A major concern for schools is often the financial implication of linking. Costs are often high due to transport costs for school visits, if you are concerned about high transport costs think about activities that don't involve school visits or make sure you link with a school that is not too far away to keep costs down. Linking costs can be just the price of postage and school costs can actually be reduced through shared CPD, spreading the cost of paying for outside trainers.

• Are there any projects/schemes that both schools could be involved with? Have you spoken to your teacher advisor, do they know of any projects you could become involved in?
• Have you involved parents? Would they be willing to help with transport to reduce costs?
• Have you contacted local businesses about your link? Can they help by providing money or resources for the link?
• Have you contracted local agencies / community groups? Could they help by providing free workshops?

Resources - You may need to purchase new educational resources to give you a stock of activity ideas to support the link. Alternately, you may be able to pay the membership fee of your local DEC and borrow resources when you need them.

Do you want to apply for a grant to support your link?

Visit: www.governmentfunding.org.uk to see if your project fits into any of their grant programmes. Note that some grants are only open to Voluntary groups to apply - is there a voluntary / faith group involved with your link that could apply?

Visit: www.lotteryfunding.org.uk Awards for All now fund up to £10,000 for projects and support school initiatives. Make sure your project fits into at least one of their current funding priorities and their regional priorities. This application is very easy to complete and you usually find out if you are successful within 8 weeks of applying.
Other funders do exist, ask your headteacher / teacher advisor if they have come across any funding sources.

Top tip for looking for funding: a quick phone call can save a lot of time - ring and ask if your project would be something they would be likely to fund before you spend time completing the form.