Children and youth benefit from more than $280,000 in education grants
38 rural, regional and remote communities to benefit
Bendigo, 15 February: The Foundation for Regional and Rural Renewal (FRRR) has awarded 38 community groups across Australia more than $280,000 in grants to fund education initiatives, through the fifth round of its REAPing Rewards program.
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Access to programs and resources is often a major barrier to learning for students in rural, regional and remote Australia, which in turn affects students’ engagement and motivation. To help address these issues, FRRR runs the REAPing Rewards small grants program, which directly benefits children and youth (0-18 years) and their educators in rural and remote communities.
The program supports a holistic approach to education, beginning in early childhood by ensuring children are school ready, and continues to support primary and secondary education, ensuring equal access to the resources and opportunities available to metropolitan students.
Some of the innovative projects funded in this round include:
- Contribution to support a bi-lingual music education project focusing on the care of companion animals in Groote Eylandt, NT
- Providing on-site speech pathology services for children demonstrating significant speech and language delays in Borilla Kindergarten, Qld
- Supporting a series of extracurricular activities in visual arts, science, and drama at Channon Public School, NSW to strengthen student engagement and community engagement
- Providing training for home tutors to support improved behaviour, literacy and numeracy skills of isolated students in the Flinders Ranges of SA
- Providing additional support towards a Break O'Day Health Resource Association Inc. project in Tasmania to deliver a wellbeing and resilience program to female students to increase engagement in education
- Supporting the professional development of staff at Euroa Secondary College, Victoria, in the Positive Education model to help students and families improve student wellbeing, life skills and learning outcomes
- Delivery of a Healthy Eating, Activity & Lifestyle program to improve health and wellbeing of students in Boyup Brook, WA
The complete list of projects funded is available below.
Jeanice Henderson, FRRR’s REAPing Rewards Program Manager says that the program strives to support the educational resources and individualised learning support that rural and remote students require, and ensure they enjoy access to the same opportunities as their urban counterparts.
“In awarding grants, we look at need and local solutions that ensure equality of learning outcomes. Interestingly, this round has seen some first-time funding requests, such as 3D printers and robotics kits. There has also been an increase in projects that support youth transition activities into further study or employment,” said Ms Henderson.
FRRR’s CEO, Natalie Egleton, explains that this program aims to break down barriers for isolated children and youth, and it is working.
“We’ve already seen increased school attendance, engagement and motivation through the numerous projects we have supported and we thank all our current donors for investing in this collaborative program, including Ian Potter Foundation, Yulgilbar Foundation, Third Link Investments, Barr Family Foundation, Gross Foundation, Tim Fairfax Family Foundation and Thyne Reid Foundation,” Ms Egleton said.
REAPing Rewards is one of the highest demand programs and FRRR is seeking additional funding partners to enable it to continue nation-wide. Interested donors, no matter how large or small, are asked to get in touch with FRRR.
“We received 117 applications requesting a total of $979,419 for a wide variety projects and we were only able to support 32% of these. This means many worthy projects benefiting Australia’s future workforce missed out. There is still more to be done to restore the educational balance for children in remote areas - communities need more funds to address this gap,” Ms Egleton said.
Round 6 of the REAPing Rewards program is currently open for applications of grants up to $10,000 – it closes 24 March, 2016. The program guidelines and application forms are available on the REAPing Rewards page of FRRR’s website.
For more information on FRRR’s education programs, go to www.frrr.org.au/educate.
REAPing Rewards Round 5 Grant Recipients
|
Organisation |
Project |
Location |
Grant |
|---|---|---|---|
|
New South Wales |
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|
Alstonville Community Preschool Incorporated |
Little Green Thumbs Development of an outdoor learning area through the purchase of gardening equipment and materials |
Alstonville |
$3,809 |
|
Deniliquin Christian School Incorporated |
Technology Turnaround New ICT equipment to enhance learning opportunities and student engagement |
Deniliquin |
$8,500 |
|
Little Yuin Preschool Family Centre Aboriginal Corporation |
The Rainbow Connection Contribution towards the provision of transport to increase the level of access to preschool for disadvantaged children |
Wallaga Lake |
$6,600 |
|
Parkes Early Childhood Centre |
Getting Kids Onboard and Ready for Life Updating ICT equipment, including a large touch screen to allow children to experience relevant and current learning technologies |
Parkes |
$6,250 |
|
Rocky Hall Preschool Association Inc |
Let’s Communicate Providing new technology for staff and access to a portable touch screen for the children to enhance their learning opportunities |
Rocky Hall |
$3,000 |
|
St Patrick’s Catholic Primary School |
Bridging the Gap Provision of a professional training workshop in early language and communication skill development for early childhood educators |
Brewarrina |
$7,350 |
|
The Channon Public School P&C Association |
Anything is Possible Supporting a series of extracurricular activities in visual arts, science, and performance/drama to strengthen student and community engagement with the school |
Channon |
$10,000 |
|
Wee Waa High School Parents & Citizens Association |
Into the Future Enhancing ICT education capacity to support classroom teaching of Design and Technology |
Wee Waa |
$10,000 |
|
Northern Territory |
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|
East Arnhem Regional Council |
Healthy Paws, Healthy People Supporting a bi-lingual music education project focusing on the care of companion animals |
Groote Eylandt |
$9,586 |
|
Tennant Creek Primary School Council Inc. |
Climbing Toward Gross Motor Skill Development Providing outdoor equipment to improve the development of gross motor skills in preschool children |
