Council announces education attainment results for 2018
East Ayrshire Council has today (Wednesday 7 November 2018) announced the attainment results for senior (S4-S6 pupils) and the figures make for positive reading.
Attainment in literacy and numeracy at all levels in S4, S5 and S6 is again above the national performance - and the educational attainment gap for pupils living in the area’s most deprived areas is beginning to narrow and, in some cases, is better than the national average.
Welcoming the good news, Councillor Fiona Campbell, the Council’s Cabinet Member for Skills and Learning said: “Raising educational attainment (particularly in literacy and numeracy), closing the poverty related attainment gap and improving positive destinations when leaving school are key priorities for us, in line with the Scottish Government’s National Improvement Framework for Education.
With an increasing focus on attainment for each young person by the time they leave school, rather than on the individual year on year attainment, these results demonstrate that young people in East Ayrshire are well placed to progress into positive and sustained destinations beyond school”
As a Scottish Attainment Challenge Authority, a major Council priority is to improve outcomes and attainment of young people who live in the most deprived areas of East Ayrshire.” (Note: These areas are defined as ‘deciles 1 and 2’ on the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation SIMD).
Councillor Campbell added: “The attainment of S4 and S5 pupils living in decile 2 is above average and, in S6 the attainment gap has closed when compared with the previous year’s performance.
“The figures also show encouraging signs of improvement for pupils living in decile 1 and we’ll be working harder than ever to improve attainment there, as well as bringing forward a host of new and exciting initiatives aimed at giving all our pupils the right blend of qualifications, skills and experiences they need to succeed in school, work and life.
“I’d like to congratulate all of our young people whose hard work has led to these positive results. I would also wish to recognise the excellent support that our young people receive from our teachers and support staff.”
Notes to editors
The Council uses two models to assess and compare data:
- The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF): used to compare qualifications and,
- INSIGHT: a Scottish Government benchmarking tool which allows schools and Local Authorities to compare their performance to that of pupils with similar characteristics (eg. gender, stage, SIMD status, Additional Support Needs) in other Council areas.
New National Qualifications were introduced on a phased basis from 2014 with the introduction of National 2, 3, 4 and 5 qualifications.
New Higher qualifications were introduced in 2016, followed by the new Advanced Higher qualifications in 2017.
National 5, Higher and Advanced Highers have been assessed through a combination of course units and, in the majority of subjects, an external examination.
Changes announced in 2016, mean that internally assessed units in National 5 subjects were removed from this year.
Internally assessed units are being removed from Higher courses from 2019 and from Advanced Higher courses in 2020.