North Lanarkshire has two entries in list of Scotland’s top 50 schools

North Lanarkshire had two entries in a table of the top 50 best state secondary schools in Scotland.
An high school student waits for the start of an exam. Pic: CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP/Getty Images)An high school student waits for the start of an exam. Pic: CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP/Getty Images)
An high school student waits for the start of an exam. Pic: CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP/Getty Images)

Dalziel High in Motherwell, and Our Lady’s High in Cumbernauld, were listed at 29 and 41 respectively in a table, which ranked the schools based on the number of pupils attaining five or more Highers.

The top ranked school was Jordanhill School, the only state funded school in Scotland not controlled by a local authority. There, 83 per cent of pupils left school with five or more Highers.

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Critics of school league tables say deprivation is the biggest influence on pupil attainment, with a strong correlation between academic achievement and poverty.

A high percentage of the top ranked schools in the table have no pupils from areas of economic hardship. Despite ongoing improvements in attainment by pupils in deprived areas, this growth is out matched by pupils from less deprived backgrounds.

A spokesman for North Lanarkshire Council said:  “We are proud of the achievements of our pupils and our schools. There is so much hard work undertaken by staff and pupils to ensure our young people experience positive wellbeing, attainment and employability outcomes.

“We have a particular focus on tackling disadvantage. This year our schools achieved their best-ever academic performance in the history of this authority. While academic attainment is important, school league tables are only a very narrow snapshot of a school’s performance.

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“These statistics fail to fully reflect on the wide range of achievements which take place day-in-day-out in our schools; nor do they reflect the communities the schools serve. It is more helpful to look at attainment in relation to the context on our communities.”

Neil McGrory - Local Democracy Reporting Service

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