A FUNDING bid to help close the attainment gap between rich and poor pupils in Glasgow secondary schools has been rejected.

Education officials had appealed to the Scottish Government for £300,000 to pay for extra tuition for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.

However, ministers told Glasgow City Council money would only be available for primary schools.

The funding rejection was revealed in a report on Glasgow's plans to close the attainment gap, which has become a national priority.

Shortly after taking over as First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon unveiled a four-year funding package of £100 million for councils under the Attainment Scotland Fund.

So far, money has been allocated to boost literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing projects in Glasgow, Dundee, Inverclyde, West Dunbartonshire, North Ayrshire, Clackmannanshire and North Lanarkshire councils.

However, the Glasgow report states the bid had a "a number of strands" including "raising attainment in secondary schools through providing additional supported study and mentoring".

It stated: "In our secondary schools, many teachers provide support to young people during lunchtimes and after school in a voluntary capacity. Many secondary schools make very effective use of their devolved budget to provide targeted opportunities for supported study after school.

"We will work with secondary headteachers to take a more systematic approach to this across areas to maximise what we can deliver."

The report states that finance for secondary schools was declined, but adds that the council is now seeking alternative sources to ensure progress can be made in secondary.

Glasgow has already been allocated more than £3m from the Scottish Government's attainment fund to pay for projects in primary schools.

Glasgow is to employ 90 extra teachers and is looking for language experts to engage with hard-to-reach communities such as Romanians. Families will be encouraged to visits schools with fun activities such as cake decorating before being asked about what help they would like with literacy.

The council is also looking at how to improve engagement between parents and pupils by organising out of school events for families to attractions such as museums.

Stephen Curran, the council's executive member for education, said: "We are committed to raising standards, improving literacy and numeracy and helping our families be better able to support their child’s learning.

"We are, of course, delighted with the £3m funding already announced by the Scottish Government for one strand of our improvement challenge.

"However, we will be looking to work with businesses, third sector partners as well as our community planning partners to deliver on this very important commitment."

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “Glasgow City Council is one of 21 local authorities benefitting from the first year of the £100m Scottish Attainment Fund.

"We have been clear from the outset we are focusing on primary schools as it is the foundation of a child’s learning. By closing the attainment gap when children are young, the benefits will continue into secondary school and well beyond.

“We are pleased to hear Glasgow City Council is also developing work to improve attainment in their secondary schools. We have been clear that our Attainment Challenge sits alongside a wide range of other national activity to raise attainment, complementing the work already being undertaken locally."