There was a record uptake of Advanced Higher courses - a year after falling numbers suggested teachers were becoming too stretched to provide tuition at that level.

The 18,854 candidates for Advanced Higher courses, which provide experience of university-level work, represented an increase of nearly 6 per cent on 2007.

School Leaders Scotland (formerly the Headteachers’ Association of Scotland) expressed concern last year that a drop in uptake showed that teachers did not have time to take the courses, but this year’s rise appears to dispel such fears.