Character education grant fund

Educational establishments and VCS organisations have until Friday 6 February to apply to the Department for Education £3.5 million character education grant fund to support projects in character education.

The Department of Education are committed to helping schools ensure that more children develop a set of character traits, attributes and behaviours that underpin success in education and work, including:

  • Perseverance, resilience and grit;
  • Confidence and optimism;
  • Motivation, drive and ambition;
  • Neighbourliness and community spirit;
  • Tolerance and respect;
  • Honesty, integrity and dignity; and
  • Conscientiousness, curiosity and focus.

Applications are open to schools, colleges, universities, local authorities and voluntary, community or social enterprise organisations, or other profit or non-profit organisations.

Proposals must be on a not-for-profit basis and must be designed to work within or in partnership with schools and/or colleges in England. Grant-funded organisations must engage with the relevant school or college that the young person attends to assess whether the proposed activity or provision will help to underpin success in education and work.

Proposals should develop new innovations or expand existing evidence-based practice in some, or all, of the areas below:

  • Building a range of schools’ or colleges’ capacity to improve character education by developing the knowledge and skills of staff;
  • Trialing school or college-based initiatives, for example classroom-based initiatives linked to school/college subjects, teaching and learning strategies, whole-school/-college practical approaches to ethos and discipline or bespoke activities with groups of pupils on character development;
  • Providing extra-curricular activities after school or college, which could include competitive sports, music, debating, outdoor activities or survival weekends;
  • Providing community volunteering activities/projects and work experience by making links with the local charities, employers and major industries;
  • Peer-to-peer support and mentoring through dialogue and role modelling with successful students or professionals in the community;
  • Developing a practical suite of tools and/or accessible educational materials and techniques that support schools in developing character;
  • Establishing effective ways to track the progress of pupils throughout their educational journey through to employment;
  • Establishing innovative ways to build character in children with high-risk factors, such as special educational needs or a disability, poor family functioning, maltreatment and poverty; and
  • Proposals for other approaches will also be considered.

Up to £3.5 million is available to grant fund projects in the 2015 to 2016 academic year. There is no pre-determined level of grant award, but as a guide grant awards are expected to be in the region of £50,000 to £750,000.

Organisations have until Friday 6 February to submit a proposal for grant funding with grants are expected to be awarded at the end of March.

For a full specification, application form and further guidance visit https://online.contractsfinder.businesslink.gov.uk/Common/View%20Notice.aspx?site=1000&lang=en&NoticeId=1702192.