Fifty-six learning projects will receive £20 million in the first round of grants from the government’s new Strategic School Improvement Fund.
They include schemes to improve progress in reading, modern foreign languages, and science, and each of them are to be delivered by schools and local authorities.
The programmes will take place at academies and maintained schools across the country, and aim to address specific challenges in their area and drive up standards.
Education secretary Justine Greening said she was “confident” the government had identified projects that would “make a real difference”.
“This fund is about helping schools raise their performance by investing in evidence-led work, targeted at those areas where it will make the most difference,” she said.
“Tapping into the expertise that already exists in the system, and encouraging all schools, whether academies or maintained, to work together, will allow us to spread excellence and have a real impact on children’s lives.”
One project to receive a slice of the fund is led by Swavesey Village College, which will support students from disadvantaged backgrounds to make greater progress in modern foreign languages and science, from year 3 through to year 11.
It will initially appear in 23 schools across Cambridgeshire, and will develop materials and resources to help students prepare for the transition between primary and secondary.
The Hackney Learning Trust is another beneficiary, and will work with 21 primary schools across London, Suffolk and East Sussex to introduce and embed new approaches to boost reading skills.
Meanwhile, the Inspiration Trust will work to improve chronically low attainment in reading at 14 academy and local authority primary schools across Norfolk and Suffolk.
The Strategic School Improvement Fund was introduced in November 2016 as part of a package of resources to support the whole school system and encourage greater collaboration between academies and maintained schools. It will rise to a total £280 million over the next two years, with the intention of building a “self-improving school system”.
The second round of bidding will open later this month, when roadshows will be run across the country in partnership with the Education Endowment Foundation to help potential applicants to put proposals together.
The government chooses programmes to benefit from the funding based on evidence of how the ideas will make sustainable changes in schools.
The initiatives are also intended to assist families living in areas identified as social mobility coldspots.
In October 2016, the DfE identified six areas as suffering the most from social mobility issues: West Somerset, Norwich, Blackpool, Scarborough, Derby, and Oldham.
These coldspots were promised access to funding to address their biggest challenges, as well as access to wider support to help young people from nursery right through to work. The scheme is now being widened out to other parts of the country.
The full list of successful applicants from the first round of Strategic School Improvement Funding:
Kyra Teaching School Alliance (lead School Mount Street Academy)
Hales Valley Teaching School
Transform Teaching School Alliance
Fylde Coast Teaching School
Tudor Grange Academy, Solihull
Leicester Teaching School part of RMET
Christ Church CE Primary School
The Pathfinder Teaching School Alliance
Learners First Schools Partnership
Tauheedul College for Teaching and Leadership (Tauheedul Islam Girls’ High School)
Haberdashers’ Aske’s Hatcham College
Southam College
Cornwall Teaching School
Trinity Teaching School Alliance
New Collaborative Learning Trust
The Swan Alliance
Abbey Multi Academy Trust
Launde Primary School/Oadby Learning Partnership
Hackney Learning Trust
London Borough of Croydon
Salop Teaching School Alliance
Essex County Council
Learning Unlimited TSA
Glaisdale Primary School
All Saints Teaching School Alliance
Prince Henry’s High School
Arthur Terry Learning Partnership
Inspiration Trust
North Star Teaching School Alliance (Knaresborough Meadowside)
Southwark Teaching School Alliance led by Charles Dickens Primary School
Sheringham Primary National Teaching School
The Success for All Educational Trust
The View Trust
Excalibur Teaching School Alliance
Plymouth Teaching School Alliance
Makerfield Academy Trust and formerly named Byrchall High School Academy Trust
West Berkshire Council
Bedford Borough Local Authority
Swavesey Village College
Outwood Grange Academies Trust (Outwood Institute of Education)
The Beach Teaching School Alliance
Manchester Teaching School Alliance
Northern Lights Teaching School (Skipton Girls’ High School)
TBAP Multi Academy Trust
LEaRN Teaching School Alliance
Blackburn with Darwen LA
Brompton-on-Swale CE Primary School
CAM Academy Trust
The White Horse Federation
Landau Forte Teaching School Alliance
East Sussex County Council
Manor Primary TSA on Behalf of Black Country Teaching School Colloborative
Hethersett Academy Teaching School
St John the Baptist School (Lead School for Xavier MAT
Noctua Teaching School
£20m from School Improvement Fund here, £30m from Academy Growth Fund there, £5m shared between five ‘outstanding’ academy trusts for expansion up north (one of them, WCAT, is now dumping its academies), £45m development money awarded to some familiar names (http://www.localschoolsnetwork.org.uk/2017/07/dfe-development-money-goes-to-some-familiar-names-leaked-list-reveals). Throwing around bits of money like this isn’t going to solve the school funding crisis.