Inverness primary highest ranked in Highlands in Sunday Times primary school league table for 2025
Lochardil Primary in Inverness tops a new list of 47 primary schools across the Highlands after recording a ‘perfect score’ in The Sunday Times’ Scottish primary school league table, released today.
Ranked 60th overall in the Scotland-wide list, Lochardil attained a maximum score of 400 in reading, writing, numeracy, plus combined listening and talking.
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St Catherine's Primary School, Renfrewshire regained its title as the highest ranked in school in Scotland, while Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School, West Lothian was ranked second – despite nearly a third of pupils being deemed “very deprived” in the Scottish Government’s index of multiple deprivation.
Elsewhere across Inverness and its surrounding towns and villages, Cawdor Primary was ranked fifth in Highland, while Glenurquhart Primary, Drumnadrochit finished sixth.
Smithton Primary was ranked in seventh place, while Balloch, Holm, Drakies, Beauly and Auldearn each recording a score of 370, shared places eighth to 12th.
Grantown Primary had a stellar performance rising 160 points to 350 this year, its best showing since records began in 2016.
Merkinch Primary was the lowest ranked Inverness-based primary in the Highlands, placing 52nd with a score of 240, and ranked 1168th across the whole of Scotland.
Miller Academy Primary School in Thurso, with a score of 390, was the second highest ranked Highland primary, with Bridgend Primary in Alness coming third.
In close quarters was Craighill Primary, ranked fourth.
Mount Pleasant Primary in Thurso was ranked the lowest in Highland, in 47th place, ranked 1181st overall in Scotland.
The Primary School League Table ranks success at P7 in around 1,200 schools, using the Scottish government’s Achievement in Curriculum for Excellence Levels (Acel) database.
Examining P7 scores is considered a useful measure of a school's performance at the conclusion of a pupil's academic journey at primary level.
There are over 2000 primary schools in Scotland but more than a third do not submit Acel data each year.
The Acel database ranks the percentage of pupils meeting the four key indicators of reading, writing, numeracy, plus combined listening and talking.
It also counts the percentage of pupils that hail from deprived neighbourhoods, using the government’s Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation.
A record 89 schools scored top marks this year, up from 85 last year and just 52 when the government first began compiling data in 2016/17.
The full searchable table of 1200 participating schools is available at: thetimes.com/uk/scotland/article/scottish-school-league-table-2025-best-primary-xfnxxlv22
