SHINE

£320k funding to help Sunderland schoolchildren Thrive - SHINE

Thrive at Christ’s College - Christ's College
shinetrust.org.uk/2025/06/27/3...

Helping young voices be heard: Monkwearmouth’s arts programme breaks down barriers - SHINE Project will boost student confidence, aspiration, and engagement through the performing arts, thanks to £210,200 of funding from SHINE.

Bridging the Gap Performing Arts Journey - Monkwearmouth Academy
shinetrust.org.uk/2025/06/27/h...

New initiative aims to improve attendance and parental engagement during move from primary to secondary - SHINE Project will tackle school attendance and increasing parental engagement at the pivotal transition point between primary and secondary school

Transition to Success - Castle View Enterprise Academy shinetrust.org.uk/2025/06/27/n...

And here are the details of the individual projects. 👇

Kids SHINE as schools benefit from £630,000 donation as part of £11m funding package Three secondary schools in the city have received a £630,000 donation to launch projects aimed at improving children’s mental health, building confidence, and easing the transition between primary and...

The latest schools to benefit from funding from SHINE Sunderland: www.sunderlandecho.com/education/th...

Let Teachers SHINE winners 2025 - SHINE Nine innovative education projects devised and led by teachers will receive a share of £175,000 from education charity SHINE.

🌟 Meet the winners of #LetTeachersSHINE 2025!
They’ll share £175K+ in funding to grow bold, teacher-led ideas that support disadvantaged pupils across the UK. We’re excited to watch these projects flourish! 🙌
#Teaching #Learning #Literacy #EdTech #EdChat #Maths #STEM #EduSky #ukedchat

Richard Cowie: Let’s beat the summer reading slump together - SHINE As summer approaches, many children risk losing hard-won reading skills. Learn how we can stop the summer slide and keep kids reading, thriving, and inspired.

"Let’s not leave reading behind in July. Let’s make reading part of the summer fun – whether it’s on the sofa, in the park or before bed with a torch under the duvet." – a rallying call from SHINE grantee Richard Cowie of @readingonyourhead.bsky.social

Behind every confident reader, curious scientist, tenacious problem solver, and creative thinker is a teacher who believed in them. To every teacher making that difference today: THANK YOU. #thankateacher #thankateacherday

Equitable curriculum doesn’t grow in silos… so we talked about our work with @shinetrust.org.uk @tnlcommunityfund.org.uk @RankFoundation @thefea.bsky.social and others

(& many others as part of our written contributions too!)

Thank you for helping us to shape opportunity for communities

Thanks to all the amazing SHINE grantees who were able to join us in York yesterday for the annual SHINE Trust event.

Children in England’s most deprived areas ‘less likely to achieve development goals by age five’ Unicef UK found they were over twice as far from the target of 75% of pre-schoolers reaching ‘good level of development’

Children in England’s most deprived areas are over twice as far from achieving the government’s target of 75% of young children to reach a “good level of development”, compared with the country’s most affluent areas. www.theguardian.com/inequality/2...

I left my life behind to walk around the world – here’s why - SHINE Tired of the 9-5 grind, Merlin Evans left it all behind to walk around the world – an epic journey in aid of education charity SHINE.

Two years ago, Merlin Evans decided he needed to change his life. With virtually no preparation or plan, he stepped out of his mum's front door and began walking. He hasn't stopped since. And best of all, he's raising funds for SHINE.
Read his remarkable story: shinetrust.org.uk/2025/06/05/i...

Free school meal rule change to make 500,000 more pupils eligible Charities have broadly welcomed the plans, saying they hope it is a sign of more to come.

Great to see progress on Free School Meals; a vital step in tackling child poverty. But we can’t stop here. It’s time for government to make auto-enrolment trending news too.

No child should miss out because of red tape. #FreeSchoolMeals

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The Opportunity Index – What does it tell us about access to HE? - The Sutton Trust Looking at access to university using our latest region-level and constituency-level data.

According to the @suttontrust.bsky.social Opportunity Index, just 11% of pupils on free school meals in the North East have an undergraduate degree by age 22 – less than half the 27% in London. Among those not on free school meals, 39% in London achieve a degree, compared to 30% in the North East.

How science experiments can boost your GCSE revision Practical work can help students to grasp abstract scientific concepts and generate enthusiasm in revision sessions, writes chemistry teacher Jon Blackbourn

Let Teachers SHINE winner Jon Blackborne makes the case for using practical science experiments to help aid GCSE revision in @tesmagazine.bsky.social this week. www.tes.com/magazine/tea...

One of our Let Teachers SHINE winners has just launched this new online teaching resource.

Wellbeing in the classroom: rethinking support for children in a digital world – Fiona Spellman - SHINE With rising concerns around children’s mental health and online safety, schools are taking creative, whole-school approaches to support wellbeing and help every child thrive.

