Raising attainment

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has today seen some of the innovative work being carried out to raise attainment in Scotland’s schools.

She visited Levenvale Primary School in West Dunbartonshire to see how the school has used its share of the Pupil Equity Fund (PEF). £120 million has been committed to the fund for schools across Scotland in this year’s draft budget.

Levenvale has used PEF to recruit an additional teacher to improve literacy through Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) projects. They have given extra support to parents to help improve vocabulary development in their children, including parent and child book clubs and providing residential weekends for around 20 families.

The First Minister has also encouraged schools to share their PEF projects on social media as part of the 120 days of PEF challenge launched by the Deputy First Minister earlier this month.

The First Minister said:

“The number one priority of this government is to raise school attainment, particularly in less advantaged areas.

“To help achieve this we have committed £120 million to our Pupil Equity Fund this year. This additional money is available to head teachers to address some of the specific issues that might be affecting attainment in their schools.

“The work I have seen at Levenvale Primary is a perfect example of this. By looking carefully at their own unique circumstances, they have created their own solutions – in particular by recruiting specialist staffing and providing extra support to parents.

“There are many excellent examples like this throughout Scotland. As part of our 120 day campaign to share ideas and best practice, I’d encourage schools to highlight their own work on social media using the hashtag #PEFScot18.”

Background:

• The £120 million Pupil Equity Fund is part of the Scottish Government’s Draft Budget for 2018/19
• It forms part of the £179 million Attainment Scotland Fund for 2018-19, underlining the Scottish Government’s commitment to allocate £750 million during the course of this Parliament to tackle the attainment gap
• Allocations are based on the number of pupils from P1 to S3 who are known to be eligible and registered for free school meals