Scotland's top primary schools in each council area named, ahead of the new school year
The summer holidays are flying by for Scottish schoolchildren, most of whom wrapped up the 2024/25 school year around June 26. This means that there are mere weeks to go until it's time to return to the classroom - with the 2025/26 school year set to begin around August 13.
This also means a whole new cohort of children will soon be starting at a new primary school, setting out on their years-long learning journey by building a solid foundation of key academic skills. To mark the approach of the new school year, we're celebrating the state-funded primary schools across Scotland that have excelled at teaching their pupils these important skills - namely reading, writing, numeracy, and listening & talking.
We've based this on the latest official performance data available on the Scottish Government's primary schools dashboard for the 2023/24 academic year - 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 of each school's pupils across a range of different year groups, who are achieving at the expected levels in all four measurements.
While it's important to acknowledge success, it's also worth noting that performance is far from the only thing that makes a primary school a great place to learn - and figures can naturally fluctuate year-on-year. On top of that, data for some very small schools has been withheld to protect pupil privacy.
Here are some of the top performing local primaries in each of Scotland's council areas:
1 . Aberdeen
In the Aberdeen City Council area, there were three extremely high-performing schools with at least 90% of children meeting all four key skills targets: reading, writing, numeracy, and listening & talking. They were Ashley Road School; Cults School; and Milltimber School. | Ashley Road School/Google Photo Sales
2 . Aberdeenshire
In Aberdeenshire, there were four high-performing schools with at least 90% of children meeting all four key skills targets. They were Drumoak School; Foveran School; Glenbervie School; and Macduff School. | Foveran School/Google Photo Sales
3 . Angus
In the Angus Council area, there were eight high-performing schools with at least 90% of children meeting all four key skills targets. They were Birkhill Primary School; Grange Primary School; Letham Primary School; Liff Primary School; Mattocks Primary School; Northmuir Primary School; Rosemount Primary School; and Woodlands Primary School. | Birkhill Primary School/Google Photo Sales
4 . Argyll & Bute
In Argyll & Bute, there was one school where at least 90% of children met all four key skills targets: Rhu Primary School. But others came in close behind it, including Hermitage Primary School – where over 90% of pupils met listening & talking and numeracy targets, and 80-90% met reading and writing targets. | Rhu Primary School/Google Photo Sales
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