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Funding to develop innovative learning spaces announced. 

Support will be made available to create innovative learning environments, the Scottish Government announced today.

Inspiring Learning Spaces will aid open and flexible learning and enable closer partnerships between schools and further education, in line with Curriculum for Excellence, with £5 million available.

The investment will complement Scotland’s Schools for the Future programme and will support initiatives that promote change and encourage ambition in the way individuals learn. There is also the potential to support the Government’s greener schools commitment.

The Scottish Government is already investing £800 million in the £1.25 billion Schools for the Future Programme, in partnership with local government, which will see the construction of 67 new schools across Scotland by March 2018 to replace the poorest condition schools. By the start of 2017 every local authority will have at least one new school under construction or open to pupils.

Announcing the funding, Education Secretary Michael Russell said: “The new schools being built under Scotland’s Schools for the Future programme are fantastic spaces for pupils to learn in and we want to encourage more of these innovative learning spaces to be created.

“This funding will support the redesign of internal learning environments and could contribute to the recommendations made by the Commission for Developing Scotland’s Young Workforce by encouraging integrated learning spaces between schools and further education. This will enable senior pupils to have early access to vocational qualifications.

“We are looking at supporting a limited number of low-cost but high impact projects but there are no constraints on the types of projects that could benefit from the funding as we want our learning providers to be ambitious in their ideas.

“I want all our schools and colleges to be inspiring places for our young people to learn in and this fund will help us achieve this.”

In response to Mr Russell's announcement, Scottish Futures Trust's Schools Programme Director Gemma Boggs said: "We are delighted that this funding is being earmarked to support inspiring learning spaces. We want to build on the huge progress made through Scotland's Schools for the Future programme since its launch in 2009. The opportunity to work with our partners across Scotland to develop a range of projects which demonstrate ambition and leadership, promote change and offer transferable approaches to others, is extremely exciting."

Notes To Editors

The Scottish Futures Trust will work with learning providers/partners over the course of 2014-15 to scope appropriate projects that may be suitable to receive support