THE only state-funded school in Scotland not under council control has claimed the title of the country's best-performing secondary in the public sector.

 

Jordanhill, in Glasgow's west end, came top of The Herald's league tables with 75 per cent of its school leavers securing five or more Highers in 2013/14.

St Ninian's High School, in Giffnock, East Renfrewshire, came second in the table with 73 per cent of its pupils achieving the benchmark.

Dr Paul Thomson, rector of Jordanhill, said the school's success was down to its focus on the widest possible spread of pupil achievement.

He said: "Each pupil has a personal plan which encompasses skills development, community involvement, enterprise, creativity and physical activity as well as their academic programme.

"The most pleasing aspect is that pupils, no matter their background or abilities, consistently achieve far beyond what might reasonably be expected."

John Docherty, headteacher at St Ninian's, said: "I am delighted with the results and credit must be given to the commitment and effort of all pupils, staff and parents."

Although those schools at the top of The Herald tables are rightly celebrating, it is important to put the exam information published into context.

What is interesting about the list is the prevalence of schools that serve areas of significant affluence compared to the Scottish average.

The simplest way of highlighting this is by using data which highlights the proportion of pupils at each school who come from the most deprived postcodes under the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD).

Our table shows many of the top schools have a much lower proportion of pupils in the bottom 20 per cent of neighbourhoods under SIMD data then other schools - with many of those featured in the table having no pupils in this category. By contrast, a school such as Castlemilk High, on the south side of Glasgow, has 90 per cent of its pupils from the most deprived backgrounds.

The reason this figure is so important is because poverty has a very significant impact on attainment. According to a study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, by the time they are five, pupils from poorer backgrounds can be up to a year behind their middle-class peers developmentally, and lack basic skills such as literacy and problem-solving.

Publishing this information also highlights schools which have high levels of deprivation, but which still perform well, such as Notre Dame, in Glasgow's west end, and the Glasgow Gaelic School, which both achieved strong results with relatively high levels of pupils deprivation.

Because of the stark impact of poverty on attainment, the Scottish Government and school body Education Scotland have tried to give as much information as possible to parents on the new Parentzone Scotland website, which we use to compile our tables.

Concerns over meaningless comparisons between different schools serving entirely different communities have led to a new benchmark figure which highlights how well pupils should be performing based on those with similar socio-economic backgrounds in other schools across Scotland.

This gives parents a "virtual comparator" which shows whether the school is punching above its weight or coasting, regardless of how well it does in exams.

A Scottish Government spokesman said these new measures were aligned to the Curriculum for Excellence, which has a focus on pupils being allowed to develop at their own pace.

However, there have also been questions over why some previously available information, such as how local authorities perform, is no longer available.

Liz Smith, education spokeswoman for the Scottish Conservatives, said: "The key thing for parents is knowing whether their school has improved itself year on year and they they want to be able to measure that with actual statistics rather than some virtual school that doesn't exist."

Eileen Prior, executive director of the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, said some of the new information was "quite difficult to understand", but the website was a positive first step which could be improved in future years.

Here is The Herald's school league table in full.