Improvements in exam results in Highlands above national average

The improving trend of attainment is continuing at schools across the Highlands, the latest SQA results released by Highland Council have shown.

Attainment in classrooms across the region has risen against all key indicators and improvement is also around two per cent above national levels of improvement.

Improvement in National 5 is 3.7 per cent compared with national average improvement of 2.9 per cent; Higher results showed a 6.2 per cent rise in comparison to national improvement of 4.1 per cent; and 7.5 per cent improvement at Advanced Higher in comparison to a 5.4 per cent improvement across Scotland.

Across Highland schools, 49.5 per cent of S4 students achieved five or more National 5 awards (up from 46.2 per cent in 2019), and 22.2 per cent of S5 students achieved five or more Highers (up from 21.9 per cent in 2019).

In S6, 38.3 per cent of candidates achieved at least one award at Advanced Higher, up 1.2 per cent on 2019. These figures show an improvement from last year and across a five-year trend.

Overall, 95.4 per cent of S4 National 5 entries led to an award, up from 93.5 per cent in 2019 and 95.4 per cent of S5 Higher entries led to an award, up from 93.1 per cent in 2019.

In S6, 93.7 per cent of all Advanced Higher entries led to an award, up from 86.3 per cent in 2019 while 33 per cent of entries across all levels led to an award at “A”, compared to 30 per cent in 2019.

Councillor John Finlayson, chair of the Highland Council Education Committee, said: “These are outstanding results and everyone involved should be extremely proud of what has been achieved.

"To show an improvement across the board and indeed, a higher level of improvement in Highland than across the national average, should be a cause for celebration across the council.

"These results are a credit to all our schools and young people and highlight a positive story in terms of education improvement all across Highland.

“Our school staff have worked extremely hard in what has been a difficult year and we appreciate that effort.

"I am especially pleased with the drop in the number of No Awards across the senior phase and I would like to commend the hard work of our young people and the support of their families that has led to these positive figures.

"We look forward to our schools returning next week so that our improvement journey in Highland schools can continue.”

Donna Manson, Chief Executive Officer of Highland Council, said: “I am delighted to see the vision which the council has set out for improvement in education coming through, as demonstrated in across all key measures.

"This shows that the approach being taken is bearing fruit, embedding different ways of working excellent with collaboration across all school staff.

"We are on track for very real improvement across education as a whole in Highland which translates into greater opportunities for all our children and young people.

"We have shown what excellent progress can be made and we will continue to work on education recovery and improvement in tandem.”

Nicky Grant, the council's head of education, said: “It is very satisfying to see these marked improvements. Once our college results are added in , the picture will be even more positive.

"We are also very grateful to the SQA for putting in place a free appeals service for those situations where the final grade awarded is lower than teacher estimates.

"We believe that when the appeals have been considered we will see further improvements to our percentages.”

School level data is not yet publicly available

A council spokeswoman said: "School statistics won't be available until information is released for access via Parentzone in a few weeks’ time."

Any pupil disappointed with their results should contact their school for advice about whether or not an appeal will be possible.

Similarly, any young person looking for advice about their next steps should contact their school directly.

Skills Development Scotland also has a dedicated helpline on 0808 100 8000.

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