The Edinburgh schools listed amongst best in Scotland by Sunday Times 2024 Parent Power Schools Guide

The best performing schools across Scotland revealed in 2024 Parent Power Guide

An Edinburgh state school has been named amongst the very best in Scotland, while one of the city’s top private schools is celebrating after achieving the best Higher results in the country.

It comes as the Sunday Times’ Schools Guide 2024, called Parent Power, named the top performing and highest-achieving schools across the country. Published annuaully it is widely considered to be “the definitive guide to secondary schools”.

Boroughmuir High School is the only Edinburgh state school to appear in the Top 10 in Scotland, coming in at No.7 on the list, down one place from last year.

An Edinburgh state school has been named amongst the very best in Scotland, while one of the city’s top private schools is celebrating after achieving the best Higher results in the country.

St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh, meanwhile, tops the independent schools in Scotland for academic performance in Highers. In third place is George Heriot's School, with The Mary Erskine School fourth and George Watson's College in tenth spot.

Fettes College was No.1 in Scotland for A-levels for independent schools with Merchiston Castle School in third place.

Rankings in Scotland are based on the latest available data from the Scottish Government for state schools based on teacher assessed grades. For consistency, the guide used the same year’s results for the independent sector.

More than 1,000 schools can be searched by name, local authority, town and postcode, allowing families to find the best school in their area.

Parent Power is widely acknowledged as the most authoritative survey of the country's best schools. The rankings in the secondary school league tables in Scotland are determined by the proportion of pupils gaining five or more National 5 passes, five or more Highers and the proportion gaining two or more Advanced Highers.

Helen Davies, Editor of Parent Power, said: “The educational landscape continues to be challenging across both the state and independent sectors, and this is the first true assessment of post-pandemic exam results. We believe these rankings – and all the additional information on offer in Parent Power – provide parents with a more reliable guide to academic achievement in schools today.“The guide showcases academic excellence but also celebrates schools who may not be right at the top but are rising, innovating and helping pupils flourish. Being a teenager is hard enough, and the past few years since Covid have made life even harder. It is heartening to highlight the achievements of so many students and schools across the UK.“This year Parent Power includes details on extracurricular clubs, wellbeing initiatives and school lunch menus – chicken katsu seems to be the dish of the day.”