Teachers invited to apply for £25,000 grants to bring classroom ideas to life
by Educate Magazine November 2, 2026 · Uncategorized
Education charity SHINE is inviting teachers across England to apply for funding to develop projects that could improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged children in the North of England.
Funding teachers’ ideas to tackle educational barriers
SHINE is an education charity that funds and scales projects to improve outcomes for disadvantaged children. It has opened applications for its 2027 Let Teachers SHINE competition. It offers grants of up to £25,000 over two years to help practising teachers turn their ideas into projects that make a difference to children’s learning.
The annual competition supports teachers to develop and test approaches to tackling barriers to education, particularly for children from low-income backgrounds. Alongside funding, successful applicants receive dedicated training, expert advice and access to a network of like-minded teachers through SHINE’s accelerator programme.
From classroom challenges to proven solutions
Let Teachers SHINE launched in 2012. Since then, it has supported 150 teachers to develop their ideas. Its alumni include the creators of Times Tables Rock Stars, Vocabulous, and Boromi. These projects all began with teachers identifying a problem in their classrooms and developing their own solutions.
The 2026 competition saw eight teachers share £170,000 in funding. Their projects included a digital science learning platform, a family literacy programme and an AI platform to help absent students catch up on missed learning.
Who can apply and what judges are looking for
Applications to the 2027 competition are open to qualified, practising teachers across England. Projects must either be based in the North of England or demonstrate a clear commitment and capacity to develop their work in northern schools.
SHINE is seeking projects that address significant barriers to learning in English, maths or science. Projects should have a particular focus on improving outcomes for disadvantaged children.
Judges will be looking for ideas that offer something different from existing provision. They want to see projects that can be tested to assess their impact. Projects must also have the potential to become sustainable over the longer term.
Fiona Spellman, CEO of SHINE, said:
“Teachers are best placed to recognise the barriers that are holding their pupils back and to come up with practical ways to overcome them.
“Through Let Teachers SHINE, we want to give those teachers the funding, time and support to develop their ideas, test what works and reach more children.
“Many of the approaches that have made the biggest difference to children’s learning started with a simple idea in a classroom. We want to help more of those ideas become a reality.”
The competition is open until midnight on Wednesday, 13 January 2027. Shortlisted applicants will be invited to present their proposals to a judging panel via video call in March. After this, successful applicants can expect to be notified by the end of the month. Funding will be awarded in summer 2027, with projects starting in September.
Teachers interested in applying can find out more about the competition, read the application guidelines and access the online application form at shinetrust.org.uk/what-we-do/let-teachers-shine/.
