About SHINE

SHINE is an education charity that works with teachers, schools, and other organisations, helping disadvantaged children in the North of England to fulfil their true potential.

We are a specialist funder that connects major philanthropy with inspirational teachers and schools in the North, developing innovative programmes aimed at improving opportunities for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

At SHINE, we believe that all children in the North deserve the same educational chances as anyone else.

Our Vision: There are no barriers to learning for children from low-income backgrounds in the North of England.

Our Mission: We support innovative programmes that work to improve educational outcomes for children living in areas of deprivation in the North of England.

SHINE Sunderland

SHINE Sunderland offers opportunities for mainstream secondary schools and teachers in the city to access funding and support to develop projects and collaborate with partners and other schools to meet the needs of the children of Sunderland.

Over the next 10 years the SHINE Sunderland partnership will provide over £11million of funding directly to secondary schools in the City of Sunderland to support work that removes barriers to learning and ensures all children in Sunderland can succeed in their secondary education and beyond

In Sunderland, SHINE will support projects that:

• Foster collaboration between schools around the key barriers facing children in Sunderland.
• Develop innovative practice around improving attainment at GCSE across the City of Sunderland.
• Enable measurable change for children and young people in the city as they progress through their secondary education.
• Create sustainable-long term change in educational outcomes for children in the city.
• Can be shared more widely with other schools within and beyond Sunderland.

The Fund

SHINE has established core priorities for the first phase of the fund, based on the results of a 9-month consultation and research project that identified the key barriers, opportunities and needs for secondary school children in Sunderland to thrive in their education and beyond.

SHINE Sunderland will support projects that address barriers that underpin attainment, to create strong foundations for children across Sunderland. Within the first phase of the Fund, we will particularly seek to support projects that:

• Improve literacy skills by implementing evidence-informed approaches that improve standards across the cohort.
• Provide the foundations for successful transition between primary and secondary school to improve secondary school outcomes. 
• Address underlying barriers that prevent children from reaching their full potential, including, but not limited to, mental health challenges, attendance, parental engagement or SEND.
• Improve aspirations and engagement, and offer enriching educational experiences, especially for disadvantaged students with high prior attainment.

Essential Criteria

All proposals must:

• Seek to address a clear barrier which is demonstrably holding back the progress of students, as indicated by the research findings of the scoping work.
• Be developed and led by a Sunderland secondary school or collaboration of Sunderland secondary schools with a dedicated lead.
• Target children, schools, teachers and/or families within Sunderland.
• Focus on approaches that can demonstrate improvement in academic attainment in core subjects (English, maths and science).
• Be a sustained project over a minimum of 1 year (rather than a ‘one off’) which can show improvements in educational outcomes over time.
• Be cost effective and offer value for money.
• Have the potential to achieve measurable impact, with at least 5% of the total request ring-fenced to support evaluation costs.
• Have a realistic plan for sustainability after the funding ends.