Scottish Schools Ranking: Here are the 10 council areas with the best performing schools in Scotland

The exam result data shows which council areas have the most successful pupils – topped by East Renfrewshire where six out of its seven secondary schools placed in the top 50.

Exam league tables do not rank schools from ‘best to worst’, as they do not take into account factors such as teaching quality, the number of pupils with special educational needs or whether the school serves a disadvantaged area.

Scottish Schools Ranking: Search our interactive table of all Scottish secondary school results

Meanwhile, the Scottish Government says presenting exam performance figures in league tables is “misleading” because it overlooks such aspects but we are publishing them to provide parents with important information they can consider alongside inspection reports and other ways to assess the quality of local schools.

We have compiled them using exam performance data published by the Scottish Government on its own website. Where schools are tied, we have looked at the share of pupils passing four or more Highers, then three or more if necessary, to determine the ranking.

Across Scotland, 39 per cent of school leavers in 2022 had gained at least five Highers, or equivalent, the figures show.

This is lower than the previous two years, when the Covid-19 pandemic meant exams were cancelled and teacher assessments used to award grades, but higher than pre-pandemic levels.

While East Renfrewshire has the most high-performing schools, at the other end of the scale schools in Angus were most likely to be in the league table’s bottom 50 places, with half of its eight schools falling into this section.

Here are the 10 council areas with the highest percentage of high-flying schools – and their top performers.