East Renfrewshire pupils deliver outstanding exam results
Pupils set sights on next steps after strong performances
Published: 6 August 2024
East Renfrewshire pupils have delivered another year of excellent SQA results, supporting them to pursue their ambitions.
With pupils across the board landing the grades needed to pursue employment and advance to university or college, there are lots of successes to celebrate.
The SQA results show that East Renfrewshire pupils are maintaining very high levels of attainment across S4, S5 and S6. This session, S5 pupils achieved the highest ever proportion of 5 or more qualifications at Higher level.
Councillor Andrew Anderson, Convener for Education, Equalities, Culture and Leisure , said: 'Congratulations to all our pupils in S4, S5 and S6 on their fantastic achievements. I commend them on their efforts and thank their parents for their continued support. In 2024, we saw the return of the full course assessment, and it is clear that our staff have worked tirelessly to ensure our learners were prepared for these changes, particularly those in S4 who were impacted in terms of their transition to secondary school.'
Key achievements include:
- 77% of S4 pupils attained 5 or more passes at National 5 or better.
- Mearns Castle High School pupils achieved their second highest proportion achieving 5 or more National 5 passes in S4.
- Woodfarm High School pupils achieved their second highest proportion achieving 1 or more Higher passes in S5.
- 71% of S5 pupils attained 3 or more passes at Higher.
- 52% of S5 pupils attained 5 or more passes at Higher - best-ever result.
- Woodfarm and Williamwood High School pupils achieved outstanding S5 results for 3 or more and 5 or more passes at Higher level - with their best ever results.
- Barrhead High School pupils achieved their second highest proportion of 5 or more passes at Higher level in S5.
- St Luke's High School and St Ninian's High School pupils increased the proportion of 3 or more and 5 or more Higher passes in S5 compared to last year.
- At Advanced Higher, 42% of S6 pupils achieved one or more passes.
- Eastwood High School learners increased significantly the proportion of 3 or more and 5 or more Higher passes by the end of S6 compared to last year.
As well as celebrating the SQA success, East Renfrewshire continues to offer more than 60 vocational options to S4, S5 and S6 pupils in East Renfrewshire. Each year almost 400 pupils take on these courses, providing the opportunity to study for a vocational qualification alongside other subjects, enabling them to gain skills that will help them enter the workplace or further education in the future.
Mark Ratter, the Council's Director of Education, said: 'I am delighted that our pupils continue to achieve such fantastic results. The ambition and commitment of our young people to attain at the highest level continually amazes me. These results also reflect the dedication of our school staff, I am grateful for the high quality education that they provide in all our schools, creating many opportunities for our pupils to excel. Well done everyone.'
Williamwood High pupil Jessica Spence juggled her commitments in ballroom dancing with studying for her National 5s. The hard work by the 16-year-old, from Clarkston, paid off as she secured 7As and 1B. Jessica, who competes in ballroom and Latin dancing on the international stage, spent many weeks living and training in the Netherlands to perfect routines with her Dutch dance partner. Having won the Dutch age group championships, the duo also secured a spot at the World Championships in Romania - a highlight of the season. Jessica said: "I felt I had prepared as well as I could for my exams, but I was away a lot for training so had to make sure I'd covered the parts of the course that I'd not been in class for. When I was doing the exams I felt good, so it meant I wasn't too nervous waiting on the results. It would be great to continue to pursue my dance ambitions, but I know I'll have to balance all those commitments with preparing for my Highers next year."
A member of the Junior GB track cycling squad, Erin Boothman is aiming for the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 and also landed top results in her Highers. Williamwood High pupil Erin gained 5 Highers (4As and 1B) and is heading to China in a couple of weeks to compete in the World Championships. The 17-year-old, from Netherlee, said: "Preparing for the exams was certainly a juggle because I was away racing a lot. Although when I was training it gave me a good break from studying and I felt the balance worked well. I made a plan for making sure I got enough studying done and stuck to it, so I was delighted when I got results this morning to see I'd done so well. I'm now preparing to head to the World Championships and the ultimate aim is to make it to the Olympics in LA in 2028. Watching the start of the track cycling at the Paris Olympics is certainly inspirational and I'd love to make it to that stage."
