkway First | Royston | Multi | The same outdoor library as their sister-school, Barley (above) with a focus on younger children, building relationships and assisting transition with the local pre-school. The outdoor reading area would be a calm and safe space, particularly beneficial for interventions and their nurture group. |
| Buntingford First | Buntingford | PE | An exercise circuit route to give an exciting warm-up activity to PE lessons and for children to enjoy at break/lunch. The facility will also be beneficial for sensory/movement breaks for interventions and between lessons. There are multiple ways around the tracks to provide variety and it can be used competitively or to enhance team work. |
| Warren Dell | Watford | STEM | 6x BeeBot robots and 10x tablets. The BeeBots will make programming concepts more accessible to younger children in an exciting way and also develop teamwork and problem-solving skills. The tablets will facilitate personalised learning for their high proportion of SEND children to enhance and extend their classroom learning and also be used in homework clube and early/late sessions. |
| St. Andrews C/E | Hitchin | Foundation |
Jigsaw PSHE scheme (R - Y6) to ensure high quality and smoothly progressing PSHE provision across the school. The scheme includes comprehensive training, schemes of work, class and whole school resources to ensure consistency, progression and save teachers preparation time. |
| Sandon JMI | Sandon | STEM | A Crumble controller class pack, robotics add-on and 5x Rasperry Pi starter kits to support implementation of the new NCCE Teach Computing scheme with exciting and motivating equipment. Seeing the results of programming playing out in the real world will enhance the learning and development of many aspects of computational thinking such as logic, algorithm design and pattern recognition. Aimed at KS2 class activities, the equipment can be applied cross-curicularly and will also benefit their coding club. |
| Ashfield | Bushey | Multi | 7x visualisers to facilitate modelling work, scafflolding learning, live feedback and sharing good examples of pupil work. Used across many subjects, the visualisers will also be used to record work and learning for evidence, revision and even a class activities blog. |
| Oxhey Wood | Watford | English | A wide range of fiction and non-fiction books for the library for use during term-time and for the summer-club for children's independent reading and supported sessions. This will help develop a love of reading which is particularly needes as many of their children do not have many books at home. |
| St. Nicholas Elstree C/E | Elstree | English | 3x iPads primarily to help individuals and small groups progress their reading with online reading activities such as the online books and activities included in their phonics scheme. The school has a large proportion of SEND and EAL children and the use of technology for interactive activities will help both motivation and progression. |
| Nash Mills C/E | Hemel Hempstead | STEM | A pack of 16x Sphero Mini robots, equipment and activity cards to bring both basic and advanced coding to life for all ages. The robots can be programmed in many ways including using a joystick, block commands or learner's voice or facial expressions and will thus will also be accessible to SEND children. |
| Leverstock Green C/E | Hemel Hempstead | STEM | A whole school maaths day workshop including a parental session focussing on reasoning, problem solving and fluency with engaging, fun and challenging activities. There will be a starter assembly and then every class will benefit from a session followed by a parents' workshop to enable them to help their children with maths homework and learning. |
| Saffron Green | Borehamwood | English | Initial annual subscription to the Read/Write Inc. phonics scheme which will train teachers in the delivery of phonics as well as allow pupils to access individualised phonics work from home to consolidate and progress their learning. This will help a large number of struggling pupils reach and hopefully exceed expected reading levels and, if successful, can be funded in future years from the school's literacy budget. |
| Watton at Stone | Hertford | Outdoor Learning | Training and certification for Level 3 Forest School Leadership and Forest School equipment. The trained teacher will then cascade her knowledge and skills down to other staff to develop their skills in teaching many outdoor learning activities/topics such as integration with curriculum topics (science, maths, art etc), risk management, ecosystem and environmental as well as the important skills of teamwork, resilience and self-confidence. |
| Camp | St. Albans | English | A selection of Collins' Big Cat phonics book packs addressing various reading levels to add to their library of phonetic based reading books. The books will be used throughout the school, especially helping pupil premium children and will give a wider variety of new and exciting texts to keep children motivated and facilitate smooth progression through the levels. |
| Thorn Grove | Bishops Stortford | Outdoor Learning | Outdoor investigation equipment including a pond explorer class set, 6x underwater viewers, 10x viewing chambers and a weather station with colour display and multi-sensor. This equipment will be used to bring specific curriculum subjects and topics to life in e.g. in science and geography as well as increasing interest through practical work and skills such as investigation, measuring and teamwork. |
| Hartsbourne | Bushey | STEM | 5x Data Loggers and charging tray to help implement the Teach Computing framework and increase the level of challenge for children in their gathering, analysing and presenting data activities. The devices gather data from various sources/sensors and will help develop skills such as critical thinking and problem-solving as well as providing stimulating, practical activities for computing and science topics. |
| Merryfield | Borehamwood | English | A range of expertly curated book packs focussing on diversity and inclusion for this school which is in the most deprived LSOA in Hertfordshire and in the most deprived 10% nationally. The school community is incredibly diverse in terms of languages spoken, minority groups and looked-after children and these new and focussed books will help all the children to feel included and understood. |
| Gade Valley | Hemel Hempstead | English | Picture books for EYFS/KS1 and Accelerated Reader book packs covering lower and middle years to help improve pupil's fluency, vocabulary and comprehension as well as increasing motivation to read new and exciting books. The Accelerated Reader system features an online comprehension test for each title with results being stored and analysed to advise whether children are ready to move up through the carefully assigned levels. |