The NAB Schools First Awards are open to all schools within Australia. A school is any primary or secondary school or combined P-12/K-12/R-12 school in the Government, Catholic or Independent sectors and special schools.

Schooling offered offsite in non-educational institutions or settings are not considered schools.

Find out more about the Award Categories.

Applications are closed for the 2011 NAB Schools First Impact, Seed Funding and Student Awards. Click here to see who won.

To stay up to date with news around the 2012 key dates and applications, join our mailing list.

Applications for the 2011 NAB Schools First Impact, Seed Funding and Student Awards are closed. Click here to see who won.

To stay up to date with news around the 2012 key dates and applications, join our mailing list.

It depends on a number of factors, including the objectives of your project how developed your school-community partnership.

If your partnership can demonstrate improved student outcomes as a result of the program implemented by the partners, you should look at Impact Awards.

Seed Funding Awards are for schools that are seeking funding to help their partnership develop further. They’ll either be in the process of setting up a partnership or in the early stages of one.

Student Awards are designed to help promote student-led ideas around school-community partnerships. This award provides students with the opportunity to own and nurture an idea that will positively impact their peers.

The best way you can get involved or register your interest is to join our mailing list. That way, you’ll receive our monthly e-newsletters and any updates about the program.

The Early Childhood Schools, which are a new initiative by the ACT, fit our definition of a school as they are registered as public schools in the ACT. Pre-schools are not regarded as schools for the purposes of NAB Schools First but Early Childhood Schools are eligible as they have classes from K-2.

However, because of the highly competitive nature of the NAB Schools First Awards, preference will be given to programs and partnerships that show direct benefits to school aged children, rather than pre-school children.

The best thing about NAB Schools First is that communities and businesses can get together with local schools and help decide what's best for their community. That means you can develop a project that's right for your joint needs.

Communities can provide support in many forms – financial resources, people resources, time and facility resources, skills, tools, talents and enthusiasm.

Learn about the key features of effective school-community partnerships (106KB PDF).

Due to the anticipated volumes of apllications, it's more effective to filter them through one channel - which will be online.

By having all applications submitted online, it provides both consistency across all applications and assists the NAB Schools First Judges when assessing the applications.

For more about the application process, please refer to the Toolkit section of the website.

Stay up-to-date with all the news around the upcoming 2012 award applications by joining our mailing list.

At NAB Schools First, our goal is to help improve student outcomes. What that means is that every school will achieve something different – something that's right for them. That could be increased attendance, greater engagement, improved literacy and numeracy...the possibilities are endless.

Discover more via our Toolkit.

This website is the central hub for all information, resources and toolkits about NAB Schools First. For more about the types of support we provide schools, go to our Ongoing Support page.

To make sure you get the latest updates about the program, we also recommend you join our mailing list.

Yes, but with some parameters!

Your school can submit more than one application in the same year and in the same category.

However, all applications must be for different community partnerships. In any one year, you’ll only be eligible to win an award in either the Impact or Seed Funding category.

If deemed by NAB Schools First to be eligible for both categories in the same year, your school will be awarded the Impact Award and deemed ineligible for the Seed Funding Award.

Schools making applications for Impact and Seed Funding Awards can also apply for a Student Award in the same year.

Yes, a school can have more than one community partner.

The cover page of the application form will ask for details of your primary partner. While you’ll be asked to identify all community partners, you’re encouraged to focus on one primary partnership in your application and to identify this partnership clearly.

Discover more Tips for Applying.

Yes you can.

Your school can submit more than one application in the same year and in the same category.
However, you must submit a separate application for each different community partnership.

But remember, in any one year, you’ll only be eligible to win an award in either the Impact or Seed Funding category in any one year. If deemed by NAB Schools First to be eligible for both categories in the same year, your school will be awarded the Impact Award and deemed ineligible for the Seed Funding Award.

Schools making applications for Impact and Seed Funding Awards can also apply for a Student Award in the same year.

A service offered to a school at a cost, or a program for which the school is paying a fee to have delivered.

