Published: Friday, 26th September, 2008 12:30
Our pupils 'best in Scotland'
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PLEASED: Chris Robertson.
INVERCLYDE pupils have achieved some of the best exam results in Scotland — despite living in an area with high levels of deprivation.
Standard Grade exam results show our youngsters have turned a national trend for deprived areas on its head.
In Inverclyde, 33 per cent of pupils achieved five or more Standard Grade passes and 21 per cent achieved three or more Highers.
But in other deprived areas the pass rates were considerably lower.
In Glasgow, which is regularly at the bottom of the health and poverty tables along with Inverclyde, the Standard Grade pass rate was 22 per cent and the Higher pass rate 15 per cent.
Inverclyde also outperformed West Dunbartonshire and North Ayrshire.
Now education experts are flocking to Inverclyde to hail its outstanding achievements and look at how they can transfer the success to other places.
Former Gourock High School head teacher Chris Robertson, now a leadership development officer with Inverclyde Council, said: “When you compare other local authorities with similar circumstances to ourselves, Inverclyde does very well.
“There are a number of reasons for that. One is the attendance in Inverclyde is very high. It is way above the national average. There is a huge relationship between attendance and attainment.
“Parents in Inverclyde are hugely supportive of our schools. I think if you compare Inverclyde with areas of similar deprivation, parents seem to believe in education more.
“There is a real engagement with parents. Parents feel less threatened about coming into schools, whereas in West Dunbartonshire and Glasgow they would not go near the schools.”
New education convener Councillor Iain McKenzie hailed the hard work of teachers, staff, pupils and parents, and added: “We are over the moon.”
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