25 October 2011

National awards program, NAB Schools First has announced a total of $275,000 awards to be shared between seven South Australian schools.

NAB Schools First is a partnership between NAB, the Foundation for Young Australians and Australian Council for Educational Research which rewards outstanding school-community partnerships that lead to improved student outcomes. 

Head of Education, NAB, Rebecca Sherwill says this year’s quality of applicants is outstanding. 

“NAB Schools First received 863 applications from truly inspiring school-community partnerships around the country. The quality of these partnerships, their originality and their ability to address their specific students’ needs and opportunities is outstanding – making it difficult for our judges to select this year’s winners,” Rebecca says.

There are two awards categories: Impact Awards of $50,000 are allocated to schools whose community partnerships are already having a demonstrated impact on students, whilst Seed Funding Awards of $25,000 go to schools in the early stages of their community partnership.

Of SA’s winning schools, four received Impact Awards at $50,000 each and three received Seed Funding Awards at $25,000 each.

All Impact Award winners are eligible to become the SA Impact Award winner and in the process receive an additional $50,000. The SA Impact Award winner will be announced on Tuesday 25 October 2012.

The winner will be in the running for the National title where their total aggregate awards funding could be $500,000.

NAB Schools First began in 2009 and by the end of 2011 NAB’s flagship education initiative will have awarded $15 million to 310 schools around Australia.

Schools and community groups interested to find out about the 2012 award funding should visit the website www.schoolsfirst.edu.au. Further announcements about the 2012 awards will be made early next year.