School League Tables 2022: Which schools made the grade?

By David Proctor

April 26 2022, 5:00 pm

Cults Academy in Aberdeen came out top with 78% of pupils leaving with five or more Highers.

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.

Milne’s High School in Fochabers was the best performing school in Moray. Picture by Jason Hedges.

Worst performers revealed

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 Western Isles.

This was because the figures were so small could be misleading or lead to the identification of children in the school.

The statistics cover the SQA assessments carried out by pupils last year.

Highers only part of the story

After compiling the most recent reports and results, we spoke to council education officials across the region who said that Highers aren’t the only measure of a school’s success.

The two most recent school years saw a dip in the number of students who left for positive destinations, including further education, training or straight to work. But new figures showed that those numbers resumed an upward turn in 2021.

Figures reflect final year without exams

The Scottish Government figures for the 69 schools in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Highland, Moray, Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles cover the 2021 assessment period in schools.

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.

School league tables 2021/22