51�Թ����App

At today’s Community Services Committee, councillors heard that schools across 51�Թ����App and Bute made significant progress throughout 2024/2025, reflecting ongoing work to raise attainment in literacy and numeracy at key stages in primary and secondary.

The national ACEL data, published in December, measures performance in reading, writing, listening and talking, and numeracy across P1, P4, P7 and S3.

Key highlights from this year’s results include:

• 51�Թ����App and Bute ranked in the top half of all councils for 30% of ACEL measures, with improvements recorded in 26 out of 30 measures since 2021/22.
• Performance matched or exceeded the national average in 83% of all measures—a major leap forward from 2021/22, when only two measures aligned with national results.
• For the third consecutive year, 51�Թ����App and Bute outperformed the national average for pupils living in Scotland’s most deprived areas - ranking 7th in Scotland for literacy and 10th for numeracy.
• Literacy performance is in line with national figures at P1, P4 and S3 (Third Level) and ahead at S3 (Fourth Level).
• Numeracy performance is in line or ahead of national levels across almost all stages. Listening and talking measures also align with national performance, with S3 Fourth Level sitting above national levels.
• In reading, 51�Թ����App and Bute is ahead of national performance at P4 and S3 Fourth Level, and in line across most other measures. Writing performance is ahead at S3 Fourth Level and in line at several primary stages.
• As schools continue to recover from the impact of the pandemic, primary literacy performance has risen by 13.8 percentage points, and numeracy by 11 percentage points since 2021/22.

Councillor Kieron Green, Policy Lead for Education, said:

“Improving attainment across Curriculum for Excellence levels remains a key priority for our Education Service. Our ambition is to ensure that every child and young person in 51�Թ����App and Bute achieves their fullest potential.

“It’s especially encouraging to see the clear progress in closing the poverty-related attainment gap between pupils in our most and least deprived communities, and to see sustained improvement across almost all measures since 2021/22.

“With 51�Թ����App and Bute performing in line with or above the national average in 25 out of 30 measures, it’s clear that the hard work of learners, school staff and our education teams is paying off.”