10 best performing Glasgow primary schools, according to new Times league table

The Times Scotland has published the percentage of primary seven pupils meeting the required standard in core skills in Scotland’s curriculum for excellence, allowing parents to analyse standards across the 1250 schools that published reportable results for 2021.

The table is drawn from official data submitted to Scottish ministers. The Times Scotland assigned each primary school a score out of 400, which draws together the percentage of pupils up to standard in four skills into a single comparable metric.

What Glasgow primary schools had the best results?

10. Riverside Primary School - 360

9. St Maria Goretti Primary School - 360

8. St Brigid’s Primary School - 370

7. St Thomas’ Primary School - 380

6. King’s Park Primary School - 380

5. Garrowhill Primary School - 390

4. Mount Vernon Primary School - 390

3. Notre Dame Primary School - 390

2. Hyndland Primary School - 400

1. St Fillan’s Primary School - 400

Which Glasgow primary schools have improved the most?

5. Cleeves Primary School - 200 in 2019 to 260 in 2021

4. St Brigid’s Primary School - 310 in 2019 to 370 in 2021

3. Corpus Christi Primary School - 250 in 2019 to 340 in 2021

2. Aultmore Park Primary School - 230 in 2019 to 320 in 2021

1. Caldercuilt Primary School - 260 in 2019 to 350 in 2021

What does the new data show?

The proportion of P7 children meeting the required standard in reading, writing, numeracy, and combined listening and talking declined markedly last year in over 330 schools with a total pupil roll of more than 95,000 children.

Performance improved in little more than one in ten (138) schools with a roll of nearly 36,000 pupils between 2019 and 2021, as school closures and isolation during the coronavirus pandemic robbed many children of a classroom education.

Just 51 schools out of more than 1250 that submitted P7 data educated every child up to the required standard.

‘Assess standards’

Mark McLaughlin, education correspondent at The Times Scotland, said: “It’s important to note that The Times Scotland Primary School League Table is not ‘Scotland’s schools ranked from best to worst’.

“It presents government data from P7, arguably the most important year for pupils preparing for high school, for parents to analyse standards across the 1250 schools that published reportable results.

“Scottish ministers claim they ‘don’t do league tables’ and maintain this facade by calling their aggregated spreadsheet of pupil performance the “Acel”, which stands for Achievement in Curriculum for Excellence Levels.

“Few parents could tell you what an “Acel” is, let alone where to find it in the recesses of a government quango’s website, so The Times presents the data here in terms parents can understand.

“These statistics do not capture the full range of success and adversity teachers and pupils face each day, but they do open a narrow window for parents to peer through to assess standards in their children’s schools.”

The full results can be found on The Times website.