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School ICT Supplementary Grant

Latest news

There has been a change to the way the School ICT Supplementary Grant is allocated. For more information on this change, please see Allocation of funds.

Purpose

This grant assists schools to implement the Smart Classrooms initiative by supporting the development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in schools.

For more details, visit Smart Classrooms.

Expenditure guidelines

Expenditure is restricted to activities that support Professional learning and digital practice, ICT equipment, ICT support and ICT content.

The School ICT Supplementary Grant may be used to purchase ICT equipment and services related to administration requirements of schools.

Professional learning and digital practice includes:

learning and development activities that support teachers to maximise the potential of ICT resources in the classroom
learning and development activities that support the integration of ICT into teaching practices and student's learning
activities that focus on the management of ICT resources.

ICT equipment includes:

computers
hand held devices
computer driven peripherals
software
networking infrastructure.

They must be used to deliver and enhance curriculum delivery and the integration of ICT into teaching, learning and the curriculum. Items such as photocopiers, facsimile machines, electronic typewriters, furniture and furnishings are not considered to be ICT equipment for the purposes of this grant.

ICT support refers to:

managing all of the ICT resources at the school
administering network servers
configuring personal computers, systems and network installations
ensuring availability and reliability of personal computers, systems and networks
recovering personal computers, systems and networks following faults and failures
providing support to school staff in the integration of IT within the school.

Grant funds could be spent on the engagement of an IT technician and/or for purchasing ICT support from third party suppliers (e.g. PC vendors). Using teachers to perform hands-on ICT support tasks will not normally be the most cost-effective use of resources. However, there may be circumstances in individual schools where this is necessary to supplement other support strategies (e.g. high callout costs due to geographic location).

It is also recognised that some of the ICT support activities listed above may be best performed by ICT Coordinators in schools (e.g. managing all of the IT resources at your school and/or providing support to school staff in the integration of ICT within the school). In these circumstances, it is appropriate that the ICT support funding be used to provide relief to teachers (e.g. TRS) to allow them to undertake these specific ICT support activities. Schools may choose to cluster their resources to support ICT within the school.

School ICT Supplementary Grant funding is to be kept separately identifiable and compliant with the expenditure criteria is to be reported in the school's Annual Report. Expenditure of funds according to the above criteria will be reviewed as part of the school audit.

Duration of program

Ongoing

Policy reference

Community Access to State School Information Communication Technologies Procedure

Eligibility

School centre types

State School, State High School, Campus, State Special School, Centre for Continuing Secondary Education, School of Distance Education, Middle School, Junior School, Community School, Environmental Education Centre, Outdoor Education Centre, Specific Purpose School.

Form of assistance

Formula-generated cash grant

Payment details

Payment details for School ICT Supplementary Grant
Payment	During month of	Proportion of allocation paid
Semester 2	Payment in November	All of available funds will be allocated to schools

Allocation of funds

Following the 2011 transitional period, the 2012 School ICT Supplementary Grant is based 100% on FTE enrolments.

In addition, the weighting assigned to senior secondary student (Years 11 and 12) numbers has been set at 1.2.

For centres where the complexity of their environments is not reflected adequately in the above formula, a supplement will be provided. This is applied to Special Schools, Specific Purpose Schools, Environmental Education Centres and Outdoor Education Centres.

For Special Schools:

a base amount of $2400
an amount per computer is equal to that used for primary and secondary schools
an amount per student is equal to twice the amount per student for primary and secondary schools

For Specific Purpose Schools:

an amount per computer is equal to that used for primary and secondary schools
an amount per student is equal to twice the amount per student for primary and secondary schools

Note: Specific Purpose schools in hospitals use the average enrolment calculated as per the data collected for teacher allocations.

For Environmental Education Centres, Outdoor Education Centres:

a base amount of $2400
an amount per computer equal to three times that for primary and secondary schools.

In November 2012 schools were sent a letter regarding the payment of the 2012 School ICT Supplementary grant which provided details of the annual school grant for 2012. In addition, schools will receive a minimum grant of $1200 after the collection of the Microsoft Enterprise Agreement and Web and Internet Access Service contributions.

Note: Bandwidth upgrade pro rata charges if applicable, will still apply.

The total amount available for disbursement in each financial year is fixed. The grant to each school is calculated as a fraction of the total amount available in the way described above.

Data requirements

Data requirements for School ICT Supplementary Grant
Data required	Data source	Time collected
Enrolments	School Management System (SMS) data maintained by schools	July

Contact

Manager
Learning Technologies
Telephone: (07) 3421 6560

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This page was last reviewed on 30 Jul 2012