Item 08 Appendix 1

West Dunbartonshire Council · 17 September 2025
Back to Educational Services Committee — 17 September 2025 and its agenda

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Attainment Report June 2025 ( draft data to be ratified by Scottish Government)
Literacy and Numeracy baseline at pre-school and P1
In 2024/2025 the percentage of children in our Early Learning and Childcare Centres
achieving the benchmark score increased for literacy (concepts of print) and
numeracy (number and number processes) compared to previous years (Table 1):
Table 1 shows that literacy attainment increased by 4 % from 56 % to 60 % in
2024/2025; and numeracy attainment increased by 5 % from 34 % to 39 % in
2024/2025.  Numeracy attainment is currently at its highest level.
Table 1:
% achieving benchmark
Literacy Numeracy
Year Establishment Concepts of print Number and Number
Processes
2017 WDC ELC 52 19
2018 WDC ELC 53 19
2019 WDC ELC 53 22
2021 WDC ELC 45 20
2022 WDC ELC 62 30
2023 WDC ELC 59 32
2024 WDC ELC 56 34
2025 WDC ELC 60 39
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Year
Percentage (%)
52
19
53
19
53
22
45
20
62
30
59
32
56
34
60
39
2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Change in attainment in literacy and
numeracy in early years establishments.
Literacy Numeracy
The results in Table 2 compare attainment in the West Dunbartonshire Baseline
Assessments at Primary 1 in 2024/2025 to previous sessions. Compared to the
previous session there is an increase in the percentage of children in Primary 1
achieving the benchmark score in literacy (phoneme blending); and a decrease in
the percentage of children in Primary 1 achieving the benchmark score in numeracy
(number and number processes) in session 2024/2025:
 Literacy increased by 2 % from 72 % to 74 % in 2024/2025
 Numeracy decreased by 1 % from 84 % to 83 % in 2024/2025
Table 2:
% achieving benchmark
Literacy Numeracy
Year Establishment Phoneme blending Number and Number
Processes
2017 WDC P1 79 85
2018 WDC P1 80 82
2019 WDC P1 79 84
2021 WDC P1 75 77
2022 WDC P1 73 80
2023 WDC P1 76 81
2024 WDC P1 72 84
2025 WDC P1 74 83
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The percentage of children in Primary 1 achieving the benchmark score in literacy is
not at the same level as pre 2020 but remains high, however the percentage of
children in Primary 1 achieving the benchmark score in numeracy has reached pre
pandemic levels.
Year
Percentage (%)
79
85 80 82 79
84
75 77 73
80
76
81
72
84
74
83
2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Change in attainment in literacy and
numeracy in P1 in primary establishments.
Literacy Numeracy
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ACEL primary
The percentage of primary pupils achieving the level for their age and stage
remained stable for literacy and numeracy in 2024/2025 compared to the previous
session (Table 3).  The increase in attainment since 2016/2017 across primary has
increased by 6.9 % for numeracy and 8.1 % for literacy by 2024/2025.
Attainment in primary schools declined slightly (by 1-2 %) at P1 and P4 and
organisers (reading, writing and numeracy) in session 2024/2025, however P7
attainment increased for all components.  The increase in attainment since
2016/2017 across primary has increased by 5.0 % for reading, 8.4 % for writing and
6.9 % for numeracy by 2024/2025.
 literacy attainment remained at 72 % in 2024/2025;
 numeracy attainment remained at 79 % in 2024/2025;
 attainment increased at P7, with a 0.5-1 % increase in all components in
2024/2025.
The West Dunbartonshire attainment performance for primary in 2024/2025 in
reading, writing, and numeracy has steadily increased since 2016/2017 with the
exception of 2021 due to the pandemic (Table 4). 
Table 3:
P1, P4, P7 combined
Component Literacy Numeracy
Increase 8 7
WDC 2017 64 72
WDC 2018 67 74
WDC 2019 68 76
WDC 2021 62 72
WDC 2022 71 78
WDC 2023 73 80
WDC 2024 72 79
WDC 2025* 72 79
* unpublished data - analysis undertaken at WDC.
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Year
Percentage (%) 64
72
67
74
68
76
62
72 71
78 73
80
72
79
72
79
2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Change in ACEL attainment in primary
establishments.
