Bridging the Gap

SHINE grants provide funding to school-led projects of two to three years’ duration, which provide innovative solutions to the education challenges experienced by children from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. SHINE grants support projects that can be evaluated for their impact on the educational attainment of disadvantaged children.

Bridging the Gap: We support projects in the North of England that help children who need extra support at school to thrive when they move from primary to secondary school. Too many disadvantaged young people in the North of England who have not met Age Related Expectations at primary school fall further behind when they first move to secondary school. Through our Bridging the Gap fund, SHINE is interested in supporting these students to make better academic progress during their first few years at secondary school, providing them with the opportunity to continue to progress to GCSE and beyond.

What works? -Building achievement in maths, English and/or science in the first few years of secondary school. -Establishing better ongoing communication between primary and secondary school teachers to make sure there is a consistent approach to teaching as children move between schools. -Making sure that schools engage parents and carers as equal partners in their child’s learning during the move from primary to secondary school. -Improving how information and practice is shared between primary and secondary schools. -Helping schools develop more supportive, holistic practices for children during the move from primary to secondary school to improve learning and reduce exclusions.

What funding do we offer? -We provide funding to help schools, charities and other organisations develop projects that can build on the evidence of what works in supporting children and parents in this phase. We’re committed to sharing our learning with like-minded organisations, so that together we can help more disadvantaged children to thrive during the move from primary to secondary school.

Our process: -We’re a ‘hands-on’ funder and we’re happy to advise and support you as you develop your proposal. -Our deadlines for applications are usually around the end of January, the end of April and the end of October each year. -Successful applicants have generally been in contact with SHINE for at least one to two months before these deadlines.

The normal range of SHINE grant funding for the full duration of a two- to three-year project is around £20,000-£100,000. Projects that are new, or being piloted/tested for impact, or that impact on smaller numbers of students, will be funded at the lower end of this range, whereas projects with a stronger evidence base and that reach a greater number of beneficiaries will be considered at the higher end of this range. SHINE can also award grants for over £100,000, in some circumstances. Such projects usually have a strong evidence base, a history of improving attainment for disadvantaged children, and will have the potential to have an impact on a larger number of schools, students or other beneficiaries.

All proposals must:

• be led by a school, early years setting, Multi Academy Trust (MAT) or informal cluster of schools.
• meet our core funding priorities (Ready for School, Bridging the Gap or Flying High).
• target children, schools and/or teachers within the North of England (the North East, North West or Yorkshire & Humber regions).
• target children from low income homes: we use Pupil Premium eligibility as a general indicator of economic disadvantage.
• focus on raising academic achievement levels in core subjects (English, maths and science).
• demonstrate some innovation over what is currently practiced – applicants need to show how their idea is different, or an improvement on what is currently practiced.
• be a sustained intervention (rather than a ‘one off’) which can show potential improvements in educational outcomes over time.
• be cost effective and offer value for money.
• have the potential to achieve measurable impact.
• have a realistic plan for sustainability after the funding ends.
• can grow, scale or be replicated into other environments if successful.

We will look favourably on applications for projects that:

• have some match funding in place, this could be ‘in kind’ funding from your establishment
• work in collaboration with other schools or networks in your locality
• have a clear plan for scaling or replication
• have a clear plan for monitoring or evaluation (particularly a Theory of Change).

We do not fund:

• programmes that take place outside the North of England
• short-term or one-off projects
• projects that don’t link to attainment and cannot be measured for impact
• bursaries or any kind of student fees
• direct replacement of statutory funding
• capital build programmes for schools or other education institutions, including gardens, libraries, vehicles or school/area refurbishments.

If you are outside the North of England but have a passion to support disadvantaged children in the North, we recommend you look at our alternative funding stream, our Let Teachers SHINE competition, which is run annually and offers grants to individual teachers working anywhere in England.

As well as funding, SHINE offers our grantees ongoing support with evaluation and adaptation to local contexts, as well as opportunities to work with our other funded projects and collaborate in a network of best practice and educational change across the North of England.