S4M-15430: Education

The motion

That the Parliament believes that the introduction of a pupil premium in Scotland would help enable every child to fulfil their potential, close the attainment gap and ensure a world-class education system; believes that it would give schools thousands of pounds of extra funding that they could spend to raise standards and increase attainment in every classroom; notes that it could provide practical support such as one-to-one tuition, extra staff and equipment, breakfast clubs and outreach programmes to help engage parents; recalls that Liberal Democrats in the previous UK administration successfully made the case for, and introduced, the pupil premium in England in 2011, now worth £2.5 billion a year, and that the party also subsequently secured its introduction in Wales; notes that Ofsted has said that the pupil premium “is making a difference” and that the National Audit Office observed that the gap between disadvantaged and other pupils narrowed by 4.7% in primary schools and 1.6% in secondary schools between 2011 and 2014, following its introduction; notes that, in comparison, the Attainment Scotland Fund only makes a difference in those areas and schools selected by Scottish ministers, currently ignoring the additional needs of disadvantaged children in 11 out of 32 local authorities; believes that tying funding to those children who need extra help the most, wherever they may live, through the pupil premium, would be fairer and more effective, and calls for it to be urgently introduced to help propel Scottish schools back to the top of the class.

What MSPs voted on: the motion as amended

The Liberal Democrats’ motion was rewritten by an SNP amendment (S4M-15430.3) before this vote. A vote ‘for’ was a vote for the SNP’s wording.

That the Parliament believes that

245 words removed by S4M-15430.3

the introduction of a pupil premium in Scotland would help enable every child to fulfil their potential, close the attainment gap and ensure a world-class education system; believes that it would give schools thousands of pounds of extra funding that they could spend to raise standards and increase attainment in every classroom; notes that it could provide practical support such as one-to-one tuition, extra staff and equipment, breakfast clubs and outreach programmes to help engage parents; recalls that Liberal Democrats in the previous UK administration successfully made the case for, and introduced, the pupil premium in England in 2011, now worth £2.5 billion a year, and that the party also subsequently secured its introduction in Wales; notes that Ofsted has said that the pupil premium “is making a difference” and that the National Audit Office observed that the gap between disadvantaged and other pupils narrowed by 4.7% in primary schools and 1.6% in secondary schools between 2011 and 2014, following its introduction; notes that, in comparison, the Attainment Scotland Fund only makes a difference in those areas and schools selected by Scottish ministers, currently ignoring the additional needs of disadvantaged children in 11 out of 32 local authorities; believes that tying funding to those children who need extra help the most, wherever they may live, through the pupil premium, would be fairer and more effective, and calls for it to be urgently introduced to help propel Scottish schools back to the top of the class.

S4M-15430.3 SNP the £100 million Attainment Scotland Fund, which is additional to the almost £5 billion invested in education every year through local authorities, is rightly targeted at the primary schools that serve the most deprived communities in Scotland, with over 300 primary schools, which together support 54,399 pupils from deprived backgrounds, 64% of the total number of such pupils, benefitting from the funding; notes that this funding is providing a wide range of support to close the attainment gap including additional teaching and other specialist staff, support for parents to engage in their children’s learning, literacy and numeracy tools and extra training for teachers; further believes that the package of universal support that has been drawn together through the Scottish Attainment Challenge, including the appointment of attainment advisors for every local authority, the introduction of the Attainment Challenge Innovation Fund and the continued progress of the Raising Attainment for All programme will help ensure that there is support for every local authority to close the poverty-related attainment gap; recognises that the Scottish Government will continue to work with key stakeholders to explore and consider further approaches that will support schools to close the attainment gap, and acknowledges that the OECD’s review of Scottish education recognised the Scottish Government’s determination to focus on achieving both excellence and equity in the education system and that the national improvement framework has the potential to be a key means of driving work to close the attainment gap and strengthen formative assessment approaches.

Final wording as read into the Official Report at Decision Time. The marked changes are worked out by this site from the amendment texts and match that wording.

Amendments

S4M-15430.3 SNP Angela Constance Agreed vote, 60–39
S4M-15430.1 Conservative Liz Smith Fell per the Official Report
S4M-15430.2 Labour Iain Gray Fell per the Official Report

Signatures by party

1 MSP besides the lodger · 0 from other parties

LD 1

Party on the day each MSP signed. Signing a motion is voluntary and not whipped. Who signs whose motions

Vote

1 division

27 Jan 2016
Education
S4M-15430as amended by SNP
Carried
60 for, 39 against, 14 abstained

Amendments

3

S4M-15430.1

Education
Liz Smith Con Lodged 26 Jan 2016

No recorded vote
S4M-15430.2

Education
Iain Gray Lab Lodged 26 Jan 2016

No recorded vote
S4M-15430.3

Education
Angela Constance SNP Lodged 26 Jan 2016

Carried
60 for, 39 against

Supporters

1 MSP

LD 1

Show all 1 supporter by party

LD 1

Willie Rennie

Party shown is each supporter’s party when the motion was published.

In the Official Report

4 contributions mention S4M-15430

27 Jan 2016

Education (Attainment Gap)
Elaine Smith Lab Meeting of the Parliament

The next item of business is a debate on motion S4M-15430, in the name of Liam McArthur, on education. I notify members at the outset that we are very tight for time. There is no extra time at all in the debate, so brevity would be appreci…
27 Jan 2016

Education (Attainment Gap)
Dr Alasdair Allan SNP Meeting of the Parliament

In addition to the local authority-based approach, 57 schools have been identified and, beyond that, there are many sources of intervention in the lives of individual families and communities. Those things are recognition of the fact that …
27 Jan 2016

Decision Time
Tricia Marwick Meeting of the Parliament

There are up to 11 questions to be put as a result of today’s business. I remind members that, in relation to today’s debate on education, if the amendment in the name of Angela Constance is agreed to, the amendments in the name of Iain Gr…
27 Jan 2016

Decision Time
Tricia Marwick Meeting of the Parliament

The amendments in the name of Iain Gray and Liz Smith therefore fall. The next question is, that motion S4M-15430, in the name of Liam McArthur, on education, as amended, be agreed to. Are we agreed? Members: No.