Pupils at Williamwood High are celebrating the school's best ever S5 results for 5 or more Highers. Pupils Charlotte Findlay and Sean Bull excelled in their results and are now preparing to take on Advanced Highers in 6th year. Sean, 17, from Netherlee, was delighted to secure 5As. He said: "I'll be doing three Advanced Highers next year and then I'll take some time to consider what I want to pursue at university. When I opened my results I felt a wave of relief because even though I'd prepared really well until you actually see the results you can never be certain." Charlotte, 16, from Netherlee, also landed 5 A grades, and added: "I was a bit nervous this morning but when I was actually opening the text I was fairly calm. I'm still deciding what route to take, but it will definitely be something with science. I'm over the moon to have got 5 As."
Well done to all the pupils at Isobel Mair School receiving results today. The senior pupils have excelled across a range of subjects, with awards being gained in National 2 and 3 qualifications. Pupils have also gathered units in subjects at National 1 up to National 4 level. A fantastic achievement from everyone.
After achieving 5 Highers and an Advanced Higher during her 5th and 6th years, Kyla Pollok is now determined to follow her dream of setting up a fitness business. Now finished school, Barrhead High pupil Kyla will balance her college studies with developing her own business. The 17-year-old, from Barrhead, had considered going to university but believes enrolling in an HND in Fitness, Health and Exercise at the City of Glasgow College will lead her on the path she wants. Kyla said: "I had looked at various university courses before realising that the college route was going to be more beneficial for me. I want to do personal training and coach people to achieve their fitness goals. I will start out trying to build a base of clients through promoting fitness routines and classes on social media and see how it builds from there. I'm really passionate about coaching and want to support people to reach their goals. I'm so delighted that my exam results will support me to pursue the career I want to."
Balancing the commitment of competing at the highest level of her sport, kickboxing champion Lauren Kee has secured 5 Highers. The results for the Barrhead High pupil will now lead her to follow her ambition of becoming a nurse. When returning to school for 6th year, Lauren will continue her studies with a vocational course in Child Nursing and Midwifery and hopes to pursue this as a career in the future. The 17-year-old, from Barrhead, said: "I'm so happy with the results because I had to balance studying with my training commitments. I train two days a week before school and then every day after school - but I just loved kickboxing from the moment I started it when I was five. I've been to European Championships and World Championships and will definitely continue kickboxing, but I also want to go into nursing. I love working with kids, which I do through my coaching commitments, so to be able to do that as a nurse would be amazing."
Fraser Leaf has secured 5 Highers and has now set his sights on securing a civil engineering graduate apprenticeship. Having already applied to two companies, Fraser will return to Barrhead High for 6th year, when he will complete 2 Advanced Highers and an additional Higher. The 17-year-old, from Barrhead, said: "I feel like going down the graduate apprentice route will give me more hands-on experience and will set me up well for the career I want to go into. I felt confident that I'd achieved the results I wanted because I'd studied hard, so to finally see that I'd passed all five was a complete relief."
Pupils are celebrating delivering one of Barrhead High School's best ever S5 Higher results. With excellent results across the whole year group, Abby Drummond was left particularly gobsmacked when she found out her results. The 17-year-old, from Barrhead, secured 5 As - all at the top band 1 level. Abby said: "I was really hoping for all As, but I wasn't sure about English because it was a hard paper. To find out all are band 1s is just amazing. I was trying not to think too much about the results over the summer, and was delighted when I opened the text this morning to see my results. All the hard work has definitely paid off." Abbie Noble, from Barrhead, was also delighted with her results. Gaining 4As and a B, the 16-year-old is now hoping to go to university to study International Relations and Politics. Abbie said: "I was nervous all last night waiting for my results, but I'm just so delighted now. By getting the grades I have it will allow me to go to university which is what I've always wanted to do."
