PRIMARY school pupils in Helensburgh and Lomond are doing significantly better than national expectations, according to a new report.

Local councillors were told on Tuesday that pupils in P1, P4 and P7 are out-performing Scotland-wide benchmarks in almost all areas of literacy and numeracy.

It's the first time detailed figures on primary pupils' attainment has been published – and while the report on literacy and numeracy levels cautions against reading too much into raw data which is not based on the results of standardised tests, the early signs for local schools are still encouraging.

In P1, for example, against a national expectation level that 81 per cent of P1 pupils will achieve the expected level of attainment in English reading, the figure in Helensburgh and Lomond is 91 per cent.

In English listening and talking the local attainment level is 96 per cent against a Scotland-wide expectation of 76 per cent.

And in numeracy, 92 per cent of Helensburgh and Lomond P1 pupils reached the expected attainment level for their age; the Scotland-wide expectation is 85 per cent.

Similar figures are reported at P4 and P7 level.

Council education officer Wendy Brownlie told Tuesday's meeting the information was compiled based on teachers' professional judgement.

Helensburgh Central councillor Aileen Morton added: “It has been a frustration of local councillors for years that there hasn't been a way of measuring how our primary schools are supporting their pupils, but we mustn't take these first figures and say 'that's it – job done'.

“These figures are very positive, but I think it will be another year or two before we can say they are robust.”

Helensburgh and Lomond South councillor Richard Trail, a former Argyll and Bute education spokesperson, said: “While the intention is not to use these figures for comparison between schools, it is still very good news that pupils in Helensburgh and Lomond are performing so well and achieving so much.

“Despite these figures coming against the background of Education Scotland's critical report on the council, and the risk of claiming all is well when there are clearly difficulties, this is still an encouraging platform for the future.”