Secondary schools share £11.5M to help close attainment gap

More than 100 secondary schools will be given around £11.5 million for projects to close the attainment gap.

It was confirmed earlier this year that the Scottish Attainment Challenge will be extended to support up to 133 secondary schools across Scotland.

The nine councils included in the attainment challenge - Clackmannanshire, Dundee, Glasgow, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, West Dunbartonshire, East Ayrshire and Renfrewshire - were invited to submit proposals to support secondary schools in their area.

An additional 28 secondary schools not in attainment challenge authorities were also invited to submit proposals because they have intakes of primary pupils from deprived areas.

During a visit to Coatbridge High School, whose pupils will benefit from North Lanarkshire's £1.6 million share of the funding, Education Secretary John Swinney said: "Delivering equity and excellence across Scotland's education system is this Government's defining mission.

"I am firmly committed to substantially closing the gap in the attainment of pupils from our most and least deprived areas during the lifetime of this parliament.

"The funding we are allocating to secondary schools is part of the additional £750 million we will make available to support schools to close the attainment gap over the same period.

"It will enable more than 100 secondary schools to improve literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing through a range of projects devised by the schools themselves.

"This builds on our existing work with hundreds of primary schools to ensure no child or young person in Scotland is held back because of their background.'' ends

Chris Keates, general-secretary of the teaching union NASUWT, said: "It is promising to see the Government starting to act on its series of plans aimed at closing the attainment gap and raising pupil attainment, which they set out at the end of the last academic year. Additional funding is always welcome.

"There is still, however, little recognition of the challenges facing the school workforce, which must be addressed if these plans are to become a success.

"All evidence shows that it is the teacher in the classroom that has the key impact on attainment and therefore supporting the teaching workforce, reducing their workload to enable them to focus on teaching and learning, and rewarding them as highly skilled professionals must be a priority.''

• Scottish News