NAB Schools First Awards

NAB Schools First enters its third year in 2011 with $5 million in awards funding available to 110 outstanding school-community partnerships. To date, 195 school-community partnerships have benefited from NAB Schools First with over $10 million in funding provided to enhance and develop these school-community partnerships.

This year, there are two types of awards - 60 x Impact (for established partnerships) and 50 x Seed Funding (for new or developing partnerships). There is a new award category in 2011 - 5 x $2,000 Student awards - provided to students that have an idea for a school - community partnership. This award also includes invaluable mentoring support from NAB Schools First and its wider professional networks. Applications for the Student award open on Monday, 9 May and close on Friday, 27 May 2011.

In 2010, St Charles Borromeo Primary, a Catholic primary school in Templestowe, Victoria with an enrolment of 187 students was awarded $50,000 in NAB Schools First funding for their outstanding school-community partnership. The school's partnership with the Roseville Retirement Village is called the 'Be My Buddy' program. St Charles Borromeo implements The Alannah and Madeline Foundation's "Better Buddies Framework", designed to create friendly and caring primary school communities where bullying is reduced. The students directly involved in the award winning partnership with Roseville Retirement Village modified the Better Buddies Framework to accommodate the needs of the elderly residents.

The partnership arose following an investigation conducted by students at St Charles Borromeo to discover where values are seen, heard and felt in the local community.  Students identified an opportunity to provide the aged residents of the village with a means of sharing their knowledge and experience with a younger generation. The students could learn through story telling and history sharing and be encouraged to live the values taught by the school.

Anyone interested in applying for a NAB Schools First award in 2011 is encouraged to attend one of 40 NAB Schools First Partnership Forums which are taking place in metropolitan and regional areas of Australia between March and May 2011. The Partnership Forums will provide attendees the chance to learn more about NAB Schools First, the application process, and the awards criteria for 2011. If you can't make it to a live forum, watch an online version via the Online Partnership Forum Tutorial.

Also, if you are not involved in a school-community partnership however you would like to be, register at our online Partnership Matching Service which is a virtual partnership matching service that works to introduce schools with like-minded community groups and/ or businesses.

Applications open online at 9.00am (AEST) on Monday, 20 June 2011 and close at 5.00pm (AEST) on Friday, 29 July 2011. For more information on NAB Schools First visit www.schoolsfirst.edu.au