Empowering collaboration: Our approach to grant giving
10 March, 2020, Dr Kathryn Wright
Many of you will know Culham St Gabriel’s through its programmes such as RE:ONLINE, the Teach:RE Courses, Email a Believer and ResearchforRE. However, I wonder if you have ever thought about applying for a grant? We have recently changed our grant giving approach to focus more on seed corn funding and supporting groups of teachers who wish to collaborate on a small-scale project, as well as giving large-scale grants. https://www.cstg.org.uk/grant-giving/grants/
The Trust aims to empower you. Through both our programmes and grant making we promote approaches which enable and facilitate teachers and educationalists to grow in confidence and bring about change in classrooms and beyond. We are particularly keen to support collaborative working. Could you bring a group of teachers together to work on an innovative project through a local group or hub? Could you connect with a university department to focus on a specific piece of subject knowledge research and apply it to your curriculum?
Some of our recent grant awards have exemplified this collaborative approach. For example, the University of Cambridge plans to bring researchers and teachers together to create resources for GCSE Religious Studies, whilst the Diocese of Bristol and South Gloucestershire Local Authority are working together to provide peer to peer support for teachers of RE. You can find out more about recent grant awards here https://www.cstg.org.uk/grant-giving/grants/grants-awarded/
Some teachers and educationalists I have spoken to are hesitant to apply for a grant as they have never done it before. In my career, I have sat on both ‘sides’ of the process. In my previous roles I fairly regularly applied for grants, so I know what it is like to be an applicant! I now have the privilege of being able to support those who apply. I can talk you through the process, the forms that need to be completed and provide advice. Please do get in touch, I’d be delighted to have a conversation.
Our next grant application deadline for small-scale and large-scale grants is Tuesday 28th April 2020.