Are you ready to make a positive impact on your school’s community?

Apply for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) Eco Grants for Schools and share your innovative project ideas on how your school and its pupils can promote sustainability and make a difference in their community.

Application Details:

Opening Date: Noon, 29th October 2024

Deadline: Noon, Friday 20th December 2024 or until we receive 50 eligible applications

You will receive an automatic email confirmation upon submission

Need Help?

If you encounter any issues during the application process, please email us at: greencityschools@greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk

About the Programme

The Greater Manchester Eco Grants for Schools programme is all about empowering schools to develop climate action projects that benefit both the school environment and the wider community. We’re looking for projects that inspire small acts of positive climate action and sustainable behaviour change focused on:

  • Waste reduction and circular economy
  • Climate education focused on sustainable lifestyles
  • Sustainable food and tackling food waste
Extra Benefits

We also want your projects to provide wider social benefits like:

  • Tackling inequalities including health and wellbeing
  • Building confidence and increasing skills
  • Improving neighbourhoods and fostering community cohesion
Funding Available

Grants of up to £2,000 are available for any Local Education Authority School or Academy Trust in Greater Manchester (Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, and Wigan). We expect to support projects that will be completed within 12 months of receiving funding. Interventions must take place over multiple sessions in the school year (one-off events will not be funded), deliver long-lasting change, and generate wider social benefits for the community.

Before you apply please read through our guidance notes and FAQs. They contain all the essential information on eligibility and what successful applicants need to do.

APPLY FOR A GRANT OF UP TO £2000

What We Can Fund
  • Materials and resources
  • Equipment hire or purchase fees
  • Training suppliers/specialist facilitators delivering activities
  • Publication or engagement materials
  • Transport costs if activities are delivered off-site
What We Can’t Fund
  • Capital costs or core staff costs that are not project-specific
  • Activities or applications that promote political or religious beliefs
  • Projects that have already started or are a continuation of an existing project
  • Projects which financially benefit an individual
  • Business as usual activities
  • Projects that are requesting replacement equipment
  • Projects which duplicate services that are already the responsibility of a Local Authority

To be eligible for support, your school needs to agree to the following criteria:

  • Talk to us at regular intervals and provide two formal updates about your project activity
  • Share project news and images with us for reporting purposes
  • Work with us to share your story and inspire others to take climate action
How to Apply

Before you get started, please take a moment to read through our guidance notes and FAQs. They contain all the essential information on eligibility and what successful applicants need to do.

To apply, just fill out the application form with your school’s details, who you are, and what your project aims to achieve. The application form is available on Microsoft Forms. We suggest preparing your answers in a Word document first, then copying them into the online form. Please note that you won’t be able to make any changes to your application once it’s submitted.

If you need any extra support with your application, want to discuss your ideas beforehand or prefer to apply in a different way, we’re here to help! Please email us at greencityschools@greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk

What Happens Next

Once the application deadline has passed, we will review all the submitted projects and evaluate each project based on the eligibility criteria outlined in the guidance notes. The projects with the highest scores will receive funding.

GOOD LUCK

Further Information

GUIDANCE NOTES
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Frequently Asked Questions
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Looking for ideas and a bit of inspiration?

Pupil-led Eco Club

The pupil-led Eco Club at North Cestrian School in Trafford has helped to instil and develop a whole-school approach to environmental awareness. Showing a passion for the environment and a real can-do attitude, pupils have created a lush school garden, organise regular litter-picks in the local community and have introduced measures within school to reduce single-use plastic and increase recycling.

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Red House Farm School Pilot Scheme

Red House Farm is a 57ha, Soil Association certified organic farm on the edge of Greater Manchester. As part of their Countryside Stewardship Scheme, a pilot project has been setup to assess the impact of bringing the same group of children to the farm, with visits taking place each half term.

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Become a Food For Life School

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Trafford school children present a ‘Green Summit’ in their own words

u003cp class=u0022p1u0022u003eTrafford school children present their understanding of climate change using creative literacy skills.u003c/pu003e

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Create a school vegetable garden

Growing fruit, vegetables and herbs is a great way for children to learn about the food they eat. You could even encourage children to grow food at home and teach them about food labelling.

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Eco-Friendly Period Products for Stockport Schools

Two students from Reddish Vale High School have been championing a council grant scheme for eco-friendly period products for educational establishments in Stockport that has reached around 3,000 young people.

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Greater Manchester Schools to launch pupil-led Eco Refill Shops

Ten Greater Manchester schools will soon launch their pioneering, pupil-led, fully-stocked, Eco Refill Shops. Our series of articles will put the spotlight on the schools and report back on their progress as they undertake their Enterprise Training, launch their shops and measure their success.

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