Informing the community.... - 13/04/10

Belinda Allitt writes:

Last night was the first Schools First Partnership Forum for 2010 and it was held at the iconic MCG in Melbourne! With 33 forums planned across Australia over the next two and a half months, it was fantastic to get the first one underway.

The forum was facilitated by Schools First team member, Josh Levy, from The Foundation for Young Australians, with the remainder of the Schools First team scattered around the room to help with questions and answers. There was a great cross section of school representatives, community organisations and NAB volunteers in the room.

The forum kicked off at 4.45pm and was completed by 6.30pm sharp. The rich content covered three main chapters - What is Schools First? Schools First in 2009 and Schools First in 2010. Topics and activities included: 

• the Educational rationale for Schools First
• speed dating
• what does research tell us
• Education in the 21st century
• the award categories
• the award breakdown
• key dates
• application master class

The speed dating activity was extremely popular providing attendees with the opportunity to find out who was in the room so they could start their networking! Discussion was encouraged and we heard from a few 2009 winners who talked about their winning partnerships and their Schools First experience. They particularly provided great insight into the application process with one of our winners from last year saying that the application process was "straightforward" and that it provides partnerships with the opportunity to "document the partnership and the process involved and to celebrate the partnerships". It was also mentioned from a winning partnership that both the school and community partner "were immersed in the application (process) together".

Another winning partnership provided advice to school-community partnerships thinking about applying to "be realistic about where your partnership is heading and clearly working out if you are applying for a seed or impact award".

Schools First team member, Sharon Clerke, from Australian Council for Educational Research, spoke about how to strengthen your application with research. Sharon also touched on four main points - ensure eligibility, address the criteria, provide the evidence and read the guidance material. Sharon's information was extremely helpful, especially to those thinking of applying for an award.

Each attendee received a Schools First pack including: a copy of the presentation, guidance material, Schools First magazine and Schools First calendar. Some questions asked by attendees included:

• Would the award allocation be split between primary and secondary schools? The answer is no. The award allocation includes all schools - primary, secondary, government, catholic, independent, special needs and so on and will not be split. 
• Is the content discussed in the Partnership Forums different to the recent 2010 Schools First Conference? Yes, the content in the Partnership Forums is skewed towards school-community partnerships wanting to find out more about Schools First, how to apply and what they need to address in their application. Whereas, the conference touched on broader education content and issues regarding partnerships and the power that partnerships can have on education!

Upcoming Partnership Forums include: St Kilda (13/4), Sunshine (14/4), Launceston (14/4), Hobart (15/4), Orange (19/4), Tamworth (21/4), Albury/Wodonga (22/4) and Port Macquarie (23/4).

Remember, if you are keen to get to a Partnership Forum around Australia register now. If you can't make a live forum, please watch our Online Partnership Forum, which is a condensed version of the live forum and runs for under 10 minutes. 

What a fantastic start to the Partnership Forums. We are looking forward to getting out to all state and territories and spreading the word about Schools First and hope to see you there!