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Our grants enable young people in London, particularly those from disadvantaged or low income backgrounds, to access educational opportunities.

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Our criteria

We provide funding for young people under 25 years of age across the 14 boroughs of Inner London: Camden, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Islington, Kensington & Chelsea, Lambeth, Lewisham, Newham, Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Wandsworth, Westminster and the City of London.

Our grant making priorities:

Portal Trust Schools

Aim: To enhance the learning experience for every child at our primary school (Aldgate School) and our secondary school (Stepney All Saints CofE secondary school).

Priorities:

a. Projects that align with the Schools’ strategic improvement plans
b.
Projects that support innovative curricular and non-curricular delivery, above and beyond what statutory provisions are obligated to cover, to improve the holistic offer to all students
c. Projects that alleviate financial hardship for students from disadvantaged backgrounds
d.
Projects that celebrate and provide recognition for academic attainment.

Objectives:

i.
To improve student’s academic achievement, emotional well-being, social development, motivation and behaviour.
i
i. To facilitate partnership working with other Portal Trust partner institutions for the benefit of student’s academic achievements and pastoral care
iii.
To support capital, governance, insurance and maintenance costs associated with the effective running of both Schools, beyond that which is considered the statutory responsibility of the State.

Prisoner Education

Aim: To reduce re-offending through education and initiatives that promote employability.

Priorities:

i. Work with prisoners and ex-offenders that helps secure employment and prevent re-offending.
ii.
Work with Pupil Referral Units and schools that prevent young people identified at risk entering the criminal justice system.

Objectives:

i
. To improve the literacy and numeracy skills of prisoners and ex-offenders
ii.
To help prisoners and ex-offenders gain skills and education qualifications that will help them into employment.
iii.
To support young people at risk of entering the criminal justice system through early intervention initiatives.

Truancy, Exclusion and Behaviour Management

Aim: To encourage and support children and young people’s attainment through initiatives that help them engage with, and stay in, education.

Priority:

Work with primary and secondary schools in challenging circumstances, such as those in areas of high social deprivation or in special measures, as well as schools that have higher than average rates of truancy, exclusion or expulsion.

Objectives:
i. to reduce truancy levels amongst pupils attending primary and secondary schools
ii. to reduce levels of exclusions and expulsions
iii. to improve pupil motivation, behaviour and achievement through initiatives that promote children and young people’s emotional well-being and social development.

Scholarships, Bursaries and Individual Grants

Aim: to remove financial barriers and empower young Londoners to achieve their potential in Further or Higher Education

Objectives:
i. To support young people from disadvantaged or low income backgrounds by funding them directly
ii.
To support young people from disadvantaged or low income backgrounds by funding bursary and scholarship schemes with named partner institutions

Widening Access and Participation in Further and Higher Education

Aim: To promote access to further and higher education for disadvantaged young people in inner London.

Priority:

Work with communities currently under-represented in further and higher education and/or hard to reach learners (including care leavers, young people with learning difficulties). Applications could involve work with secondary school pupils as well as those in further education, universities or employer engagement programmes.

Objectives:
i. To increase the number of inner London students from disadvantaged backgrounds successfully participating and staying in further and higher education.
ii.
To support work readiness, career planning and access to opportunity as part of the transition from further and higher education to the workplace.

New Initiatives

Aim: to influence and improve education policy and practice with direct impact on inner London students from disadvantaged backgrounds and with potential for influence at scale.

Priorities:

a. Projects that are pioneering and original in their approach to teaching or learning, are strategic and have direct impact on our stated beneficiaries
b.
Projects addressing an identified need within a geographical area or learning establishment that are new and innovative in context i.e. must be a new initiative for the school or borough, but need not be a completely new approach to education
c.
Projects that focus on addressing under-achievement in literacy and numeracy in primary and secondary schools
d.
Projects seeking to attract greater numbers of young people from under-represented communities into the teaching profession
e.
Projects that demonstrate collaboration with our two schools and other partner institutions

Objectives:
i. To test new and ground breaking approaches to learning that have the potential to enhance and influence education policy and practice.
ii.
To support work that focuses on identified needs and gaps in statutory provision.
iii.
To support developments in best practice and/or policy with accelerated and direct impact from theory to improvement for the benefit of the Trust’s core beneficiary group.

Our Grants Strategy document describes our six grant making priorities, as listed above. Any organisation applying for funding from us must be able to demonstrate how the project meets one or more of these.

If you are a current grantee, please also see our Monitoring and Evaluation Policy document (as of November 2023).

(If you need any of our documents or forms in a different format please call us on 020 7480 5884 or email hello@portaltrust.org and we'll be happy to help)

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