Edinburgh's 18 top primary schools when it comes to pupils mastering key skills
There are now mere weeks left of Scotland's summer holidays, with children poised to return for the start of the 2025/26 school year around August 13 across most of Edinburgh. Schools will also be welcoming classes of primary starters, as a new cohort of pupils begin their time in formal education.
To mark the approach of the new school year, we've looked into the state-funded primaries across the City of Edinburgh Council area that have done particularly well at teaching their pupils four core academic skills over the most recently available 2023/24 year; namely reading, writing, numeracy, and listening & talking.
We've used the latest official performance data published on the Scottish Government's primary schools dashboard - as well as some supplementary information from independent data site Scotland's Data on a Map. More specifically, we've looked at ACEL (or Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels) figures showing the percentage range of each school's pupils across three different year groups, who are achieving at the expected levels in each skill.
While these results are far from the only thing that show a school is a great place to learn, having high rates of pupils reaching these targets is cause for celebration - and a sign that a school is doing an excellent job setting children up for future success.
Here were the 18 Edinburgh schools that came out on top:
1 . Buckstone Primary School
At the top of the list is this primary school in the city's Buckstone area, towards the south. In the 2023/24 academic year, at least 90% of its pupils met all four skills targets; in reading, writing, numeracy, and listening & talking. | Google Photo Sales
2 . Glasgow
Canaan Lane is a primary school in the Morningside area. In the 2023/24 academic year, it too had at least 90% of its pupils meet all four skills targets. | Canaan Lane Primary School/Google Photo Sales
3 . Dalmeny Primary School
This is a primary school in the village of Dalmeny, west of the city and close to Queensferry. In the 2023/24 academic year, it again had at least 90% of its pupils meet all four skills targets. | Google Photo Sales
4 . Dean Park Primary School
Dean Park is a primary school in Balerno, to the southwest of the city. In the 2023/24 academic year, it also had at least 90% of its pupils meet all four skills targets. | Google Photo Sales
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