Top marks for West Lothian primary pupils

Recent figures released by the Scottish Government relating to Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels (ACEL) compares pupils at P1, P4 and P7 level across Scotland.

The data shows West Lothian pupils are achieving above national performance in all 15 national measures by up to 11.2 percentage points, based on teacher professional judgement.

The 20 per cent most deprived pupils in West Lothian are also achieving above national performance in all 15 measures, exceeding the average by up to 14.3 percentage points.

This helps ensure that the attainment gap between affluent and deprived West Lothian pupils is narrower than the national gap.

Executive councillor for Education David Dodds said: “I’m delighted that our primary pupils are continuing to achieve above the national average for literacy and numeracy.

“My sincere thanks go to all our dedicated teaching and support staff for maintaining this impressive level of performance, with the support of our parents and carers of course.

“Special praise must also go to all our hard-working primary pupils, who continue to make every effort to learn in a very challenging time. Across Scotland, the national figures show decreases in primary achievement due to disruption to learning and teaching caused by the pandemic, so it’s fantastic to see local pupils performing extremely well under difficult circumstances.”