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

Guide provides parents with important information they can consider alongside inspection reports to assess the quality of local schools

This table is based on the percentage of pupils at each school who achieved the Scottish Government’s educational “gold standard” of five Highers, or their equivalent, in 2022.

Secondary schools in Scottish towns are ‘underperforming’ compared to urban and rural areas

The Scotsman and our sister titles across the National World group 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.

Secondary schools ranked by percentage of pupils passing five or more Highers or equivalent qualifications in the 2021/22 academic year

Throughout our coverage, we use ‘Highers’ as a term to mean both Highers and equivalent qualifications at SCQF level 6 and above, such as Skills for Work Higher awards.

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.

The Scottish Government says presenting exam performance figures in league tables is “misleading” because it overlooks such aspects but we and our sister titles across Scotland have published them to provide parents with important information they can consider alongside inspection reports and other ways to assess the quality of local schools.

The 18 best performing secondary schools in Scotland according to latest exam results