School pupils in Dundee received their exam results on Tuesday — and there were improvements in performance across the board.
Thousands of youngsters found out how they’d fared in National 4, National 5 and Higher exams in the past year.
One who was “relieved” with her results was 16-year-old Toni Clenaghan, of Fintry, who received her marks via a text message just after 8am.
The Braeview Academy pupil got four As in maths, chemistry, biology and music, a B in English and a C in History.
She said: “I was really relieved when my results came through. I’m really pleased with them.
“I signed up to get my results through text and email because the postman is usually really busy on this day and I really didn’t want to wait that long to see them. I felt quietly confident about my results as I worked hard for them — I also got a lot of help and support from my teachers, my friends and my family.”
Councillor Stewart Hunter, convener of Dundee City Council’s education committee, said: “As the new exams bed in we are seeing improvements in results across the board compared with last year.
“The children and families service is analysing the exam results and a full detailed report will be presented to a future education committee.
“However it is pleasing to see that 1,034 (78%) of our S4 pupils entered one or more National 5 exams, up from 75% in 2014; 64% of pupils passed all of the National 5 exams they entered, up from 62% last year and that 267 of our S4 pupils (20% of the cohort) passed six National 5 exams, up from 18%.
“The new Higher has been introduced this year by the SQA and Dundee schools have moved almost exclusively to sitting the new exam.
“This year saw a marked increase in Higher entries and improvements in the results which show that 800 (69%) of our S5 cohort entered one or more Highers in 2015, compared with 689 (59%) last year; 57% of S5 pupils achieved grades A to C in all of the Highers they sat, up from 55% in 2014 and 192 of our S5 pupils (16% of the cohort) achieved five Higher awards, up from 14%.”
The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) said the new Higher maths exam sat by pupils was “more demanding than intended”.
A total of 10,854 pupils sat the existing Higher maths while 10,220 sat the new Higher maths, with the attainment rates 73.1% and 70.8% respectively.