The Smith Family
The Fogarty Foundation has partnered with The Smith Family for 20 years, providing opportunities for talented and gifted students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The Learning for Life Fogarty Fund provides financial support for students to further develop special talents through a variety of activities, including sports and innovation programs. This helps the students gain the knowledge, skills and behaviours they need to thrive in the 21st century.
The benefits of a child’s participation in these kinds of activities are enormous. They include learning social skills such as team work, communication and confidence building, while ensuring students are engaged in positive recreational activities and social connection – all of which are transferable to school and contribute to improving educational outcomes.
Thank you so much. This really helps with Mystique’s education. Especially this year with her being in Year 6. This enables her to do her homework and be able to research for school and help her participate in the reading program.
Addressing digital inequity
The Fund also supports students by helping to address digital inequity. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to many vulnerable children missing out on vital learning because they do not have access to computers or the internet at home. This is known as the digital divide.
In 2021, 75 students were supported by the Fogarty Fund with the distribution of 68 laptops to Western Australian students living in disadvantage. These devices help bridge the digital divide and allow more students to participate and engage in remote learning opportunities.
The Smith Family
Over the years the Fogarty Foundation has supported The Smith Family in a number of initiatives including The Swan Extended Schools Hub. This brought together a cluster of four schools in the City of Swan to improve educational and employment outcomes for young people in the area through a collective K-12 holistic approach and developing school partnerships.
The Smith Family Community Engagement Workshop Series worked with three schools in the Dianella Education Precinct. The workshops focussed on Reshaping, Reforming and Rewriting student learning with family engagement as a key strategy. Through this the schools learnt how to support parents as first educators and to engage in their children’s learning at school and at home.
For more information visit The Smith Family website.
