PUPILS are maintaining a “strong trend” in good literacy and numeracy skills, councillors have been told.

In a report on the latest figures measuring skills at early years, P1, P4, P7 and S3, it found P1 and P7 results improving across the board.

But there was a slight slip in P4 for reading and writing, and S3 saw a drop in numeracy, reading and writing.

The report to the education services committee last week said P1 performance was below 2014-15 levels, but had improved since the year before. Early years is down in five of seven categories compared to 2014-15.

Concerns were raised about a particular drop in skills around money concepts but committee convener, Councillor Karen Conaghan, said she wondered if it was because children are less exposed to physical money now compared to contactless or phone payments.

Julie McGrogan, senior education officer, said she was “happy to say we’re keeping a strong trend” on results.