Writing an impact statement

An impact statement is part of your equity schemes and scholarships application and it allows you to explain any challenges you have faced during your schooling and how those challenges affected your education. If circumstances beyond your control prevented you from performing to your full potential, the impact statement is where you explain "why".

You will need to provide an impact statement if you apply for the Living with a disability or medical condition category or for some circumstances in the Difficult family and life circumstances category. You will also need to provide a written response if you don't receive Centrelink or Family Tax benefits and are applying for the Financial hardship category. In your equity schemes and scholarships application, prompts and text fields will appear based on your responses to the questions in these categories.

A good impact statement will have two things:

• The circumstance: what happened and when? Briefly outline the circumstance and timeline including how long you have experienced the disadvantage.
• The impact: how did it disrupt or impact your schooling or daily life?

Make sure you: 

• Write in your own words. Don't get someone else to write for you. Institutions simply want to know your story from your point of view (and aren't testing your grammar).
• Keep to the key points and within the character limit.
• Allow time to draft. This is so you are confident you have explained the circumstance and their impact on your education.

Quality, not quantity, is the key to providing a clear and useful impact statement.

The impact of the circumstances focuses on how it affected your education or daily life:

I had glandular fever and was away from school from 12 May to 16 June 2026. When I was away from school, sick, I missed out on <insert information> and when I returned to school I was <insert information>. This meant I couldn’t <insert information>.