Highland Council claims exam results will match the Scottish average by 2027 but Councillor Michael Gregson says that’s ‘unconvincingly positive’ when ‘figures are so poor’

HIGHLAND Council has been accused of adopting an “unconvincingly positive tone” over its interpretation of attainment figures as it seeks improvement across the region’s schools.

In November we reported how Highland pupils are “at a disadvantage when applying to university or college” as figures showed attainment fell behind national average again for pupils in S4 to S6.

Then in December education league tables showed Highland Council at or near the bottom across a range of measurements as parents shared stories of being forced to hire private tutors so their children could learn the basics.

A year ago, then head of education Nicky Grant and performance and improvement manager Beth Brown blamed poor attainment on primary school teachers they said were too "cautious” with marking.

The above table illustrates the gap between the Highland Council numbers and the national average, note that where the two figures coincide they are for different areas like numeracy and literacy in one and writing and reading in another.

This week members of the council’s education committee are to be given an update on attainment that uses data from December’s Scottish Government stats for achievement in the curriculum for excellence (ACEL) results.

The report states that “on current trajectory, by 2027/28 Highland will surpass Scotland (the Scottish average) for literacy and match Scotland for numeracy”.

Its argument rests on above average levels of improvement in the Highlands, for example in literacy the region is improving by five per cent a year compared to 1.75 per cent nationally.

What it does not address is that, using the same numbers, the council results have been poor going back to 2016/17 and that up to the most recent numbers for the 2023/24 school year it still languishes near the bottom nationally.

There are at least five other areas for attainment where Highland was ranked either bottom, second from bottom or fifth from bottom across Scotland.

The paper also asks councillors to note a range of initiatives aimed at improving results.

These include a “moderation programme” to improve consistency in assessment and “supporting continuous improvement” – action plans to target support for schools with significant attainment gaps.

Peer support and professional development are also being used and bespoke input from a dedicated numeracy education support officer.

Former teacher and now Labour councillor for Inverness Central, Michael Gregson, who last week hit out at a “disturbing” level of staff absences uncovered by an Inverness Courier freedom of information request, believes this week’s report does not address the full challenge on attainment.

“Young people need to acquire knowledge, skills and competence to progress in education, training and work,” he said. “Without secure literacy and numeracy, they will struggle.

“There has to be something to examine here when Highland figures are so poor. If it’s Moderation and Quality Assurance, and Highland teachers’ judgements are particularly conservative, then the administration needs to come out and say that.

“We need more transparency and openness. Worryingly, the lived reality - 40 per cent of pupils missing much school time, pupil behaviour a big problem, class sizes at their highest in 20 years, and teacher absence at 8400 days last year – probably means that our schools are, indeed, underachieving.”

He blasted the report’s “desperately, unconvincingly positive tone” and added: “The story is ‘Nothing to see here’ and ‘It’s getting better all the time’ (the words ‘improve’ and ‘improvement’ are used 15 times in the first two pages). Ludicrously, several tables depict how great Highland’s performance will be in 2027-28.

“The fact is the tables suggest Highland has struggled to narrow the attainment gap. While P1, P4 and P7 figures reflect much improvement, this is derived from an extremely low base in 2021.

“It’s easy to improve on a low figure. But if only 55 per cent of the most deprived primary pupils in our area reach the expected level in literacy, and only 60 per cent in numeracy, we should be concerned”.

The education committee chairman, Cllr John Finlayson said in December during a heated debate about the same figures that: “Some people want to look at the ACEL data and only find bad news.

“Well, I am going to tell you some good news: we can claim to be the second most improved local authority in Scotland post-Covid and that we are over double the rate of improvement to Scotland as a whole.

“We continue to be within the most improved local authorities for literacy, the improvement in literacy over the last two years equates to 10 per cent and is now 12 per cent above pre-Covid figures.”

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