A scheme that uses football to raise educational aspirations and outcomes is encouraging teenage boys from deprived neighbourhoods to stay on longer at school, as well as improving their results, academics claim.

New research shows that more than three-quarters of boys taking part in a University of Edinburgh initiative that uses football to get S2 pupils engaged in school work stayed on until their final year, in comparison with 59 per cent of males across Scotland.

Participants in Educated Pass were also more likely to go on to further study, training or work on leaving school, the research found. The statistics reveal 100 per cent entered higher or further education, training or employment, and that an above-average proportion of the group achieved one or more Higher exam passes or equivalent.

The new report - produced by the University of Edinburgh’s Widening Participation team and of particular relevance given the Scottish government’s ambitions to close the attainment gap - tracked the educational and health outcomes of pupils who took part in Educated Pass in 2011-12 and 2012-13 and who would have entered the final year of school in 2016 or 2017. Of 133 players contacted, 53 responded.

Project leader Neil Speirs said: “The results from our report are incredibly heartening and demonstrate the important role that sport - football in particular - can play in engaging young people in education.”

The Educated Pass project works with roughly 100 boys in S2 that play for local youth football teams every year. The project allows the boys to see how the school curriculum is relevant to them and encourages them to apply the same level of commitment in the classroom as on the pitch.

Dr Speirs added: “You can teach any part of the curriculum through the aperture of sport or football - data analysis, poetry, fashion. We are using language that connects with the pupils in front of us. As we know, a lot of pedagogy connects with the middle classes, leaving behind many young people who don’t get that connection and relevancy. We’re trying to make sure we get them to connect.”

Professor Peter Mathieson, University of Edinburgh principal and vice-chancellor, said: “Widening participation is an absolute priority for us, and it is wonderful to see evidence of the real impact an original project such as Educated Pass can have.”

Educated Pass is funded by the Sutton Trust and run in collaboration with Edinburgh College, West Lothian College and the Scottish Youth Football Association.