Scottish Government pledge £4m to improve school attainment

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced funding of £4 million to improve educational attainment and standards in Scotland's schools

Nicola Sturgeon . Picture: Lisa Ferguson

The package includes a £1.5 million innovation fund to help schools improve attainment in areas such as literacy and numeracy for children from deprived backgrounds.

She also confirmed £2.5 million for 57 schools that will receive funding as part of the Scottish Attainment Challenge Schools Programme, which the government says is aimed at closing the “attainment gap between children from our least and most deprived communities”.

Ms Sturgeon, announcing the funding, 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 wellbeing; 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.”