The Department of Education has just announced that it will be allocating £200,000 towards collaborations between state schools, private schools and universities

Commencing this autumn, the new initiative will allow both state and public schools as well as universities to bid for grants of up to £20,000 to help them build partnerships. Bids of over £5,000 will require matched funding from the institutions and the DfE said bids would be capped at £20,000 (excluding the matched funding) so that as many schools as possible would benefit.

At the end of 2018, the DfE published guidelines suggesting collaborations between state schools, independent schools and universities, with ideas including sharing teachers in shortage subjects, as well as facilities. These new grants could also be allocated towards transport costs between school sites, extra curriculum resources and holding CPD (Continued Professional Development) courses for teachers.

Lord Agnew, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the School System, said in a video speech to the Schools Together Group, “This government’s ambition is to create an education system that extends opportunity to everyone. One of the ways in which we can extend opportunity is through partnerships – schools working with other schools and universities to share what’s best about each sector.”

He continued “This funding will create fantastic opportunities for schools, which could use grants either as seed funding for new partnerships, or to expand and deepen existing ones.”