COMPARISONS between school results under new Government figures are “meaningless”, one county secondary school headteacher has told parents.

East Lothian Council published the Scottish Government’s “experimental data” on each of its primary and secondary schools, sending a copy of the findings to parents with a letter from Fiona Robertson, its head of education.

However, the data showed a huge disparity in findings, with some schools reporting 100 per cent success in some areas, while others barely registered above 20 per cent.

Now, Gavin Clark, headteacher of Preston Lodge High School, has written to the parents and carers of his pupils to address what he calls “significant concern” created by the statistics.

He said the figures could not be compared because each school has its own way of assessing student achievement.

Mr Clark said: “The Scottish Government has classified the statistics as ‘experimental’ because it acknowledges that information has been collected in different ways in different schools, thus rendering comparisons across schools as meaningless.”

He went on to say Preston Lodge’s numeracy achievement for third-year students, which came in at 41 per cent, represented the number of pupils who had completed Level 3, which is not how other schools assess their results.

The new figures for schools look at the percentage of children who are meeting the Curriculum for Excellence standard at P1, P4, P7 and S3 stages.

It is the first time the data has been collated using the new National Improvement Framework, which aims to create a standardised assessment method and was described as experimental because it accepted some schools had different ways of measuring attainment.

Mr Clark said he expected the figures for Preston Lodge to be much higher when the official statistics are released next year.

He said: We are very proud of our improving attainment levels at Preston Lodge High School.

“Our staff work incredibly hard in literacy, numeracy and all areas of our curriculum to ensure that our young people are able to attain the very best they are capable of at all levels.

“I am confident that once the official statistics are published next May, we will see much greater consistency of attainment for young people across East Lothian, and a very positive story for Preston Lodge High School.”