National Qualifications Results 2025 ECSPB
Renfrewshire Council · 30 October 2025
Back to Education and Children's Services Policy Board — 30 October 2025 and its agenda
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Page 1 of 14 To: Education and Children’s Services Policy Board On: 30 October 2025 ___________________________________________________________________ Report by: Director of Children’s Services ___________________________________________________________________ Heading: National Qualifications Results 2025 ___________________________________________________________________ 1. Summary 1.1 This report summarises attainment in the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) National Qualifications in 2025, based on the key measures contained within the Insight benchmarking tool. 1.2 As has been well documented, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, alternative methods of assessment were put in place for the 2020 and 2021 exam diet. The 2022 and 2023 diets were also seen as a transitional point back to a traditional model of assessment. Subsequently, caution is advised in making direct comparisons between years that had different assessment approaches. 1.3 Skills Development Scotland are currently tracking school leavers’ destinations. Insight is normally updated in spring and a further report providing data on our school leavers’ attainment will be submitted to the Education and Children Service’s Policy Board when this data becomes available. This report will provide data on the attainment of all pupils in the senior phase by stage (S4, S5 and S6). ___________________________________________________________________ 2. Recommendations 2.1 Members of the Education and Children’s Services Policy Board are asked to: • note the content of this report; • note the efforts of the young people and staff in achieving these results; and • agree that a further report will be brought to the Education and Children’s Services Policy Board when leavers data becomes available.
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Page 2 of 14 ___________________________________________________________________ 3. Background 3.1. Insight is a performance evaluation tool provided by the Scottish Government to schools and education authorities as a way of benchmarking performance in four key measures: • Attainment in literacy and numeracy; • Improving attainment for all; • Attainment versus deprivation; and • Leavers’ destinations. 3.2. This report provides data and commentary on the performance of each of our senior phase cohorts (S4, S5 and S6) over the last three years and against our virtual comparator for three of the measures detailed above. Leavers’ destinations will become available in February/March 2026 and will form part of the report to this board in Spring 2026 or as soon thereafter if the data release is delayed. 3.3. In addition to these local benchmarking measures, this report will provide data in relation to the number and quality of passes at each qualifications level. 3.4. The methodology for the Insight ‘virtual comparator’ (VC) is unchanged in 2025. The virtual comparator allows authorities and schools to make statistically valid comparisons between how young people have performed against young people nationally, who share four similar characteristics. These characteristics are gender, year group, percentage of time spent in mainstream classes (ASN), and the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) decile which measures the level of deprivation experienced in the area that a pupil resides. ___________________________________________________________________ 4. Attainment in literacy and numeracy (S4, S5 and S6) 4.1. Raising attainment in literacy and numeracy remains a key priority of Renfrewshire Council children’s services and this is reflected in one of the key priorities of the National Improvement Framework. 4.2. Attainment in literacy and numeracy includes passes at National 4 and 5 in English and Maths and passes in some other awards at Scottish Certificate and Qualification Framework (SCQF) levels 4 and 5 which contain certain core elements of literacy and numeracy. The tables which follow, provide data on our performance in literacy and numeracy, alongside our virtual comparator and national figures, for each of our senior phase cohorts
