Attainment Challenge funding a boost for all Renfrewshire pupils

Renfrewshire has been awarded an additional £4.6million from the Scottish Government to boost attainment for all pupils across the area as part of the Attainment Challenge.

22 May 2018 – Attainment Challenge – Convener on funding announcement audio – JCON

The funding was announced by Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education, John Swinney, today for ‘challenge authorities’ and is targeted at improving reading, writing, maths, and health and wellbeing.

Renfrewshire first became a challenge authority in June 2016 and since then has seen improvements made in pupils’ reading age scores across primary three to seven.

Data gathered also indicates that the gap between the most and least deprived pupils has been reducing in listening, talking, reading and writing, and numeracy measurements.

Education and Children’s Services Convener for Renfrewshire Council, Councillor Jim Paterson, said: “Renfrewshire is ambitious for all its children to reach their full potential and we have been working hard to reduce the poverty-related attainment gap while also raising attainment for all.

“Having the next round of Attainment Challenge funding means we can continue with our education programmes to improve literacy, numeracy, and health and wellbeing of all children, no matter their background or start in life.

“We know the Renfrewshire Literacy Approach is making a recognised difference to children’s reading skills and we are building upon existing work in maths to better support children as they learn counting and numbers. We have already seen more than 1000 teachers and support staff undertake enhanced professional learning and we will continue to support teachers to further their skills and experience in learning and teaching.

“One of the areas we are now working on is the impact of children’s learning as they move from primary to secondary schools. We now have 10 transition teachers in place and almost 250 teachers and support staff have taken part in professional learning so they can better support children and young people. Around 80 per cent of teachers said that transition support had positively impacted on pupil engagement in school.

“We’ve also been working with parents and families through the Parents in Partnership programme to support their confidence in family learning at home and feeling confident approaching their child’s school to talk directly with teachers. We’ve seen an impact on pupil attendance figures particularly for pupils whose parents took part in the programme.

“We will continue to deliver high-quality, evidence-based interventions and initiatives that have been proven to make a difference to pupils and their families as we develop the best possible teaching environment in our schools.”