A new league table of the best performing nurseries in Scotland has revealed which council areas are best when it come to pre-school education.
The Times and Sunday Times recently published statistics based on latest Care Inspectorate inspections.
The regulator awards grades ranging from six points for ‘excellent’ to one point for ‘unsatisfactory’, across the four categories of ‘setting’, ‘staff’, ‘leadership’ and ‘quality of ‘care, play and learning’.
The maximum combined points achievable is 24 but the highest points achieved since June 2023 was 22.
To work out which council areas perform best, the compilers looked at how many nurseries with at least one ‘excellent’ rating there were per 1,000 children under the age of five.
Here are the 10 top areas, according to that measure.
1. Stirling
Stirling Council leads the way when it comes to standards of nursery provision. There are 4,671 under-fives in the area, with 6.6 nurseries per 1,000 under-fives rated excellent in at least one category. | Canva/Getty Images
2. Angus
Angus Council, including the town of Arbroath (pictures) comes second when it comes to standards of nursery provision. There are 5,899 under-fives in the area, with 6.3 nurseries per 1,000 under-fives rated excellent in at least one category. | Canva/Getty Images
3. Orkney
Orkney Islands Council completes the top three best council areas when it comes to standards of nursery provision. There are 1,166 under-fives in the area, with 6 nurseries per 1,000 under-fives rated excellent in at least one category. | Canva/Getty Images
4. Shetland
Shetland Islands Council, including the town of Lerwick (pictured) takes fourth spot when it comes to standards of nursery provision. There are 1,301 under-fives in the area, with 5.4 nurseries per 1,000 under-fives rated excellent in at least one category. | Canva/Getty Images