Tennant Creek |
$9,907 |
|
West Arnhem Regional Council |
Jabiru Mini Miners Upgrading the outdoor area to provide increased opportunities for social interaction, as well as encourage development of gross and fine motor skill development |
Jabiru |
$5,000 |
|
Queensland |
|||
|
Borilla Community Kindergarten Association Inc |
Speech 4 All at Borilla Kindy Facilitating the provision of on-site speech pathology services for children that demonstrate significant speech and language delays |
Borilla |
$10,000 |
|
C&K Allora Community Kindergarten |
Information Technology Project for Children with Additional Needs Providing access to technologies to assist teachers to create suitable educational activities for students with additional needs |
Allora |
$7,939 |
|
Clermont Kindergarten Day Care Centre Association Inc. |
Playground Blitz Creating a nature-inspired playground to enhance physical skills, and the social and emotional development of children through play |
Clermont |
$10,000 |
|
Dulacca State School Parents & Citizens Association |
Dulacca State School Pre-Prep Program Enhanced early childhood educational development through the provision of a pre-prep program at the school |
Dulacca |
$6,462 |
|
Gunalda & District Kindergarten Association Inc. |
Teaching Kindy Kids the Skills of Tomorrow Reducing barriers to learning and providing educational opportunities through the introduction of tablet technology for students |
Gunalda |
$2,994 |
|
Oakey State High School |
OCI @ Oakey High - Tech Ready Professional development for teachers, which will enable senior students to achieve Cert II in Live Production and Services |
Oakey |
$6,798 |
|
Rolleston Primary P&C Association |
Rolly Automatos's Contribution towards the purchase of additional robotics kits to support problem solving, computer programming and coding skills for students |
Rolleston |
$5,000 |
|
USQ Artsworx (University of Southern Queensland) |
Free Buses for Arts Workshops Provision of transport, allowing rural students to attend live theatre performances and participate in music and theatre workshops |
Toowoomba |
$5,585 |
|
South Australia |
|||
|
Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association |
Engaging and Empowering Home Tutors Providing training for home tutors, and in turn improving the literacy and numeracy skills, and in-class behaviour, of isolated students |
Flinders Ranges |
$10,000 |
|
Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association |
Bridging the Gap for Bush Kids Supporting students from isolated families to access educational equipment, opportunities and experiences that develop their learning |
Port Augusta |
$20,000 |
|
Kadina Child Care Centre Inc. |
Waddlers & Toddlers Touch, Taste and Outdoor Wonderland Upgrading the outdoor space to increase safety and improve learning through outdoor play for toddlers |
Kadina |
$3,500 |
|
Nuriootpa High School |
Educational Access for all Enhancing technology to support students who attend an offsite, alternative learning program |
Nuriootpa |
$10,000 |
|
Save the Children Australia Trust |
School Attendance Program Delivery of a school food program in three indigenous schools to improve school attendance, student engagement and to encourage new enrolments |
Ceduna, Koonibba and Yalata |
$10,000 |
|
Ungarra Township Progress Association |
Active Play at Ungarra Establishing an indoor Active Play Playgroup to improve access to early childhood development education within the local community |
Ungarra |
$9,000 |
|
Tasmania |
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|
Break O'Day Health Resource Association Inc. |
Tune In - Be Your Best Self Supporting the delivery of a wellbeing and resilience program for female students to increase engagement in education |
St Helens |
$9,000 |
|
Lorinna Residents’ & Ratepayers’ Association Inc. |
Cradling Young Script - A Tale from Tasmania's Cradle Expanding the literacy curriculum for students through delivery of literacy and narrative writing workshops |
Lorinna |
$1,094 |
|
Victoria |
|||
|
Camperdown P-12 College |
Table Top Inventing - Awakening the Inner Inventor in Teens! Enhancing the Design, Creativity and Technology curriculum through the purchase of a 3D printer |
Camperdown |
$3,400 |
|
East Loddon P-12 College Parents’ Association |
Maths Pathways Program Contributing to an improvement of numeracy skills through the delivery of Maths Pathways Program for all students |
East Loddon |
$6,000 |
|
Euroa Secondary College |
Positively Educating! Supporting professional development for staff about the Positive Education model to help students and families improve student wellbeing, life skills and learning outcomes |
Euroa |
$10,000 |
|
Gannawarra Shire Council |
Mixing Music in the North Lands Supporting professional development of regional music teachers to improve learning opportunities for students |
Gannawarra |
$1,998 |
|
Gippsland East Local Learning & Employment Network |
Explore, Excite and Inspire! To support the hosting of two local careers forums and thereby increase the career aspirations, knowledge of employment and training opportunities for young people in the region |
Gippsland |
$8,000 |
|
Mallee Track Health & Community Service |
Mallee Minors Monster Makeover Providing modern educational resources to support and improve developmental outcomes for children |
Mallee |
$10,000 |
|
Murrayville Community College |
Broad Horizons - Pathways to Work and Study Supporting a careers program to increase the awareness and aspirations of students around career prospects and tertiary study opportunities |
Murrayville |
$8,000 |
|
St Patrick’s Primary School Koroit |
Blast Off! Removing barriers to curriculum extension activities for rural students by supporting a whole-of-school excursion to Scienceworks in Melbourne |
Koroit |
$5,360 |
|
Western Australia |
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|
Boyup Brook Community Resource Centre Inc. |
HEALing Teens Delivery of a Healthy Eating, Activity & Lifestyle (HEAL) program to improve health and wellbeing of students |
Boyup Brook |
$6,570 |
|
Elizabeth Telfer Building Management Committee |
Kitchen for Our Kids Upgrading the kitchen to create a safe, usable space for children and volunteers from three early childhood groups, enabling a greater range of activities |
Wongan Hills |
$10,000 |
|
Mount Manypeaks Primary School |
Plot to Plate to Plot Supporting the installation of an outdoor kitchen to enable the expansion of an existing garden and nutrition program |
Mount Manypeaks |
$7,393 |
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