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Eco Schools Grants

This program provides grants to schools to give them the opportunity to involve their students and community in developing and implementing environmental management projects.

Objectives

The overall objective of the Eco Schools Program is to support schools to develop best practice in environmental education and innovative solutions to environmental issues. The program will fund school environmental management projects aimed at one or more of the objectives below.

Students:

• to promote the development of students' knowledge, values and behaviour that supports environmental sustainability
• to promote participation of some or all students in identifying, designing, implementing and monitoring solutions that improve the quality of the school and local environment.

Teachers:

• to assist teachers to integrate school environmental management projects into school programs and therefore maximise student learning
• to enable project related professional learning for teachers to gain practical and pedagogical skills and knowledge about the environment.

School development and management:

• to encourage a whole of school approach to  sustainable management of school operations
• to fund schools to utilise the natural and built environment to facilitate student learning
• to encourage schools to link with the local community (including other schools) to undertake activities which address local environmental issues.

Environment

• to promote more efficient resource use and  improve the quality of the local environment
• to enable schools to address community and government environmental concerns and priorities

 The ultimate goal of the Eco Schools Grant Program is the development of ecologically sustainable schools.

Eligibility

Schools that did not receive an Environmental Trust grant in the previous year are eligible to apply. Schools must also be registered on the Sustainable Schools NSW website, www.sustainableschools.nsw.edu.au Please note that preschools are not eligible to apply. 

Workshops

Workshops were offered again in 2009 between March and May. More information on these is available on the workshops page.

Funding for 2009

A total of $150,000 is available for the Eco Schools Program (60 grants of $2,500 each). 

Guidelines and Application form

Stage	Opening Date	Closing Date	Forms
Application (one-stage process)	21 March 2009	CLOSED	2009 Guidelines  GLES2009.pdf (34kb, PDF)
			2009 Application Form  APPES2009.doc (175kb, Word document)

Help on downloading and completing application forms.

Reporting Guidelines

All grantees should use the Eco Schools reporting pro-forma for their final report.  It is recommended that all schools read the pro-forma prior to completing their application. See Grantee Reporting Process on the side navigation menu for a link to the pro-forma.

Case Studies

A range of case studies from previously conducted Eco Schools projects are available on the Case Studies page. These projects all have their unique way of assisting to conserve and enhance the New South Wales environment.

For further information please contact the Environmental Trust on (02) 8837 6093.

Environmental Trust
PO Box 644, PARRAMATTA 2124
Phone: (02) 8837 6093
E-mail:info@environmentaltrust.nsw.gov.au