School Achievement Awards Scheme Closure
The School Achievement Awards Scheme is now closed.
The scheme was originally developed to celebrate the achievements of schools that have either made significant improvement or are high performing. It achieved this, and over the three years that the scheme was in operation, nearly 13,800 schools won awards. Round three was the last round of the scheme.
The full School Achievement Award Scheme Evaluation Report is available on the Department’s website here.
Please see frequently asked questions for further information on the closure of the Scheme.
Round three (announced May 2003)
School achievement awards are being made for the third time this year. Awards are being given to schools where pupils' results in 2002 were substantially better than in 1999 or where results in 2002 were better than most schools in similar circumstances in that year. They are intended to reward staff teams at award-winning schools and to encourage further progress. Both teachers and support staff are eligible for bonuses funded by an award. With advice from the head, governing bodies decide how to share an award between staff.
The names of award-winning schools in round three were announced on 7 May. About 7,000 schools have won awards, equivalent to 30% of eligible schools in England. About £60 million will be distributed to award-winning schools through the Standards Fund in mid-May. A typical primary school will get about £5,700 and a typical secondary school about £25,700.
About three quarters of awards are based on rapid improvement. Most of the rest are for good results compared with other schools in similar circumstances.
- Click here to search for a school on the Round Three (announced in May 2003) list of Award winning schools.
Please see the scheme leaflet and frequently asked questions for further information on the Scheme.
Guidance on distribution
With advice from heads, governing bodies of award-winning schools will decide how to share the award between staff. Guidance on how the awards might best be distributed has been provided. This has been revised to incorporate good practice from previous rounds.
We have also put together a number of supplementary documents to provide additional support to governing bodies when deciding on award distribution:
- frequently asked questions on distribution
- distribution flowchart
- distribution models
- advantages/disadvantages table
- distribution case studies
Previous rounds archive
Click here to access information and winners lists for Round One (announced 15 March 2001) and Round Two (announced 22 March 2002).
