Teachers with inspirational ideas for raising the achievement of disadvantaged children and young people are invited to enter the Let Teachers SHINE competition launched by SHINE and supported by Capita SIMS.
Now in its sixth year, the competition awards ten grants of up to £15,000 to help teachers develop their innovative teaching projects.
The charity also offers winners the opportunity to receive additional funding to roll their scheme out to other schools based on the impact individual projects have had on students.
The competition is open to teachers in England from Friday 24 February to Monday 24 April 2017. The winners will be selected by an esteemed panel of education experts, including members of the TES editorial team. Grants will be awarded in June 2017 at the Capita SIMS Annual Conference.
Last year, Hannah Gosling was awarded just over £12,000 for her Musical Maths Robots project which gives children with low engagement and attainment a helping hand in maths by bringing programmable robots into the classroom.
When asked about winning last year’s grant, Hannah said: “Thanks to the funding from the Let Teachers SHINE competition, the project has rapidly developed over the last 12 months and it and has helped me to kick-start a total of 11 pilot sessions which have had an incredible impact on children’s engagement and learning in maths. I am now well on my way to realising my dream to have the project written as a series of lessons that can be delivered in the classroom and published online to help children around the country.”
Phil Neal, a director at Capita SIMS, says: “We continue to be amazed by the exceptionally high standard of entries for the Let Teachers SHINE competition. Hearing the many inspirational stories behind every project makes selecting the winners an agonising decision. I encourage anyone with an idea of raising the attainment of disadvantaged children and young people to enter. You really can make a difference. Good luck!”
Clare Gilhooly, CEO of SHINE, adds: “We believe every child has potential whatever their starting point in life and we are passionate about the role teachers can play in fulfilling this potential. With the support of Capita SIMS, the Let Teachers SHINE competition will enable us to provide many more opportunities for children and young people to flourish at school.”
Teachers entering the Let Teachers SHINE competition must demonstrate that their idea will help disadvantaged children and young people by raising attainment in English, maths or science.
Previous winners have included Colin Hegarty who received £15,000 to help set up his HegartyMaths website. In five short years, the website has reached a staggering 50 per cent of all secondary schools. Last year, Colin was a finalist in the Global Teacher Prize. In 2014, Amanda Poole was awarded £12,000 for her Space Camp project in which children participate in a range of inspirational space science learning activities.
For more information, please visit www.capita-sims.co.uk/shine-13
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About Capita SIMS:
Capita SIMS is the leading supplier of information systems to the education sector, providing a range of software and services to schools and local authorities to help raise standards and reduce administration. Capita’s SIMS is the most popular management information system for schools and is used every day by more than 22,000 educational establishments in the UK.
Website: www.capita-sims.co.uk
Twitter: @CapitaSIMS
About SHINE (Support and Help in Education):
SHINE funds and develops additional educational initiatives which encourage underachieving children and young people to raise their academic attainment levels. SHINE works in partnership with primary and secondary state schools, the independent sector and world class universities to develop innovative projects.
Since August 2000, SHINE has committed £24.5 million to almost 250 projects helping more than 280,000 children from over 5,000 schools. SHINE rigorously monitors and evaluates the projects it funds to ensure that they make a sustained and positive difference to the young lives they help.
Website: www.shinetrust.org.uk
Twitter: @shinetrustuk
