Enter the 2025 Family Partnerships Excellence Awards

Who is eligible to enter?

All NSW/ACT Catholic diocesan and member congregational school communities are eligible to enter.

Applications may be completed by Parents and Friends Associations (or similar parent bodies), individual schools or clusters of schools.

The initiative may have commenced before or in the current year.

Judging criteria

All applicants are considered by the independent judging panel on the basis of how well their initiative meets the Family Partnerships Excellence Awards judging criteria.

In the submission template, applicants are asked to answer the following questions using up to 200 words to demonstrate how their initiative/project meets the six judging criteria.

1. How the project is a genuinely collaborative partnership between families, the school and, if applicable, the broader community.
2. How the project demonstrates authentic parent engagement.
3. How the project has enhanced student learning and outcomes.
4. How the project is resourced in a sustainable way, including the likelihood of the initiative being able to be replicated in other Catholic school communities.
5. How effective the project has proven to be, with supporting evidence such as testimonials from parents, teachers, students or others.
6. How the $5000 award money would be spent to continue your initiative should your school community be the recipient of the award.

Application Guidelines

1. Applications open on 22 July 2025.
2. Applications must be received by CCSP by 14 October 2025 at 5pm.
3. Judging of the CCSP Family Partnerships Excellence Awards will be the responsibility of a panel to be convened by CCSP.
4. The decision of the judging panel will be final. The panel reserves the right to award additional prizes as they determine appropriate.
5. The judging criteria will be applied by the members of the judging panel.
6. The award recipient will be asked to work with a videographer organised by CCSP to produce a short 2–3-minute video to showcase their project.
7. All applications must be endorsed by both the school principal and the president/chair of the school's parent body (P&F/Advisory Council/Board).
8. Where the applicant is more than one school community the school principal and president/chair of each school community must endorse the application.
9. CCSP will acknowledge receipt of all applications by way of automated email response.
10. The principal(s) of the successful school(s) will be contacted by the CCSP Executive Director advising them of the outcome.
11. The successful applicant and the CCSP Secretariat will arrange for the CCSP Executive Director to visit the school to present the award. It is expected that some of the parents who have been integral to the success of the initiative will attend the presentation.