The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Which schools in the north make the grade in our league tables?
Just five miles separate the best and worst-performing schools in the north and north-east, according to new figures.
Aberdeen’s Cults Academy has topped our first-ever school league, where 78% of last year’s secondary school leavers gained five or more Highers.
Northfield Academy finished bottom of the pile with only 7% of pupils exiting the Granitehill Place secondary with five or more Highers.
Banchory Academy came second overall with a Higher exams result percentage of 64% followed by Aberdeen Grammar (61%). The Scottish average for 2021 is 42%.
Glen Urquhart High School was the best performing in the Highlands (61%) followed by Mallaig High School (55%).
Anderson High School had the best percentage on Shetland with 46% and Milne’s High School in Fochabers the highest in Moray (44%).
Kirkwall Grammar School (41%) and the Nicolson Institute in Stornoway (40%) were the other island schools with the best percentages.
Turriff Academy was the worst-performing secondary in Aberdeenshire with 24% of young people leaving with five or more Highers.
Inverness High School (12%), Lochside Academy in Aberdeen (12%) and Speyside High School (24%) in Aberlour, Moray, were the others sitting just above Northfield Academy.
St Machar Academy in Aberdeen (24%), Peterhead Academy (25%), Invergordon Academy (26%) and Nairn Academy (27%) make up the bottom 10 schools.
The Scottish Government could not provide statistics
for nine schools in Highland, Shetland and the Western Isles.
This was because the figures were so small they could be misleading or lead to the identification of children in the school.
The Scottish Government figures for the 69 schools in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Highland, Moray, Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles cover the 2021 assessment period.
It was the second year running that traditional exams were called off due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Pupils were instead assessed on the work
they submitted throughout the year.
This year exams have returned with many pupils facing the in-person tests for the very first time in the coming weeks.
More school leavers in the north and north-east landed in “positive destinations” in 2021, after a small hiccup in 2020.
Most councils sent more students to jobs and training as well as further education in 2021 than they did in 2020.
The Western Isles led the way with 98% of students going on to positive destinations in 2021.
Orkney reported 97% of
school leavers went on to positive destinations, with Aberdeenshire and Shetland close behind at 96%.
Aberdeen City schools landed on the national average of 95%.
Only Highland and Moray Councils came in below the national average, but each were just one percentage point below that mark at 94%.
Except for Moray, every local authority saw the percentage of school leavers moving on to positive destinations take a dip in 2020.
Aberdeen saw the most dramatic change, dropping
four points in 2020 before returning to a rate of 95% in 2021.
Orkney, Shetland and Aberdeen recorded the biggest rise since 2020, each jumping five percentage points.
Despite being more than 30 points below the 42% national average for Highers, 93% of Northfield’s school leavers went on to positive destinations.
The story is similar in the Highlands. Despite being second-bottom with 12% of students gaining five or more Highers, Inverness High sent 80% of students on to positive destinations.