NICOLA Sturgeon is to visit a London primary school today in a bid to learn lessons from an English initiative which successfully raised attainment among children from deprived backgrounds.
The First Minister is due to speak with staff and pupils at the Blue Gate Fields Junior school in Tower Hamlets, which is now ranked as in the top 20 per cent of schools south of the border for attainment for grammar and the top 40 per cent for maths, despite seven out of 10 students being eligible for free school means.
The school participated in the London Challenge, a New Labour initiative which was credited with turning around some of the most deprived schools in the English capital.
Ms Sturgeon has said that she is keen to learn from the success of the programme, and has announced a £100 million fund aimed at improving classroom performance of Scotland's poorest children.
She has said that the current picture in Scotland, which sees less than one pupil in three from the most deprived areas leave school with one Higher, compared to four out of five in the richest, is "not acceptable".
Meanwhile, Scottish Labour Leader Jim Murphy is expected to unveil details of his party's plan to reduce inequalities in attainment as his shadow cabinet meets in Edinburgh.
Ms Sturgeon's visit to the London school is expected to be the first in a series this week in which she will focus on improving opportunities for young people.
She said: "While I have no time for some of the ideological reforms taking place in English education there are clear lessons for Scotland from the London Challenge.
"Scotland has a distinct education system which is respected around the world. As other countries learn from our work on Curriculum for Excellence, so we should be open to ideas from other parts of the UK and elsewhere to help tackle the challenges we face.
"Blue Gate Fields has delivered spectacular results and demonstrates that with the right support children can achieve in education, whatever their background. I am looking forward to seeing for myself the success of the school and learning from the staff and children about the factors that have made the difference for them."
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