Literacy Numeracy
Note: 2025 data is unpublished data - analysis undertaken at WDC.
Table 4:
P1, P4, P7 combined 
Component Listening
and Talking Reading Writing Numeracy
Increase 4.7 5.0 8.4 6.9
WDC 2017 81 74 66 72
WDC 2018 85 76 70 74
WDC 2019 86 77 72 76
WDC 2021 82 72 65 72
WDC 2022 84 79 74 78
WDC 2023 86 80 76 80
WDC 2024 86 80 75 79
WDC 2025* 86 79 74 79
* unpublished data - analysis undertaken at WDC.
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Year
Percentage (%)
74
66
72 76
7074 77
7276 72
65
72
797478 807680 807579 797479
2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Change in ACEL attainment in primary
establishments.
Reading Writing Numeracy
Note: 2025 data is unpublished data - analysis undertaken at WDC.
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ACEL primary: attainment gap
In session 2024/2025 the attainment gap decreased slightly for literacy and
numeracy between children in our most deprived areas Quintile 1 and children in our
least deprived areas Quintile 4 (Table 5):
 The attainment gap decreased across primary for literacy and numeracy by 3
pp.
Table 5
Attainment gap Quintile 1 - Quintile 4*
Stage Component 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025**
P1, P4, P7 comb Literacy 13 18 21 15 14 17 14
P1, P4, P7 comb Numeracy 15 14 19 15 13 15 12
* pp = percentage points, i.e. the number of percentages points (pp) difference between Quintile 1 and Quintile 4
** unpublished data - analysis undertaken at WDC.
Year
Percentage points (%)
2018 2019 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Change in ACEL attainment gap (Q1 v Q4)
in primary establishments.
Literacy Numeracy
Note: 2025 data is unpublished data - analysis undertaken at WDC.
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ACEL secondary
Percentage of secondary pupils at S3 achieving Curriculum for Excellence Levels
increased for numeracy (reading and writing) but decreased for literacy organisers
from in 2024/2025 compared to the previous session (Table 6):
 Literacy declined by 4 % to 88 % for secondary.
 Numeracy increased by 5 % to 90 % for secondary.
Table 6:
S3 
Component Literacy Numeracy
Increase 3.1 0.8
WDC 2017 89 84
WDC 2018 81 83
WDC 2019 83 90
WDC 2021 
WDC 2022 82 88
WDC 2023 87 88
WDC 2024 92 85
WDC 2025* 88 90
* unpublished data - analysis undertaken at WDC.
Year
Percentage (%)
89 84 81 83 83
90
82
88 87 88 92
85 88 90
2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
100
80
60
40
20
0
Change in ACEL attainment in secondary
establishments.
Literacy Numeracy
Note: 2025 data is unpublished data - analysis undertaken at WDC.
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Table 7:
S3 Third + 
Component Listening
and Talking Reading Writing Numeracy
Increase -0.6 2.1 0.9 0.8
WDC 2017 95 91 91 84
WDC 2018 92 89 87 83
WDC 2019 94 88 87 90
WDC 2021   
WDC 2022 89 87 85 88
WDC 2023 90 88 87 88
WDC 2024 94 94 92 85
WDC 2025* 93 91 90 90
* unpublished data - analysis undertaken at WDC
Year
Percentage (%)
9191
84 898783
888790 878588 888788
9492
85
919090
2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Change in ACEL attainment in secondary
establishments.
Reading Writing Numeracy
Note: 2025 data is unpublished data - analysis undertaken at WDC.
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ACEL secondary: attainment gap
The attainment gap increased between young people in our most deprived areas
Quintile 1 and young people in our least deprived areas Quintile 4 in session
2024/2025 for literacy, but remained stable for numeracy (Table 8):
 The attainment gap increased across secondary for literacy by 10 pp to 11 pp
and remained stable for numeracy at 9 pp.
Table 8:
Attainment gap Quintile 1 - Quintile 4*
Stage Component 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025**
S3 (Third +) Literacy 23 14 15 11 1 11
S3 (Third +) Numeracy 18 13 5 15 9 9
* pp = percentage points, i.e. the number of percentages points (pp) difference between Quintile 1 and Quintile 4
** unpublished data - analysis undertaken at WDC.
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