Mental heath and catching up priorities after pandemic

Schools Plus’ funding applications have ended and what schools are asking for reveals where the pandemic has hit hardest.

Over 380 schools across the country submitted applications for support for their teachers and nearly half of all applications came from NSW and Victoria, where schools have been heavily impacted by COVID.

Teachers are seeking funding for projects to support trauma informed practice (24 per cent), literacy and numeracy (23 per cent), initiatives to support teaching staff (34 per cent) and for project-based learning to help overcome student disengagement (23 per cent). The total funding requested amounts to $11m.

54 per cent of applications were from primary schools, 26 per cent from secondary schools, 11 per cent from combined primary and secondary and 9 per cent from special schools, indicating that it is students under 12 that have been impacted the most.

Schools Plus CEO Rosemary Conn commented: “We expected to see applications from schools impacted by COVID, and there are three clear themes emerging from those schools’ applications. Teachers are saying that they need help to support their student’s mental health and wellbeing, they want support for catch-up programs on literacy and numeracy, and they want to initiate projects to help re-engage students after such a period of disrupted learning. We are currently raising funds to help as many of these schools as we can, but demand will always out-strip the number of projects we are able to support.”

Successful applications will be supported with funding, evaluation tools and dedicated coaching from a team of expert education professionals, to ensure that their project runs as smoothly as possible.

Schools Plus seeks to close the education gap caused by disadvantage and believe all children should have access to a great education regardless of their background.