Edinburgh has more top performing secondary schools than anywhere else in Scotland

Boroughmuir best in Capital and 4th in the country

THE Capital has the most top-performing secondary schools in Scotland according to the biggest survey of its kind.

Nine of the top 100 and seven in the top 50 are in Edinburgh - with Boroughmuir High School the highest-ranked in fourth place.

The Parent Power survey was expanded to include the 100 highest-achieving secondary schools in the state sector for the first time, ranked by Higher, Advanced Higher and National 5 examinations.

Boroughmuir High was a top performer

The Capital also had two entries in the top five independent schools - St Mary’s Music School in third and The Mary Erskine School in fifth place.

St Margaret’s School for Girls in Aberdeen was crowned the highest achieving private school at Higher and Advanced Higher level.

Top performing

The top performing state secondary school overall was Dunblane High School, one of five Stirling schools to make the top 100.

Dunblane had the second-best performance of all schools, behind only the grant maintained Jordanhill School in Glasgow.

Schools were measured on proportions of pupils in 2018 gaining five or more Highers - double-weighted - two or more Advanced Highers and five or more National 5s.

Scottish independent secondary schools are split into two rankings according to whether they follow the A-level, GCSE and International Baccalaureate system of public examinations, or the Scottish Higher/Advanced Higher and National 5 combination.

Fettes College is the top of the A-levels/IB/ GCSE rankings once again, the only school to have more than 80 per cent of grades at A*, A or B at A-level or IB equivalent.

Strathallan, the Perthshire boarding and day school, again this year ran Fettes closest in the senior exams, with 78.9 percent of A-levels gaining the top three grades.

Several independent schools following the Scottish examination system withheld their results from publication in Parent Power for a second year.

First published in 1993, Parent Power is a guide to the top 2,000 schools in the UK appearing over two weekends.

The rundown of primary and prep schools was published last Sunday followed by state and independent secondary schools yesterday.

Dunblane High headteacher since 2016, Stuart MacKay, said: “Effort is the key to unlocking that potential that any young person might have and it fits in with our key values of perseverance, to work hard, to do your best, to put in the effort and success will come.

“Success for me is for young people to be happy, to feel valued, to feel respected, to feel as if they have the opportunity to do the best they possibly can and to have the environment to bring about success for them.”