"When schools adopt 'zero phone' policies without creating spaces for children to understand the issues they create, they risk missing an opportunity to teach students how to use technology wisely and ethically," writes @fionaspellman.bsky.social

Sean Harris: Misconceptions and curiosity - SHINE Discover how curiosity about common misconceptions can help teachers tackle disadvantage and support every pupil.

"If we want every child to be understood, supported, and set up to thrive, then we must keep listening, keep learning, and keep asking: what else don’t we know yet?" writes SHINE project lead Sean Harris @thatpovertyguy.bsky.social

£60k project will support teaching of literacy in Sunderland classrooms - SHINE A project that aims to give teachers in Sunderland the support they need to boost literacy in the classroom has received funding worth £60,900 from SHINE.

£60k project will support teaching of literacy in Sunderland classrooms: "Strong literacy skills give students better opportunities, both in school and beyond. This funding helps us move closer to our goal of giving every child the best possible start in life."

Academy’s £136K project to strengthen community and boost student success - SHINE Thornhill Academy is developing a project designed to promote stronger community ties and a more inclusive environment for children to thrive academically and socially

Academy’s £136K project to strengthen community and boost student success: "The level of change that this will bring will be phenomenal and will transform opportunities for young people."

Bold new literacy project puts Sunderland stories at the heart of learning - SHINE Southmoor Academy is launching a project that connects writing skills to students' own experiences of life in Sunderland

Bold new literacy project puts Sunderland stories at the heart of learning: "If the students see their own experiences reflected in the material, they become more engaged, making writing feel personally meaningful and relevant to them." @sammywright.bsky.social

£114k funding to support disadvantaged pupils through crucial school transition - SHINE “We’re looking at kids that could be exceptional, but life hasn’t given them the opportunities they deserve, and we want to change that.”

£114k funding to support disadvantaged pupils through crucial school transition: "The stability and dialogue between home and school, supported by these shared experiences, will make the for students opportunities much better."

£141k grant to aid character development and break barriers for disadvantaged students - SHINE Sandhill View Academy in Sunderland, is embarking on a transformative five-year project, ASPIRE, thanks to a £141,251 grant from SHINE.

£141k grant to aid character development and break barriers for disadvantaged students: "Students will develop a sense of belonging. They'll want to come to school, respect school, their peers, their teachers. They'll feel like they’re part of something."

Academy granted £172k to launch Sunderland reading initiative - SHINE Biddick Academy has been awarded £172,183 from SHINE Sunderland for its innovative project, ‘Fluency First’, aimed at improving reading skills and understanding among secondary school children.

Academy granted £172k to launch Sunderland reading initiative: "It's an amazing opportunity that will hopefully do so much good because these children truly deserve it."

£111k boost for Sunderland schools to support emotional wellbeing - SHINE SHINE Sunderland has awarded £111,380 to ‘True Self’, a project to create a network of mindfulness practitioners in local schools, supporting pupils struggling to regulate their emotions.

£111k boost for Sunderland schools to support emotional wellbeing:
"There’s so much potential in this city and our kids can do anything, but they do have more barriers than children in other parts of the country."

🎉 SHINE celebrates 25 years of impact this year – and we’re marking the milestone with a fresh new look!
We’re thrilled to unveil our brand-new logo and website at shinetrust.org.uk.
Please take a moment to explore the site and see what’s new – we’d love to hear what you think!

two cartoon eyes with arms and legs are standing next to each other . ALT: two cartoon eyes with arms and legs are standing next to each other .

🌟 Exciting news! Very soon, we’re launching a brand-new SHINE website. With new pages and a fresh look, we can’t wait to share it with you! Stay tuned. 💛 #SHINE #ComingSoon

Poor pupils with richer friends will earn more as adults, study finds Cross-class friendships boost earnings by £5,100 a year, a study finds. But stark regional disparities highlight the need for greater social mixing

"Children from low-income families who grew up in the most economically connected areas went on to earn 38 per cent more a year, or £5,100, than those in the least connected areas."

Seven school-led projects first to receive funding from SHINE Sunderland - SHINE Seven Sunderland school projects are the first to benefit from the SHINE Sunderland fund, securing a share of more than £900,000.

We are proud to announce the first seven SHINE Sunderland projects. Each of these transformative school-led initiatives receives a share of more than £900,000. We'll be announcing more new projects later this year.

Boys widen gap over girls in maths and science in England, study reveals Analysis of post-Covid performance overturns recent claims that boys are falling behind girls at school

"Stubborn gaps remain between disadvantaged pupils and their better-off peers. The UCL researchers found there were significant gaps between pupils who had access to a large number of books at home and those who did not."