Relief and joy for Highland and Moray pupils as exam results arrive

The wait is finally over for students across Moray and the Highlands as they received those all-important exam results.

With most sitting staring at their phones in the run-up to delivery time of 8am (“mine were two minutes late!”),

At Milne’s High School in Fochabers, head teacher Natalie Munro was “really happy” with the school’s results overall.

School dux Neve Harrold swept the boards with straight As and is eyeing a career in law.

Fellow fifth year pupil James Moir is looking forward to going into the family farming business after passing five Highers.

And across the region, 2,300 Moray students received results, with the Higher pass rate A-C in fifth down slightly.

In the Highlands, there was a similarly mixed bag, with fourth and sixth year results improving, and fifth year attainment at the “five Highers” benchmark down slightly on last year.

Milne’s High head: “We’re really happy”

In Fochabers, this was Natalie Munro’s first year as head teacher on results day, and she was in school with fellow teachers for some data crunching.

She said: “I’m really happy. There have been some real success stories and surprises.

“On the whole, we’re pretty happy with our results.”

Natalie says things have changed a lot in terms of qualifications. As well as the usual benchmarks of National 4s and 5s, there are now National Progression Awards (NPAs).

She added: “As a smaller school, our cohorts change year on year, and we’ve got a reasonable percentage of young people who go directly into employment.

“So these skills-based courses are actually maybe a bit more relevant for them.”

Fifth year student Lena Pearce achieved a healthy mix of Highers and NPAs and excelled in both.

Lena turned 17 this week, and moved to Portknockie from England last summer.

She got four As in her Highers — maths, English, design and manufacture and admin — and passed two NPAs in photography and accountancy.

Lena said: “I thought I’d try something different. It takes away some of the stress of exams, because it’s more practical.

“It’s quite good to get some practical experience instead of just learning from books.”

Lena is now planning “some” Highers, physics and photography among them.

She added: “I’m looking more towards doing an apprenticeship, maybe in engineering or some sort of woodwork — something hands-on.”

Lena plays the harp and has thought about combining her skills to do an instrument-making course.

‘My results were two minutes late’

School Dux Neve Harrold proved that even with modern technology, any wait can be tortuous.

The 17-year-old said: “I found out by text this morning — it was two minutes late.

“I set an alarm for 7.55am, so I wasn’t sitting waiting. But I ended up waking myself up at 7am. It was the longest hour of my life.”

But the wait was worth it, and S5 student Neve found out she had got five As in her Highers (English, maths, admin, French, and modern studies).

She said she “wasn’t necessarily” expecting across-the-board As after four As and a B in her prelims and finding a couple of papers “a bit tricky”.

She added: “But it turned out OK. It was such a relief this morning when actually it was what I really wanted deep down.”

Neve will be back for sixth year to do a selection of Highers and Advanced Highers. She plans to apply for uni this year.

She said: “I want to do law, I’m not sure quite sure where yet. I’m going to apply to a few different places and keep my options open.

“I just think I wasn’t quite ready to go this year. Next year I’ll be 18 and I’ll be feeling more confident.”

Harvey McWilliam, 16, got two As, two Bs and a C in English, maths, modern studies, French and PE.

He’s in two minds at the moment whether to go back for sixth year or take a gap year and work.

But his long-term plan is a career in film, and he hopes to go to either the Royal Conservatoire in Glasgow or Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh.

He said: “It was stressful, more so than last year, because these ones were more important to me and they really counted.

“I knew if I got these, then I would have the option to leave if I wanted to.”

‘It’s quite surreal I won’t be back’

James Moir is 16 and got three Bs (maths, English and PE) and two Cs (physics and geography) in his Highers.

He said: “I was hoping for a good bit more in geography — I was sitting on an A.”

James works on the family farms in the Clochan area, and also hires himself out to other local farms.

He’s leaving school now, but has plans to go to Craibstone to gain some career-specific qualifications.

He said: “I’m finished school now and it feels quite weird. It’s quite surreal to think I won’t ever be coming back.

“I was thinking I’d leave at the end of fourth year, but then I thought it’s just one more year.”

James does “a bit of driving” in his job, but Rebecca Gibbs is hoping to make it in the world of motorsports.

The 16-year-old is going into fifth year and got an impressive eight As in her Nat 5s. Next comes five Highers in maths, chemistry, physics, English and music.

She said: “I’m pleased with my results.

“I’m interested in engineering and motorsport: Formula 1, basically. I watch it every week.”

She’s eyeing Strathclyde or a specialist course in an English university to have a go at her dream.

Exam results 2026: Crunching the numbers

Across the Moray Council area, S4 pupils and those taking Advanced Highers were the success stories.

In S4, more pupils achieved six or more A grades and seven or more A grades at National five compared with previous years.

In S5, pupils achieved 1,834 Higher awards. The Higher A-C pass rate was 72%, slightly lower than last year but higher than 2023/24. Overall, 88% of Higher entries achieved an A-D grade.

There was also a small increase in the number of S5 pupils achieving at least one Higher.

Among S6 pupils, the Advanced Higher A-C pass rate increased from 68% last year to 69% this year, while 86% of entries achieved an A-D grade.

There was also an increase in the number of S6 pupils achieving at least one Advanced Higher compared with last year.

Natalie had some advice for her pupils and anyone else getting results.

She said: “There’s more than one route to your chosen destination, so if you haven’t got what you were expecting, or you didn’t get what you needed at this point, there are people to support and advise on alternative routes.

“You can get there, it might just not be the path that you had first identified.”

S4 and S6 results were strong in the Highlands, too.

The proportion of S6 pupils achieving three or more awards at Higher at grades A-C rose to 29.1%, up 7.1% on last year.

Advanced Higher attainment also increased, up by 4.9%.

And 29.3% of S6 pupils achieved at least one Advanced Higher award at grades A-C, compared with 24.4% in 2025.

For the S5s, 15.7% of young people achieved five Higher awards at grades A-C — a slight decrease from 15.9% in 2025.

There was also some good news in S4 Nat 5s, with “noticeable” improvements in literacy and numeracy qualifications.

[Source: Press and Journal]