Key information
- Status: Closed
- Grant amount: Participating services will receive up to $8,000 (ex GST) of funding
- Application opened: 7 May 2024
- Application closed: 20 May 2024, 7:00 pm
Program objective
The NSW Department of Education (the department) is inviting services to participate in the Formative Assessment in the Year Before School Project (Project). The purpose of the Project is to explore formative assessment tools that can complement existing practices in NSW early childhood education and care (ECEC) services to support all children’s learning, development and wellbeing outcomes.
The department is committed to working in partnership with the ECEC sector and would like to draw on the experience and expertise of the sector to ensure a best practice approach is adopted.
The key objectives of the Project are to:
- inform the department’s approach to the 2025 national trial of the Preschool Outcomes Measure (POM)
- determine what resources and supports will help to uplift and sustain effective formative assessment practices across all NSW ECEC services
- explore formative assessment tools that can complement existing teaching and learning practices in NSW ECEC services.
The department is the primary agency responsible for administering this project.
The POM, is a key reform of the Preschool Reform Agreement (PRA). A National trial of the POM will occur in 2025 – separate to this Project. Find out more information about the POM and national trial at the Australian Government Department of Education.
This program is administered by Department of Education.
Eligibility
Who can apply
Services that provide a preschool program for children in the year before they start full time school may be eligible to participate in the Project. This includes public preschools, community preschools and long day care services.
The department will assess applications based on the following eligibility criteria. Please note, due to the limited number of places available, submission of an EOI does not guarantee inclusion in the Project.
To participate, approved services must meet the below eligibility criteria.
- Be an approved education and care service under the Education and Care Services National Law Act 2010 (National Law) and Education and Care Services National Regulations (Regulations).
- Be delivering a preschool program in 2024 for children in the year before school designed by a degree-qualified Early Childhood Teacher (ECT) in accordance with the requirements under the National Quality Framework. This includes public preschools, community preschools and long day care (LDC) services.
- Have a current quality rating against the National Quality Standard. Services rated Significant Improvement Required or Not Yet Assessed are ineligible to apply.
- Submit an EOI application by Monday 20 May 2024.
- Have accepted the Early Childhood Education Grants Program Funding Agreement – Terms and Conditions (1 January 2024 – 31 December 2024) (LDC and community preschool providers only).
- Should not have an unresolved compliance matter with the NSW ECEC Regulatory Authority. (If a service does, this may be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.)
- Be willing and have the capacity to dedicate up to two ECT’s and/or early childhood educators to participate in all Project activities, including evaluation activities.
(The department reserves the right to use its discretion for smaller-sized services where only one ECT/educator is available. These applications will be assessed on an individual basis. Small services are encouraged to apply).
Types of projects funded under this grant
Please refer to the Project Guidelines for full details.
Most recent recipients
What your application needs to include
Prepare your application with this checklist
Applicants must complete all compulsory fields in their submission.
Address the eligibility criteria
Each applicant, as part of an application response, must confirm that they meet the eligibility criteria.
Applicants that do not address the eligibility criteria in full may be excluded from the application process at the department's discretion.
Address the assessment criteria
Applications may be competitively assessed against the assessment criteria outlined below:
- number of enrolled children in the year before school;
- services with high proportion of children in the year before school with a language background other than English, in 2024;
- services with high proportion of children in the year before school who are Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander in 2024;
- services with a high proportion of children in the year before school with a disability and/or additional needs in 2024;
- services that operate in a regional, rural and/or remote location or in a disadvantaged area (SA2) with a low SEIFA classification; and;
- other prioritisation categories that reflect and support the purpose and intended objective of the project.
After the application is submitted
Successful applications will be decided by: The Executive Director, Service Excellence, within the Early Childhood Outcomes Division
The department will assess applications and determine suitability to participate in the Project based on eligibility criteria outlined above.
Only eligible applications will progress to assessment against the assessment criteria in line with the Project guidelines and the overarching Project objectives.
The submission of an application does not guarantee participation in the Project.
Services that meet one or more of the assessment criteria will be given priority in the assessment process.
Anticipated assessment outcome date is from 3 June 2024
Anticipated date for funding deed execution with successful applicants is by 14 June 2023
Support and contact
For questions relating to the Formative Assessment in the Year Before School Project, please contact the Project team:
- via email at ececframeworksandassessment@det.nsw.edu.au or
- via the Early Childhood Education Information and Enquires phone number on 1800 619 113.