EXAM results at secondary schools across the county are continuing to improve.
East Lothian Council welcomed the latest figures this week but stressed they were not “complacent” as they bid to see the upward trend continue.
The percentage of county youngsters passing exams increased to 82.5 per cent in 2015, compared to 81 per cent the previous year.
The figures, which were revealed this week at East Lothian Council’s education committee, were for the first time broken down to show how each school had performed.
Councillor Shamin Akhtar, the local authority’s spokeswoman for education and children’s wellbeing, was among those welcoming the impressive statistics.
She said: “I welcome the change in how the results are presented, which will enable us to see clearly where good work is taking place and where improvement is required. We have demonstrated and proven over the last three years that we have a clear focus on raising attainment and achievement for our young people in East Lothian. 
“The results presented today show us how well our young people are doing and I would like to congratulate them for that.
“We are not complacent. We want to keep improving this upward trend by focusing on good leadership at all levels within our schools, good-quality teaching and learning in the classrooms, as well as ensuring that schools know their pupils well.”
The figures show the percentage of pupils passing Higher exams across the county rose by 3.5 per cent in 2015 compared to the previous year while the percentage of pupils passing Advanced Highers increased by 2.75 per cent over the same period.
Meanwhile, the percentage of S5 pupils gaining three or more Highers has also increased, with 35.3 per cent achieving the awards compared to 29.2 per cent in 2014 and 30.5 per cent the year before.
Dunbar Grammar School (39.3 per cent), Musselburgh Grammar School (32.4 per cent), Preston Lodge High School (24.9 per cent) and Ross High School (28.6 per cent) all showed improvements, while Knox Academy (38 per cent) only dropped by 0.2 per cent. North Berwick High School's figure fell by 4.7 per cent but is still the highest in the county at 51.2 per cent.
Two of the six secondary school's headteachers were also at the meeting on Tuesday.
Colin Gerrie, headteacher at Musselburgh Grammar School, and Gavin Clark, headteacher at Preston Lodge High School, were both at the meeting. Mr Gerrie explained how mentoring and tracking a pupil’s progress was paying off.
Teachers at the school provide each pupil with an estimated final grade and a current grade for each subject while parents are sent five update reports between October and February, so they know what is going on.
Darrin Nightingale, the council’s head of education, explained that the transition to the new qualifications was complete and that young people in S4-S6 had more opportunity to choose how they wanted to study and, with support from their teachers and parents, present themselves for examination when they were ready.
He also drew the committee’s attention to the fact the council had moved to a new method of reporting attainment data, which enables stakeholders to see how individual schools perform, highlighting good practice and areas for improvement.
Mrs Akhtar added: “I’d like to thank Mr Gerrie and Mr Clark for showing excellent leadership in their schools and also the teaching and non-teaching staff, parents and carers for all their hard work across all the six secondary schools. 
"Parents and carers play such a crucial role in improving attainment and the presentations from Mr Clark and Mr Gerrie show how families and schools working together can drive attainment and achievement.”