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Page 3 of 14 Table 1 - % S4 Pupils Achieving Literacy & Numeracy Year % Achieved Level 4 Literacy % Achieved Level 4 Numeracy % Achieved Level 5 Literacy % Achieved Level 5 Numeracy Renfrewshire 2023 94 90 77 68 National 2023 92 88 76 64 Virtual Comparator 2023 93 89 77 65 Renfrewshire 2024 92 92 80 70 National 2024 90 88 75 64 Virtual Comparator 2024 91 89 76 65 Renfrewshire 2025 91 91 81 72 National 2025 91 89 77 68 Virtual Comparator 2025 92 90 78 69 4.3. Attainment in literacy in S4 has increased at SCQF level 5 since 2023 and remains ahead of both the national and virtual comparator figures. There have however been some decreases in SCQF level 4 literacy over this period. These decreases are also visible in national data and while Renfrewshire remains in line with national figures it was marginally behind the virtual comparator in 2025. 4.4. Attainment in numeracy remains ahead of comparators at both SCQF level 4 and SCQF level 5 in 2025. This has been a consistent trend over the previous 3 years. Attainment in SCQF level 5 numeracy has increased over time and is 2 percentage points higher than in 2024. Attainment at SCQF level 4 numeracy has remained broadly consistent over time with the current figure marginally below 2024 but remaining above the previous year. Table 2 - % S5 Pupils Achieving Literacy and Numeracy Year % Achieved Level 4 Literacy % Achieved Level 4 Numeracy % Achieved Level 5 Literacy % Achieved Level 5 Numeracy Renfrewshire 2023 94 93 84 76 National 2023 93 90 81 70 Virtual Comparator 2023 94 91 82 71 Renfrewshire 2024 94 91 82 74 National 2024 93 90 81 71 Virtual Comparator 2024 94 91 82 72 Renfrewshire 2025 94 93 85 77 National 2025 92 90 80 71 Virtual Comparator 2025 93 91 82 73 4.5. The percentage of pupils achieving literacy in S5 remains high and in 2025 was above the virtual and national comparator at both SCQF level 4 and
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Page 4 of 14 SCQF level 5. Attainment at SCQF level 4 remains unchanged on previous years while attainment at SCQF level 5 has increased to 85%. 4.6. S5 attainment in numeracy has increased since 2024 at both SCQF level 4 and SCQF level 5. Renfrewshire remains ahead of its comparators at both levels and is now 4 percentage points ahead of national at SCQF level 4 and 6 percentage points ahead of national at SCQF level 5. Table 3 -% S6 Pupils Achieving Literacy & Numeracy Year % Achieved Level 4 Literacy % Achieved Level 4 Numeracy % Achieved Level 5 Literacy % Achieved Level 5 Numeracy Renfrewshire 2023 96 93 88 75 National 2023 93 90 81 70 Virtual Comparator 2023 95 92 84 73 Renfrewshire 2024 95 93 84 77 National 2024 93 90 81 71 Virtual Comparator 2024 94 92 83 73 Renfrewshire 2025 95 91 82 75 National 2025 93 91 81 72 Virtual Comparator 2025 95 92 83 74 4.7. S6 attainment in literacy has remained ahead of national figures at both levels however is marginally behind the virtual comparator at SCQF level 5. The percentage of pupils achieving SCQF level 4 literacy is unchanged from the previous year at 95% but there has been a slight decrease at SCQF level 5. 4.8. Attainment in numeracy in S6 is in line with national figures but is marginally behind the virtual comparator at SCQF level 4 due to a slight decrease in the Renfrewshire figure. However, Renfrewshire is 3 percentage points ahead of national figures in numeracy and 1 percentage point ahead of the virtual comparator at SCQF level 5 ___________________________________________________________________ 5. Improving attainment for all 5.1. Each qualification on the Scottish Certificate and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) is attributed a number of tariff points. The higher level of qualification, the more tariff points are attributed. Each pupil gains a number of points that represents the number and level of qualifications they have gained. This report uses complementary tariff points, which measures a fixed volume of learning. Complementary tariff points allow for fair comparison across Scotland, regardless of differences in curricular models. 5.2. Within this measure, Insight breaks the data down into three groups: the average complementary tariff points for the lowest attaining 20%, the middle attaining 60% and the highest attaining 20% and compares these with the virtual comparator and the national figure.
