Media Literacy Train-the-Trainer Grant Scheme
Scheme to support organisations to increase the amount of media literacy support available to children with special educational needs and disabilities.
Summary
UK Media Literacy charities are invited to bid into the £150k pilot Train-the-Trainer Grant Scheme. This scheme aims to support media literacy organisations to tailor their educational materials for teachers working with children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). We expect bids to range from £5k - £75k. However, bids of all sizes will be considered within the scheme.
Eligibility
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your organisation must be a charity
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you must have experience of delivering media literacy educational initiatives
How to apply
To apply for this grant scheme please complete the application form attached to this webpage and send it to medialiteracy@dcms.gov.uk. Applications will be open until 29 November 2021, 23:59 GMT. We will aim to notify applicants about the outcome of the grant scheme in the week commencing 20 December. However, timelines may be subject to change.
If you have any questions about this grant scheme or the application process please contact medialiteracy@dcms.gov.uk. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) will be running some applicant information sessions during the week commencing 15 November 2021. If you would like to attend please register your interest with the mailbox.
Project requirements
DCMS is committed to creating an inclusive approach to online safety. This pilot grant scheme is intended to fund organisations who already have experience of supporting teachers with media literacy, to adapt and tailor their educational materials for teachers working with SEND children. The scheme is open to projects targeting children of any age range, or with any type of SEND. We expect bids to range from £5k - £75k, however bids of all sizes will be considered within the scheme.
Projects funded through this grant scheme must have the following outcomes:
- the adaptation of media literacy educational materials that are tailored to teachers working with SEND children
- production of evaluation data about the effectiveness of said materials at upskilling teachers, and building media literacy capabilities in children with SEND
- production of an evaluation report outlining methodology and evaluation data
The grant period will begin in January 2022 (subject to timelines for processing applications), and will need to be completed by the end of March 2022. Funds received through the grant scheme can be used for adapting and testing materials, however due to time constraints it will not cover the delivery of the materials to teachers. Applicants should demonstrate how they will utilise and deliver the adapted materials beyond the end of the grant period in their application forms.
Application criteria
Applicants are invited to submit a project proposal by completing the application form attached to this webpage and sending it to medialiteracy@dcms.gov.uk
Projects submitted to the scheme will be assessed against the following essential criteria:
- applicants must be a charity in the UK
- applicants must have experience of delivering media literacy education
- applicants must be bidding for projects costing between £5k - £75k
- the development and adaptation of education materials must be tailored to teachers working with SEND children. This can focus on children of any age range, with any type of SEND
- applications should demonstrate how educational materials have been specifically tailored to support SEND children
- educational materials must relate to one or more areas of media literacy, primarily with a focus on online safety
- projects must include plans for evaluating the effectiveness of educational materials in upskilling teachers and building media literacy capabilities in children with SEND. Assessment of applications will have a preference for projects with strong evaluation methodologies
- applications should indicate how educational materials created in the project will be delivered beyond the end of the grant period
- applications must have plans for project delivery by the end of March 2022
It is desirable that:
- applicants have previous experience of working to upskill teachers
- applicants have previous experience/expertise of working with SEND requirements
- evaluation plans for the project go beyond self-reported data
Applications will be assessed on whether they provide value for money. Projects seeking large amounts of funding without demonstrating proportionate results are unlikely to be successful. Projects with costings that are suspected to be fraudulent will not be accepted into the grant scheme.
Background information
In July 2021, DCMS published the Online Media Literacy Strategysetting out our ambition to improve national media literacy capabilities. The UK has a rich media literacy landscape with over 170 organisations delivering educational initiatives to users. However a recent mapping exercise found that there were significant gaps in educational materials for certain user groups, for example only 4% of initiatives targeted disabled users. We are committed to creating a more inclusive media literacy landscape by encouraging organisations to fill gaps in the landscape and provide more educational initiatives to vulnerable user groups.
One of the Online Media Literacy Strategy’s policy aims is to improve access to age and ability appropriate media literacy support for these excluded user groups, such as children with SEND. These children often receive support from professionals they work with related to safeguarding and wellbeing, however our engagement suggests that this support rarely extends to individuals’ online lives. We know that one of these key groups of professionals are teachers. Engagement has highlighted teachers may struggle with this issue for a number of reasons:
- lack of confidence to facilitate those conversations in the classroom
- limited media literacy capabilities
- lack of time to spend on discussing media literacy
- uncertainty about which resources to use, and whether they will have an impact
We want to upskill and empower teachers to be able to talk about media literacy with their students and embed the consideration of online safety into safeguarding practices. We have already seen some organisations start to take action to upskill teachers around media literacy.
However this activity is largely focused on supporting teachers working in mainstream education. There is an even greater barrier for teachers working with SEND children, as there are a very limited number of resources available that are tailored to the needs of these children. Teachers need access to media literacy resources which have been specifically tailored to children with SEND. This may include:
- lesson plans taught in a format that can cater to shorter attention spans
- content which covers age-appropriate issues but are appropriate for children with low reading ages
- content which addresses issues children with SEND may be more vulnerable to, such as online abuse
This grant scheme has been set up to support organisations who deliver media literacy activity to expand their activity to support teachers with SEND children.