30-04-2025
School league tables 2025: Here's how Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Moray, Highlands and island secondary schools rank
has pipped at the post to lead the Press and Journal's take on the 2025 school league tables.
The two city schools both improved their performances from last year – but made the bigger change.
had led the charge for the previous three years.
Elsewhere in the north and north-east, and were leading the way.
Schools are ranked based on the percentage of leavers to gain five or more Higher qualifications (or equivalent).
This is considered a benchmark of achievement as it's a common entry requirement for university.
The best performing schools in each local authority area are:
went up six points to 58%, with jumping the same amount of points to 39%.
In the Highlands, 215-pupil leapt 32 points to 62%.
topped the Argyll and Bute table with a score of 46% – up 5% from last year.
In the islands, in Shetland came out on top, leaping 14 points to 44%.
did the same in the Orkneys, with a jump from last year of 6 points to 39%.
The in Harris won the battle of the Western Isles – even with drop of nine points to 41%.
Each year the Scottish Government publishes attainment data for every school in Scotland.
The figures our 2025 school league table is based on are the percentages of leavers to achieve five or more qualifications at SCQF level 6.
As well as Highers, this can include qualifications such as a National Certificate or Modern Apprenticeship.
They also compare each result to last year.
Publication of school league tables is controversial, seen by many as an index of deprivation rather than a measure of individual schools' performance.
An attainment gap exists between pupils who live in the most and least affluent areas.
In all of our 2025 top 10 schools, fewer than a fifth pupils live in deprived areas (designated quintile one in the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation).
At the other end of the table, schools such as Inverness High School and Northfield Academy in Aberdeen face more deprivation.
Here are the 10 lowest-scoring schools when assessed by percentage of leavers with five or more highers or equivalent qualification in 2023/24:
But in today's world, is this really the best measure of success? Many would not agree, including Peterhead Academy's head teacher Gerry McCluskey.
Last year, his school ranked very low in our league tables, with just 14% of leavers obtaining five or more highers.
This year, that figure for Peterhead is now at 24%.
In an extensive interview with the P&J last April, Mr McCluskey said the league tables are far from the whole story for his school.
He told us at the time: 'The percentage of leavers at Peterhead Academy achieving a positive destination after school is 96%.
'That's the same as the likes of Bearsden Academy. Yes, they're getting more Highers, but while our young people are leaving school earlier, they're still moving on to employment, further education, higher education, graduate apprenticeships.
'What you also need to take into account is that as a community, we're almost a self-sustaining economy in Peterhead. We've got a lot of opportunities, we're the biggest town in Aberdeenshire, there's a lot of businesses, a lot of industries that are very attractive for our young people to go and work at.'
You can look at last year's results in full detail here.
