East Ayrshire Council bosses have said they will continue to avoid league tables that appear to measure schools on performances.

It comes after a table from The Times listed all primary schools in Scotland based on the percentage of P7 pupils meeting the required standard in core skills in Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence.

The local authority says the table avoids how much good work is put in by pupils and teachers, and that it is not supportive.

A spokesperson said: “East Ayrshire Council is aware of most recent league table from The Times setting out ‘primary school performance’. The Scottish Government does not produce school league tables to measure performance and has clearly stated that that they ‘never will’.

"Any practice of producing league tables of schools nationally and at authority level is not supportive, nor representative, of the efforts of young people, parents, staff and communities.

"The table completely disregards the outstanding work of pupils, parents/carers and teachers over the course of the pandemic, where wellbeing and taking care of each other has never been more important and this may cause unnecessary additional concern to pupils, parents/carers and colleagues.

“It is important to point out that each individual school must already publish its own performance in the annual Standards and Quality report, thus parents, carers and others already have free access to accurate and up to date information.

“The Council’s Scottish Attainment Challenge programme has been highly effective in reducing the poverty related attainment gap and will continue to strive to achieve the very best outcomes for, and with, our children, young people and their families.

“The pandemic clearly presented significant challenges to all educational establishments throughout the world, but by the end of last year, 100 per cent of our establishments had been trained and supported in Literary and Numeracy learning and teaching techniques.

“Throughout the pandemic the Council ensured that action was taken quickly to adapt training programmes and support mechanisms, creating bespoke webinars and Headteacher leadership support sessions.

“In addition, during the last academic year, the Home Link Worker team directly supported over 500 families.”