Head teachers of three Aberdeenshire secondaries updated local councillors about the progress of their schools in public for the first time yesterday.
Members of the Garioch area committee heard that attainment at Kemnay, Inverurie and Westhill academies was in line with or above that at similar Scottish secondaries.
Kemnay Academy head teacher Charles Hunter said the most common award for pupils of standard grade level was a credit.
But he said there had been quite a dramatic drop in the staying-on rate from S4 into S5, particularly with boys.
He told councillors it was not clear why, but each year was different.
“If I could put my finger on it I would love to be able to address it,” he said, stressing that Kemnay is a high-attaining academy overall.
Inverurie Academy head teacher Douglas Milne said there had been a drop in attainment with S5, but the pupils, who are now in S6, have “exceeded expectations” so far.
He also said he was “delighted” with both S4, which had more youngsters getting credit grades, and S6 which was an extremely high-attaining year group.
Derek Thompson, head teacher at Westhill, said it was also a very high-attaining school, which has seen results improve over the last few years.
He said other achievements included raising more than £20,000 for charity throughout 2008-09.
Committee chairman Martin Kitts-Hayes congratulated the schools, adding: “We live in an affluent area and we are fortunate for that, but even in an affluent area, unless you have good schools and good teachers, pupils won’t reach their potential.”