There are many organisations that offer schools programs that can be imported into the school at a cost. For the purposes of NAB Schools First these are not considered school-community partnerships.

There is often a cost involved in providing material for the project and this is not a fee for service but necessary expenditure. The partner must not be making a financial profit from the school - it must be a shared venture to improve educational outcomes for students.

We've created a service where schools and community groups can register their details and requirements to see if there's a relevant partner in their area. So, if you've identified a student need and have a partnership idea to improve a student outcome, take a look at our Partnership Matching Service.

For the purposes of the NAB Schools First Awards, we generally define a community in terms of geographical boundaries. However, it can also refer to a virtual community.

A community partner can be any organisation, agency or entity that isn’t a school. This may include businesses, service clubs, sporting groups, and other education institutions such as TAFEs, adult community centres, neighbourhood houses or universities.

In the context of the NAB Schools First Awards, 'outcomes' refers to the positive impact of the partnership and program on students.

This positive impact will have come about because of a program or project implemented by a school in partnership with at least one other non-school partner.

There are many different outcomes that a highly effective school-community partnership can help bring about through its combined expertise and actions. These include improved physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, social, vocational and civic outcomes for students.

Yes - a cluster of schools can be involved in an awards application.

However, there must be a lead school who will be the recipient of the funds. All schools in the partnership will need to be included on the application form with one nominated as the 'lead school'. How the money is 'divided up' will be a matter for the cluster to manage.

No. Winning an Impact Award in 2009 makes the winning school ineligible for any award in 2010 while winning an Impact Award in 2010 makes the winning school ineligible for any award in 2011. A 2009 Impact Award winner can re-apply in 2011 with a different partnership on their own or with other schools. A 2010 Impact Award winner can re-apply in 2010 with a different partnership on their own or with other schools.

Award winning schools will be required to nominate a representative to receive the funding and will be provided with a local NAB branch contact to manage the transfer of funds.

The NAB Schools First Awards applications are reviewed by a judging panel of experienced assessors representing key stakeholder groups in education.

Collectively, the panel brings together an excellent knowledge of school-community partnerships, substantial experience in schools (Government, Catholic and Independent) and expertise in judging national and other awards.

Read the Judging Process document.

Any monetary award received through the NAB Schools First Awards program is to be used to

• strengthen the existing partnership(s)
• develop a new partnership that is designed to meet an identified need relating to
  student outcomes; and/or 
• promote good practice around school-community partnerships to benefit students.

At the Foundation for Young Australians, we’re committed to improving the life chances and learning outcomes of all young people. We’re also focussed on achieving educational reform in Australia so young people have equal access to a high quality education.

We believe that NAB Schools First is a great opportunity to deliver on these commitments because of the school-community partnerships the program is unearthing, supporting and promoting. The benefits to students who are part of these partnerships are far greater than any of us imagine. Every day we’re part of  NAB Schools First, we grow more confident that we’re heading in the right direction.

Learn more about FYA and the other two partners.

At ACER, our mission is to improve learning. NAB Schools First is a wonderful way for us to do this and make a positive and tangible contribution to schools seeking to improve educational outcomes for young people. Around Australia, great work is being done by schools to improve their students’ outcomes – the program showcases some of them.

By being involved in NAB Schools First, we can help schools in several ways. Not only can we raise awareness about the characteristics of highly effective school-community partnerships but we can assist schools with building and sustaining their partnerships. In addition, we believe that the customised feedback NAB Schools First provides schools can help them recognise the importance of having an evidence base for their programs. In turn, we can assist the schools with data collection, monitoring and evaluation and encourage them to draw on the broader community to share expertise and resources.

Find out more about ACER and the other two partners.

At NAB we believe we have a responsibility to the communities where our customers and our people live and work. NAB Schools First is a unique and large scale education initiative with enormous potential to capture the hearts and minds of NAB employees, communities and students. We wanted to help support communities' "dreams and aspirations" for education in Australia.

Learn more about NAB and the other two NAB Schools First Partners.