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Our relationships with parents are at the centre of success for every child at school.
Parents in Education (PiE) funding between $1000 and $5000 is available for parent engagement projects. It is open to South Australian government schools and preschools.
The funding is for projects that demonstrate:
- empowerment of parents to develop strong and positive partnerships with schools and preschools
- parents and staff working together to make schools and preschools safer and more inclusive
- development of parent knowledge and skills on how to support their child to talk about their wellbeing, any safety concerns they have, and to ask for help when needed.
Applications for 2025
This year the PiE funding will again have a focus on strengthening parent and school or preschool partnerships to support safe and inclusive learning environments for all students.
Applicants need to show a parent-led process and show connection to parents throughout the project.
Applying for 2025 funding
Apply now (staff intranet login required)
Applications can be made by:
- parents and carers
- parent or carer groups
- parent clubs
- school or preschool staff
- governing councils.
A school principal or preschool director must support the application. Each school or preschool can only apply once every year.
The funding is only for government schools or preschools.
The term parent refers to parents and caregivers with responsibility for the care of children and young people.
Key dates
Applications are open from 9 to 27 September 2024 (term 3). You'll need to work with your school or preschool to submit your application.
We'll let schools and preschools know the results in term 4, 2024.
Getting ready to apply
Use our planning template (DOCX 1 MB) to help you start:
- collecting information needed for your application
- thinking about your project aims and possible outcomes
- drafting a budget.
You'll also need to think about:
- who you want involved
- how your school or preschool can help set up the project
- how the project process is parent-led and engages parents in their child’s education.
How we'll assess your application
Your application should clearly outline how this is a parent-led initiative. It also needs to show how it's informed by parents and connects to learning, safety and wellbeing.
An advisory panel will assess your application. They'll look at how you:
- demonstrate the project or initiative was informed and will be led by parents
- plan to deliver on one or more of the assessment criteria
- demonstrate the benefit of one-off presentations, training sessions or workshop if they are included in your project
- continue parent engagement during and after the project.
Planning how you'll use the funding
As part of applying, you'll need to explain how you plan to spend your funding.
When you create your plan, make sure the costs will support parent engagement and safe and inclusive learning environments. Also make sure you:
- do not apply for less than $1000 or more than $5000
- seek quotes (if relevant)
- think about how parent engagement will continue beyond the life of the funding
- think about and include other funding resources
- follow government and department policies and all relevant legislation
- prepare changes to the project to cover current health advice.
Application budgets should:
- identify costs that can get funded in other ways
- not be part of the school or preschool’s usual operating costs
- detail any other funding that the project uses.
Examples of what you can use funding for
Resources and services
You can use funding to pay for:
- design and communication
- printing and photocopying
- fees for crèche or out of school hours care
- putting resources on websites
- interpreter and translators.
Funding is not intended for:
- resources and services available through the department
- first aid training
- screening checks.
Activities, seminars, workshops and information sessions
You can use funding to pay for:
- refreshments and catering
- registration fees
- bus or taxi fares for parents
- venue hire for very large groups
- fees for facilitators and presenters
- consultations, surveys or interviews.
Funding is not intended for:
- gifts for speakers and parents
- award ceremonies
- encouragement awards or school celebrations
- equipment for sports, kitchens, resource libraries, horticulture, camps and excursions (this includes furniture, electronics, books, games and toys)
- wages, temporary relief teachers (TRTs) or honorariums (payments made for services for which no official charge was made) to any education department employees, excluding OSHC.
- payments to parents and carers.
You can still have a project that contains some things from the ‘not funded’ lists. But these should not be included in the amount of funding being requested.
For example, if your project’s budget is for $6000, but $1000 of that is for teaching hours, you can still apply for $5000. Just tell us the breakdown of who'll fund what.
Benefits of parent engagement
Effective parent engagement has many benefits, including:
- increased student attendance and student engagement in learning
- expanding ways for children to be successful learners, at school, at home, and in the world around them
- enhancing the knowledge, professional skills, and capacity of educators
- a richer, more diverse, and inclusive school community.
Get help with your child’s learning
How you support your child’s learning matters. You shape your child’s values and attitude. You shape their attitude and approaches to learning at home, school, and beyond.
The department has some resources to help you support your child’s learning. The resources cover:
- what being engaged in your child’s education means
- what you can do to help your child.