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Page 5 of 14 5.3. The 2025 figures show that Renfrewshire is in line with or ahead of its comparators in all attainment cohorts in S4. Compared to national figures, the Renfrewshire average complementary tariff is 8% ahead for the lowest 20%, 4% ahead for the middle 60% and less than 1% ahead in the highest 20% cohort. These figures are consistent with previous years. The average complementary tariff in the lowest 20% attainment cohort is in line with the previous years data whereas there have been increases since 2024 in the middle 60% and highest 20% cohorts. 5.4. It is a simiar picture within S5 across the three attainment cohorts. Renfrewshire is ahead of both comparators within the lowest 20% and middle 60% attainment cohorts and remains closely in line within the highest 20% cohort. This has been a consistent pattern over time however there had been a decrease in the lowest 20% attainment cohort in 2024 to 115 which had Graph 2: S5 Average Complementary Tariff Points 2025 Graph 1: S4 Average Complementary Tariff Points 2025
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Page 6 of 14 resulted in Renfrewshire falling behind comparators for the first time. The increase in 2025 to an average complementary tariff of 132 has returned Renfrewshire to a position where it is 21% ahead of the national figure and 11% ahead of the virtual comparator. These differences are consistent with the years prior to 2024. 5.5. The S6 figures show that Renfrewshire is closely aligned with the national figures in the lowest 20% and middle 60% cohorts. There has been a decrease in the attainment of the lowest 20% attainment cohort in 2025 which relates to the previous year’s S5 figures. This has resulted in Renfrewshire falling slightly behind the virtual comparator in 2025. The average complementary tariff of the highest 20% attainment cohort is unchanged on previous years and remains marginally behind both comparators. ___________________________________________________________________ 6. Attainment versus deprivation 6.1. The attainment versus deprivation measure provides the average complementary tariff of pupils by SIMD decile. This allows us to identify the attainment gap in Renfrewshire and compare it to both our virtual comparator and national data. The Scottish Government measures progress towards closing the poverty related attainment gap using the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) quintiles. SIMD quintiles represent the 20% most deprived areas to the 20% least deprived areas. 6.2. The following charts show the average complementary tariff points by SIMD quintiles for Renfrewshire and its comparators. Graph 3: S6 Average Complementary Tariff Points 2025
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Page 7 of 14 6.3. The average complementary tariff by SIMD quintile in S4 remains is ahead of national figures across all quintiles. The differences are larger within the least deprived quintiles which results in a slightly larger gap size in Renfrewshire despite overall better performance. Renfrewshire is marginally behind the virtual comparator in quintile 1 in 2025 but remains ahead of or in line with the virtual figures across the other quintiles. 6.4. The patterns of attainment over time within quintile 1 (20% most deprived) and quintile 5 (20% least deprived) are broadly similar however there is a slight widening of the gap following the return to exam diets in 2022-23. The average complementary tariff has increased in both quintiles since the previous year, but this increase was slightly higher in the quintile 5 group. Graph 4: S4 Average Complementary Tariff Points by SIMD Quintile 2025 Graph 5: Renfrewshire S4 Average Complementary Tariff Points 2018-19 to 2024-25
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Page 8 of 14 6.5. The S5 average complementary tariff is consistently ahead of the national figures across all quintiles in 2025 resulting in a similar sized attainment gap. Renfrewshire is ahead of the virtual comparator in quintiles 2 to 5 but is very marginally behind in quintile 1. 6.6. Despite some variation in the SIMD quintile 5 figure over the pandemic period the size of the attainment gap is broadly consistent with previous years. There has been an increase in attainment within both quintile 1 and quintile 5 groups since 2024. Graph 7: Renfrewshire S5 Average Complementary Tariff Points 2018-19 to 2024-25 Graph 6: S5 Average Complementary Tariff Points by SIMD Quintile 2025
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Page 9 of 14 6.7. The S6 average complementary tariff in S6 is ahead of national figures in quintiles 2 to 4 and ahead of the virutal figures in quintiles 3 and 4. However, Renfrewshire is marginally behind both comparators in quintiles 1 and 5. 6.8. Attainment over time is similar to S5 with increases visible during the pandemic period for pupils living in quintile 5 areas. This relates to the use of alternative certification therefore not directly comparable to previous or future years. The size of the gap is largely unchanged over this period, despite a slight decrease in attainment within the 2025 cohort. ___________________________________________________________________ Graph 9: Renfrewshire S6 Average Complementary Tariff Points 2018-19 to 2024-25 Graph 8: S6 Average Complementary Tariff Points by SIMD Quintile 2025
