Teachers win share of over £100,000 to fund projects

Eight teachers have won a share of over £100,000 to help turn their innovative project ideas into reality.

This came after the teachers won the Let Teachers SHINE award, where winners receive grants up to £25,000 to pilot projects designed to help disadvantaged children in the North flourish at school.

Let Teachers SHINE is run each year by education charity Shine, which works with teachers and schools all over the North of England to help disadvantaged children reach their true potential.

It has helped children in 22,000 schools.

As well as funding, the charity offers all winners free access to a broad range of development workshops and coaching opportunities to help teachers get the best out of their ideas.

The winners included:

– Rachel Chong – A maths teacher from Greenford High School in London. With her funding, she will develop an online platform for providing feedback to secondary school students. 

– Ebrahim Tafti – A maths teacher who is developing an online program to improve pupils’ confidence in arithmetic skills.

– Richard Cowie – A primary school teacher from Doncaster. He is developing an innovative quiz website aimed at getting children to read more at home.

– Sarah Eggington – An early years teacher from Scunthorpe. She hopes her project will improve the language and communication skills of early years children while also instilling in them a love of science.

– Vacaas Zaman – A science teacher at Stephen Longfellow Academy in Leeds. He hopes his ‘buggy building’ project will engage students in STEM.

– Rachel Major – A teacher from Norbury Academy in Wakefield. She hopes her project will get more young people into STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths).

– Jonny Foster – A secondary school teacher from Middlesbrough. GE is developing an idea that will help students transfer knowledge and skills between maths and science and to make connections between their lessons and the real world.

– Estelle Bellamy – An English teacher based in Blackpool. She is developing a project that uses printed bookmarks to increase children’s understanding of vocabulary.

This year’s winning projects encompass maths, science and English.

Rachel Chong, who has received £25,00 for her winning idea ‘Feed Forward’, said her project aims to raise attainment and reduce the disadvantage gap in two ways.

First, by diagnosing gaps in student knowledge in way that encourages essential independent learning, and by empowering teachers with a sustainable way of delivering effective feedback.

She said: ““Winning Let Teachers SHINE and receiving their support helps me to expand this project and to share it with other schools. 

“I have so many exciting plans for Feed Forward, and receiving this award opens up a wealth of incredible opportunities for its development – and alongside the hope that it can ultimately benefit more students.”