The Otago Community Trust’s (OCT) annual report has revealed all the ways it has helped schools in the Upper Clutha in the last year. 

Hawea Flat School, Holy Family Catholic School, Mount Aspiring College, Te Kura o Take Kārara and Wanaka Primary School benefited from a combined $71,175 funding.

The schools have received help to establish a literacy programme to lift engagement and achievement in English, Mathematics and Digital Literacy; school vans; support for a school production (subsequently refunded due to COVID-19); and community learning outdoor spaces.

Three of the five grants were awarded via OCT’s ‘$ for $’ funding, which ran for three years from 2017 ending in June 2020. OCT granted just over $1.3M to Otago schools from this fund, and schools applying to the fund had to have 50 per cent of the project cost available at the time of application.

Wanaka Primary School opted to use its ‘$ for $’ grant to go towards the purchase of two twelve-seater minivans - and principal Wendy Bamford said the minivans have opened a huge number of opportunities to the school.

The Holy Family Catholic School is another of the five local schools to have benefitted from OCT funding in the last year.

“It has dramatically cut our expenses for swimming and allowed us to be more flexible in accessing community resources and personnel,” Wendy said. 

“Our vans enabled us to take class sized groups to swimming in term one and will also do this again in a couple of weeks and in term four. And they have been busy taking children to our school based EOTC [Education Outside the Classroom] programme - down to the lake to start a hike, or to the bottom of Mt Iron ready to mountain climb, down to Bremner Bay to pick up groups of cyclists after their trek, out to a visit to the toy museum as part of their studies, or off to singing or playing instruments for elderly citizens,” she told the Wanaka App. 

The vans have also allowed science student leaders and environmental student leaders, such as the Touchstone group or trapping group, to visit sites off school grounds, and have transported senior children working at a local pre-school on special projects.

The ‘$ for $’ funding kickstarted the project, which was also supported by the PTA, board, and Lion Foundation.

OCT chief executive Barbara Bridger told the Wanaka App she was very pleased with the use of the ‘$ for $’ fund during its three years of operation.

“The feedback from successful schools awarded ‘$ for $’ funding has been very positive,” she said. “The financial assistance provided has certainly allowed schools to invest in areas more quickly and has fostered greater collaboration on a more consistent and regular basis.”

While the ‘$ for $’ fund is no longer operational, schools can still receive grants through community grants and the Learning Impact Fund, which was formed to encourage new thinking and support educational projects which lift student achievement across Otago.

In the last financial year, the OCT supported 438 groups with $11.5M of funding. 

PHOTOS: Supplied