Pupil Equity Funding

The share each school will receive from the Scottish Government’s new £120 million Pupil Equity Funding scheme has been revealed by Deputy First Minister John Swinney.

More than 2,300 schools across Scotland will receive additional support worth thousands of pounds, to be spent at the discretion of teachers and school leaders to close the poverty related attainment gap in their schools.

The allocations have been confirmed by the Deputy First Minister on a visit to Dalmarnock Primary School in Glasgow’s East End, which is in line to receive £278,400.

Mr Swinney said:

“I want every child in Scotland to have the best possible start in life, and it is unacceptable for children from the poorest backgrounds to have their chances limited by circumstances outside their control.

“This Government has made clear our priority is to close the poverty-related attainment gap and our new £120 million Pupil Equity Funding is aimed at doing just that.

“We are providing additional ring-fenced funding which will enable individual schools to target support where it is needed the most. The allocations I am announcing today will let parents, teachers and school leaders see how much funding their schools will receive in 2017-18 to help break the inter-generational cycle of deprivation.

“The Pupil Equity Funding is on top of the existing £50 million Attainment Scotland funding and in addition to the action being taken by this Government to raise standards for all and make the improvements that are necessary to make Scottish education world-class.”

Dalmarnock Primary School head teacher Nancy Clunie said:

"This additional funding will make a huge difference to the children at our school.  We already do a lot of work with our partners to put on activities involving parents to improve the health and wellbeing of the whole family, as less stressed children make better learners. For example, we have a weekly family meal and homework group and a summer club during the school holidays. The Pupil Equity Funding will enable us to expand these activities"

Background

The £120 million Pupil Equity Funding was announced in the Scottish Government’s Draft Budget 2017-18: http://news.gov.scot/news/a-budget-for-scotlands-future-1

The £120 million Pupil Equity Funding and £50 million Attainment Scotland Funding – a total of £170 million for 2017-18 – will contribute to our commitment to allocate £750 million during the course of this Parliament through the Attainment Scotland Fund to tackle the attainment gap.

Allocations are based on the number of pupils from P1 to S3 who are eligible and registered for free school meals, with schools receiving around £1,200 per pupil. Local authority breakdowns are as follows and the full list of individual school allocations can be found here: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Education/Schools/Raisingeducationalattainment/pupilequityfund/Schoolallocations

*Please note that the number of primary and secondary schools cannot be summed together as they include all-through schools.

A suite of information about the most successful approaches and interventions, based on practice examples from around Scotland and the best available international evidence, is being developed: http://news.gov.scot/news/new-attainment-tools-for-teachers

The action being taken by the Scottish Government to raise standards for all includes: strengthening school leadership; implementing the National Improvement Framework so that we have the evidence to show us what is working – and what is not working – in our schools; reviewing governance to put schools and communities at the heart of the education system; and simplifying and clarifying the curriculum.