Scottish Government

This Statistics Publication Notice presents information on the attainment of National Qualifications by pupils attending publicly funded secondary schools and by school leavers. Selected information on attainment in special schools is also included. It updates the Statistics Publication Notice " SQA Attainment and School Leaver Qualifications in Scotland: 2006/07" published on 17 March 2008. This Notice also presents attainment data by a number of different pupil characteristics.

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework ( SCQF) is used as the basis for reporting attainment. The SCQF levels are shown below for information.

Attainment below SCQF level 3 is only reported for special schools ( Table 20) and leavers with additional support needs ( Tables 16 to 19) in this publication.

The main findings are:

Attainment:

• Cumulative attainment of pupils by the end of stages 4, 5 and 6 has remained stable in recent years. Attainment is greater for females than males in all stages and in all categories. This gender gap is affected by the higher proportion of females than males staying on to S5 and S6. The attainment gap is more noticeable at the higher categories of attainment in S4 (a difference of over 7 percentage points for 5 or more qualifications at SCQF 5 compared to a gap of just under 2 percentage points for 5 or more qualifications at SCQF 3), but the opposite relationship appears in S5 and S6 with the higher categories of attainment showing a smaller gender gap. ( Tables 2- 5)
• Of the pupils in S4 in 2005/06, 35 per cent had gained 5 or more awards at SCQF level 5 or better by the end of that year. By the time these same pupils had finished S6 in 2007/08 this had increased to 48 per cent. ( Table 5)

Calculating an average tariff score for each pupil ( see note 3.7) allows easier comparisons of different types of qualifications. The findings for S4 pupils in 2007/08 were as follows:

• Pupils who live in the most deprived decile of data zones had lower average tariff scores than the rest, with tariff scores increasing as deprivation decreases. Average tariff scores for pupils in the most deprived decile were 121 compared to 227 for the least deprived. Although average tariff scores have increased in all deciles since 2002/03 the gap has remained fairly constant at just over 100 points. ( Table 6)
• Pupils attending schools in remore rural areas had average tariff scores of 194 compared to 168 for those in large urban areas. This disparity is likely to be linked to different levels of deprivation. ( Table 6)
• Data on looked after children are incomplete, with the 2007 pupil census reporting about 77 per cent of the numbers reported by childrens social work statistics ( see background note 4.4), and may not be representative of all looked after children. However, the information available suggests that looked after children have much lower average tariff scores (77 for those looked after away from home and 50 for those looked after at home) than those not looked after (176). Furthermore looked after children without additional support needs ( ASN) have a lower average tariff score (69) than pupils who are not looked after but do have ASN (89). ( Table 6)
• Chinese (219), Indian (198) and mixed race (190) pupils in S4 attained the highest average tariff scores over the last three years. ( Table 7) When comparing those living in the 20% most deprived data zones to those living elsewhere, the gap between more deprived and less deprived pupils is highest for the white ethnic groups, and relatively low for Pakistani and Chinese pupils. ( Table 8 and Chart 11)

Special Schools:

• There has been a slight decrease in the number of qualifications gained in special schools, with the decreases occuring at SCQF levels 2 through 4. More qualifications were gained at SCQF level 5 and above, compared to 2006/07 ( Table 20). Overall numbers of pupils in special schools have been declining over the past 10 years.

School Leavers:

In 2007/08:

• 3.5 per cent of leavers obtained no awards at SCQF Level 3 or better, compared to 4.1 per cent in 2006/07 and 4.0 per cent in 2005/06. It should be noted that some of these pupils will have achieved unit awards or Access 1 & 2 Cluster awards, however these are not currently included in the analyses. At least one pass at SCQF Level 7 was obtained by 13.0 per cent of leavers, which is slightly up on the figure of 11.8 per cent in 2006/07. ( Table 10)
• 9.3 per cent of school leavers who live in the most deprived decile of data zones attained no awards at SCQF level 3 or better, compared to 5.9 per cent in the next most deprived decile and 0.9 per cent in the least deprived decile. Only 3 per cent of leavers from the most deprived decile have any awards at SCQF 7, compared to nearly 30 per cent of those from the least deprived decile. Similarly, school leavers with addititional support needs are more likely (14.0 per cent) to attain no awards at SCQF level 3 or better than those with no additional support needs (3 per cent). ( Table 11)
• 11.7. per cent of pupils leaving schools in large urban areas attained at least one award at SCQF level 7. This compares to 17.4 per cent of pupils leaving schools in remote rural areas, and again, this disparity is likely to be linked to different levels of deprivation . ( Table 11)
• A higher proportion of females than males leaving publicly funded schools achieved passes at all SCQF Levels, except where three or more passes at SCQF Level 7 were attained. ( Table 12)
• 93.7 per cent of leavers attained English at SCQF Levels 3 to 5 and 93.5 per cent attained these levels in Mathematics. The proportions attaining English at SCQF Levels 6 and 7 were 25.8 per cent and 1.7 per cent respectively and the corresponding results for Mathematics were 19.0 per cent and 3.0 per cent. ( Tables 13, 14 & 15)

School Leavers with Additional Support Needs:

• The tables on the attainment of leavers with additional support needs ( ASN) include leavers from publicly funded (including grant aided) special schools, as well as secondaries ( see background note 4.5). 49.6 per cent of leavers from publicly funded secondary and special schools with additional support needs had 5 or more qualifications at SCQF level 3 or above, compared to 91.7 per cent of those with no additional support needs ( Table 16). 25.3 per cent of those with ASN had no qualifications at SCQF level 3 or above compared to 3 per cent of the rest, while just under 8 per cent had at least one qualification at SCQF level 6 or above, compared to nearly 46 percent of those with no ASN ( Table 18).