Board of Education (NI) Grant Funding Scheme

Thursday May 9th 2024

Since 2019, the Church of Ireland Board of Education (NI) has been running a funding programme to help parishes create new and innovative ways to develop their relationship/partnership with local schools.

The Board has a limited fund and wishes to distribute this as small grants to churches working with their local schools.

This article is to advise parishes that the Board is again welcoming applications to the fund.

Criteria

Should your parish consider undertaking a project in 2024/2025 you need to bear in mind the following criteria:

Each grant will be no more than £2,500 to be used within one academic year.

This is a one-off grant, no further funding can be guaranteed, and preference will be given to new projects.

Projects must involve work between your parish and a local school or schools, and must not be used to substitute for existing funding.

Priority will be given to parishes who provide match funding of 50% of costs (in exceptional circumstances, the Board may consider a parish not able to fund 50% of the costs).

A project cannot be a one-off event and must involve ongoing work in the school over a finite period.

Projects must have a theme linked to the school curriculum, impact on the educational welfare of the children or supporting the mental health of children and young people.

Priority will be given to projects that demonstrate at least two of the following areas: creating new links with local schools; building community cohesion; support for mental health; Special Educational Needs support; newcomer children and family support.

The parish will publicise the impact of the project through the Church of Ireland Press Office.

A project report (no longer than two pages) of the impact will be submitted to the Board of Education (NI) on completion of the project.

The allocation of funds will be made in June, Expressions of interest must be submitted by Friday May 31. Expressions of interest must be submitted to the Secretary of the Board of Education (NI) (edunorth@rcbcoi.org) and must be no longer than two A4 pages in length. This must include the context of your proposal, the key objectives linked to the above criteria, a budget of the project including local funding and support available.

The General Synod Board of Education (NI) cannot guarantee that any funding will be released but is keen to support quality projects being undertaken. The criteria may be enhanced if there are an excessive number of applications.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact Dr Peter Hamill, Secretary to the Board of Education (NI) on 028 9082 8860 or at edunorth@rcbcoi.org