£4 million pledged to improve school attainment in Scotland

The Scottish government has pledged funding of £4 million to improve attainment in Scottish schools.

The plans were announced by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and will include a £1.5 million innovation fund to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds improve in areas such as literacy and numeracy.

Sturgeon also confirmed that 57 schools would get a part of £2.5 million funding as part of the Scottish Attainment Challenge Schools Programme, with the aim of closing the attainment gap between the least and most deprived communities.

Announcing the funding, Sturgeon said: “I’ve made it perfectly clear that closing the attainment gap between Scotland’s least and most deprived children is one of my key goals.

“The Attainment Scotland Fund is already supporting schools in the most deprived areas to implement projects to raise literacy, numeracy and health and well-being; the Innovation Fund will bring resources to more schools across Scotland and will complement this work.

“We want teachers and pupils to get creative, be excited about learning and come up with imaginative approaches to it; to find out what works and share that with others.”