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Page 10 of 14 7. Breadth and depth 7.1. In addition to the key measures available in Insight, the service also looks at the percentage of the cohort who achieved any number of awards at various SCQF levels. These are known as ‘breadth and depth’ measures. We look at this data in conjunction with the Insight measures to allow us to gain a broader understanding of attainment across Renfrewshire and between schools. 7.2. The graphs on the following pages show performance of some of the key breadth and depth measures and how we compare to the virtual comparator. SCQF 4 is National 4 or its equivalent, SCQF Level 5 is National 5 or its equivalent, SCQF Level 6 is Higher or its equivalent; and SCQF Level 7 is Advanced Higher or its equivalent. 7.3. Renfrewshire S4 is in line with or ahead of its comparators across the key measures shown in graph 10. Attainment at SCQF level 4 is within 1 percentage point of the virtual and national figures at 1 or more and 3 or more awards. However, the percentage of pupils achieving 5 or more awards at SCQF level 5 or better is above both the virtual and national figures. 7.4. S4 attainment at SCQF level 5 is ahead of both comparators in the measures shown. In particular, the percentage of pupils achieving 5 or more awards at SCQF level 5 is 4 percentage points ahead of the virtual comparator and 5 percentage points ahead of the national figure. Graph 10: S4 Breadth & Depth Measures 2025
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Page 11 of 14 7.5. S5 attainment remains strong across both SCQF level 5 and SCQF level 6 in 2025. Attainment is ahead of both the virtual and national comparators in all three measures at SCQF level 5. Within the SCQF level 6 measures, Renfrewshire is ahead of national and virtual figures at 1 or more and 3 or more awards. The figures for 5 or more awards are in line with the national comparator and within 1 percentage point of the virtual figure. Graph 11: S5 Breadth & Depth Measures 2025
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Page 12 of 14 7.6. Attainment in S6 is ahead of or in line with its comparators across SCQF level 6 measures. The percentage of pupils achieving 1 or more award at SCQF level 6 is 4 percentage points ahead of the national figure and the percentage achieving 3 or more and 5 or more is 2 percentage points ahead of national. Attainment at SCQF level 7 remains consistent with its comparators at 25%. This is the same as the national figure and 0.5 percentage points behind the virtual figure. ___________________________________________________________________ 8. Conclusion and next steps 8.1. The 2025 results demonstrate that Renfrewshire continues to perform well against its comparators across a range of key measures, with particularly strong attainment within S5. The data also shows pupils within the 60% middle attainment cohort continue to perform above comparators across all stages and that there have been positive improvements across numeracy attainment. However, it is also recognised that the work which we are undertaking in relation to targeted interventions should continue, particularly around attainment for pupils living in the most deprived areas. 8.2. Attainment over time within the senior phase needs to be considered in the context of returning to a traditional exam diet. Considered in this context, it would not be helpful to directly compare attainment to 2020-2023. Better comparisons are to be made with national and virtual figures which provide context for how Renfrewshire is performing in relation to young people across the country. What is clear is that young people across Renfrewshire have Graph 12: S6 Breadth & Depth Measures 2025
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Page 13 of 14 performed exceptionally well, we are very proud of them and they should be congratulated for all they have achieved. 8.3. A further report on finalised leavers’ data and the attainment of our looked after children will be presented to this board in spring 2026 or as soon thereafter as the data becomes available. ___________________________________________________________________ Implications of this report 1. Financial None. 2. HR and Organisational Development None. 3. Community/Council Planning Our Renfrewshire is thriving - enter details/ delete if not appropriate Our Renfrewshire is well - enter details/ delete if not appropriate Our Renfrewshire is fair - enter details/ delete if not appropriate Our Renfrewshire is safe - enter details/ delete if not appropriate Reshaping our place, our economy and our future - enter details/ delete if not appropriate Building strong, safe and resilient communities - enter details/ delete if not appropriate Tackling inequality, ensuring opportunities for all - enter details/ delete if not appropriate Creating a sustainable Renfrewshire for all to enjoy - enter details/ delete if not appropriate Working together to improve outcomes - enter details/ delete if not appropriate 4. Legal None. 5. Property/Assets None. 6. Information Technology None.
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Page 14 of 14 7. Equality and Human Rights The Recommendations contained within this report have been assessed in relation to their impact on equalities and human rights. No negative impacts on equality groups or potential for infringement of individuals’ human rights have been identified arising from the recommendations contained in the report because for example it is for noting only. If required following implementation, the actual impact of the recommendations and the mitigating actions will be reviewed and monitored, and the results of the assessment will be published on the Council’s website. 8. Health and Safety None. 9. Procurement None. 10. Risk None. 11. Privacy Impact None. 12. Climate Risk None. 13. Children’s Rights None. 14. Cosla Policy Position None. List of Background Papers None ___________________________________________________________________ Children’s Services 7 October 2025 Author: Emma Henry, Head of Education, emma.henry@renfrewshire.gov.uk