GRANTS MADE

Review The Caledonia Foundation’s previous grants:

2010 | Projects suppported 01 July 2009 to 30 June 2010

KALDOR PUBLIC ART PROJECTS I Arts-based Education Software Pilot Program

The Caledonia Foundation has provided seed funding for the development of new contemporary art education initiative using interactive whiteboard technology. The program will provide new content customised for primary students to learn about Australian contemporary arts history and aims to stimulate individual creativity, expression and the technological skills of children at a formative stage in their education and personal development.

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ARTSCAPE BIENNIAL I Environmental Sculpture Exhibition - Education Program

The artsCape education program aims to build educational capital by offering children based in the Northern Rivers, NSW, the opportunity to experience nationally significant visual artworks in their own backyard. artsCape 2010 will incorporate an Education Program aimed at engaging with hundreds of local primary and high school students. Artists experienced in working with children will be engaged to work with students on a number of projects to produce and exhibit artworks as part of the exhibition. Visual Art teachers have also been engaged to produce comprehensive education kits which all schools will be able to access from the Artscape website.

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The Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal

The Caledonia Foundation collaborated with the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal (FRRR) over three years, from March 2008, in support of the PEERS program (Participation, Equipment, Education, Resources and Sustainability) across rural and regional Australia. The Caledonia-funded PEERS program offers grassroots support to small communities through projects which assist disadvantaged young people in a leveraged, sustainable way.

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THE AUSTRALIAN LITERACY & NUMERACY FOUNDATION | Palm Island, QLD

The Caledonia Foundation has committed to provision of Literacy Packs to support the Early Language & Literacy Project in Palm Island from 2010-12. The three-year cross-generational program includes: 1) an Early Childhood Parent & Community Program - an early intervention to prepare and support children for successful literacy learning in the early schooling years; 2) First Language Literacy - the revival and maintenance of Indigenous First Languages through the conversion of oral languages into literary resources; and 3) Community Action Support - a youth participation model of literacy improving educational and employment opportunities for young Indigenous Australians in rural and remote areas.

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EXODUS FOUNDATION I Literacy Tutorial Centre (Ashfield)

The Caledonia Foundation has renewed its commitment to the Schoolwise Program (Ashfield) for three years from 2010-12. Schoolwise is an intensive literacy skills program for children in Years 1 to 6 who are at risk of dropping out of school due to childhood depression, violence, family disintegration, education disruption and learning disabilities. The Schoolwise program was designed by Macquarie University Special Education Centre (MUSEC) and uses the MULTILIT (Making Up Lost Time in Literacy) system and evaluation methodology. MULTILIT is characterized by individualised remedial literacy exercises using sounding out skills, sight word recognition, spelling and one-to-one tutoring. Since its inception in 2007, the Schoolwise program has achieved excellent outcomes for children with significant literacy challenges.

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ART GALLERY OF NEW SOUTH WALES | ARTside-in! Visual Arts Education Outreach

The Caledonia Foundation has renewed its commitment to support AGNSW’s ARTsidein! program from 2010-13. ARTsidein! is an educative outreach initiative designed by the Public Programs Department of the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW). The program targets Years 10, 11 and 12 secondary visual arts students – and their teachers - from secondary schools in NSW which are classified as geographically, socioeconomically or culturally disadvantaged. The project enables students, who would otherwise have limited opportunity to access the Gallery’s resources, to participate in structured engagement with the Gallery’s collection, exhibitions and programs.

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COUNTRY EDUCATION FOUNDATION AUSTRALIA | Supporting young Australians in rural and remote areas

The Caledonia Foundation is seed funding the establishment of nine new country education foundations in Australia over the next three years, as part of the national activities of the Country Education Foundation of Australia (CEFA).

Established in 1994, CEFA exists to improve the education and career prospects of young people in regional and rural Australia by providing financial assistance, encouragement and support to individual students, often from disadvantaged backgrounds, through facilitating the formation and operation of local, community-based education foundations.

With funding from The Caledonia Foundation, CEFA will support the establishment of nine new education foundations. These foundations will in turn provide grants to local youth who are leaving school and need assistance to make the transition into further education or their chosen vocation.

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SYDNEY THEATRE COMPANY EDUCATION | Rebuilding arts education in NSW

Sydney Theatre Company Education has committed to a program which will double participation in STC Ed programs from a current 30,000 to 60,000 by the year 2011; and rebuild capacity for delivering youth arts and drama education in New South Wales.

STC’s commitment will close the gap in state education, providing meaningful arts experiences to a range of young people across New South Wales. The extended reach will ensure that children from disadvantaged communities, and/or remote and regional communities have equal access to high quality, live performing arts.

Support from the Caledonia Foundation will enable STC to draw on its its unique education capability to craft rich theatre experiences for school students with plays that challenge and illuminate aspects of daily life.

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BIG PICTURE EDUCATION AUSTRALIA | Educating one student at a time

Big Picture Education Australia (BPEA), a US-inspired initiative which aims to influence education policy nationally and catalyse vital changes in education by generating and sustaining innovative, individualised schooling. The BPEA model is a rigorous and highly personalised approach to education, combining academic work with ‘real world’ learning in schools which are small by design. It focuses on “educating one student at a time” and places the students and their interests at the heart of the learning process. A key to this is placing students in an internship with a mentor, in the world of work and community, every week of the school term.

BPEA will open new schools in Tasmania and WA in 2010. The Caledonia Foundation is providing capacity building assistance to support the expansion of the BPEA model in Australia.

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