A PAIR of senior pupils proved that Port High is top of the class by praising their school at the education committee.

The school was recently commended by Education Scotland with a positive HMI report full of 'good' and 'very good' grades.

Sixth year pupils Aaron McAuslan and Claire Steele represented the school in the council chambers and were invited to tell councillors about the secret of its success.

Aaron, who wants to study psychology at university, said: "I spoke about the relationship between and pupils and staff.

"The staff are always there for you to help you and give support.

"We also have the a project which promotes the wellbeing of pupils and looks at mental health issues."

Claire, who hopes to go to Glasgow University to study law, said: "I spoke about the leadership aspect and the opportunities within the school.

"We get to help younger pupils as part of the senior pupil leadership team."

Head teacher Stuart Clark, who was delighted with the positive report, said the senior pupils were excellent ambassadors for the school.

He said: "I was incredibly proud of Aaron and Claire, they represented our school very well.

"They make an important contribution to the life of the school and the way they spoke to the committee reflected that, their input was fantastic.

"I was delighted that Claire spoke about the leadership opportunities and that pupils are contributing to the positive relationships between pupils and staff.

"We've had the best ever exam results in our Higher awards and our National 5 attainment has doubled within two years.

"There has also been improvement over the last 15 years where pupils have achieved more than one plus Higher.

"More pupils are leaving Port Glasgow High School with Higher level awards than not, and this has not previously been the case over a number of years.

"A lot of hard work has gone in."

Mr Clark added that the school had already been making progress in the areas identified for improvement.

These include encouraging the school to continue developing more consistent approaches to monitoring attainment, achievement and wellbeing.

Mr Clark also gave his view on the recent league tables ranking schools on the percentage of pupils achieving five Highers.

Clydeview Academy was the only school in Inverclyde to be included and came in at number 40.

He said: "I think the detailed scrutiny of a week long inspection is the best indicator of how well a school is performing. Every piece of data is useful, as long as it isn't viewed in isolation.

"For example, a pupil could achieve four As at Higher and would not even be included in these league tables.

"However I was pleased that we achieved national recognition for outperforming our comparator schools when the league tables were analysed in- depth."