What is Let Teachers SHINE?
Let Teachers SHINE is a social incubator programme for practising teachers, in all settings, with early-stage ideas aimed at improving outcomes for disadvantaged students in the North.
Each year, we award funding of up to £25,000 over two years for new applicants. Through our accelerator programme, winners also gain access to valuable networks, training and expert advice to maximise the impact of their funding.
After the initial 2 years of support, SHINE invites the most promising projects to apply for future funding, offering long-term backing to help scale their ideas.
Previous examples of winning ideas include:
And you can read about last year’s winners and their projects here.
In the coming years, SHINE aims to position the North of England as a hotbed of effective educational practice, fostering the next generation of creative ideas with the potential to transform outcomes at scale. If you’re a teacher looking to join a high high–impact community of teachers who are committed to driving the education system forwards, this could be the opportunity for you.
We will award around 10 initial grants per year, depending on the size of the grants and the strength of the ideas submitted.
Essential criteria
SHINE is looking for projects that best meet the following essential criteria:
- Led by a qualified teacher or 2 teachers working in a school 1 in the North of England or teachers with commitment and capacity to roll out their project into schools in the North of England.
- Clear focus on a barrier to education that affects many children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds2 in core subjects (English, maths and Science).
- Demonstrates innovation: how is your idea different, or an improvement to current practice?
- Can be tested to assess its impact
- Can be sustained long-term to demonstrate ongoing improvements in educational outcomes.
We will look favourably on applications that:
- Are clearly additive to the existing landscape of educational provision.
- Help teachers deliver content more effectively, and seek to reduce – rather than add to – existing workload.
- Can be readily shared and embedded easily.
- Have a plan for how they would grow beyond the initial grant (for example working with higher student numbers, or in other schools or other areas) especially across the North.
- Have the backing of your school and leadership team3.
- Are realistically costed and offer value for money.
- Are informed by available educational research.
We will not fund:
- Capital build projects, including refurbishments, gardens, libraries and transport.
- Projects based outside of the North of England without plans to scale or develop in the North of England.
- Projects that do not target or benefit children from less advantaged backgrounds.
- One-off projects that can’t show a long-term link to attainment (summer schools, drop-in clubs etc.).
- Projects where more than 50% of the budget is to be spent on equipment. including books and technology.
- Afterschool clubs/ holiday clubs that don’t link to our curriculum priorities.
Ready to Apply to Let Teachers SHINE?
Apply using the short online form tfaforms.com/4916977 . Tell us:
- what the project is,
- what problem it intends to solve
- how the solution is innovative.
1 SHINE funds projects working with children (0-18) in nurseries, schools and colleges.
2 SHINE uses Pupil Premium eligibility as a general indicator of economic disadvantage.
3 Having the backing of your school leadership is important because the grant will be paid to the school initially and the accelerator programme will involve some time away from the classroom.