Throughout the last two decades the school has managed to garner an impressive array of honours and attained a commendable level of achievement in many of its curricular and extra-curricular activities. The school entered regular teams and solo performers in the Oban Mod, for instance, often with notable success - as in 1979 when a group coached by the then temporary teacher Catriona Dairon won first prize for verse-speaking, and again the following year when a group of seven pupils repeated this victory along with solo prize winners. Another annual local event, the Dalmally Agricultural Society Show, provided many occasions for celebrations, as in 1982 when almost 90 exhibits were entered in the children's art exhibition and the school took seven of a possible nine first prizes. Primary 3 & 4 classes won the Schools' Project Cup with a model of Dalmally church which was then presented to the local Historical Association. However it was 1989 before Dalmally again won the coveted Upper Sonnachan Challenge Cup for school projects.

Many individual pupils have shown talent over the years, and in 1982 one young girl, Alison Maynard, was noted by a visiting inspector as a promising dancer whilst performing in the Christmas concert. She later attended a dance workshop organised by Scottish Ballet in Oban with fellow pupils from Achaleven. The school's connection with the ballet company, and dance in general, was one constant strand of a rich and varied programme of annual activities.

In 1989 the school had the honour of being chosen to "star" in a video package being produced by a crew from Northern College, Aberdeen, which was designed to highlight the role of the School in its Community as part of a Management Training Programme for Head Teachers. Dalmally's excellent example in fostering community relations and involving parents made it a perfect subject for this project. Later that year the school shared a notable award for its own video efforts with "The New Girl", a production of the new East Lorn Cooperative. Pupils from that year's P.7 and the previous year, now S/1 in Oban High School, attended a ceremony at Kilchrenan where the video was presented with a TV Society award.

In 1987 P.6 & 7 won a prize at the Lorn Art & Craft Association exhibition with a work in clay on the theme of "All creatures great and small". The same year proved very successful in terms of notable achievements, with a group of P.6 & 7 pupils appearing with staff members Miss Gray and Mrs MacIntyre at the Kelvin Hall in Glasgow to perform in at a Scottish Country dancing festival during the City of Culture celebrations. In May that year a pupil from the school, Findlay Ross, shared a local honour with a pupil from Ardchonnel Primary, in choosing names for two new walks opened in Strone Forest (the names being An Rahad Daraich and Waterfall Woods).

In 1995 Mrs. Gibson and her assistant Mrs. Fraser received just and fair reward for their efforts by winning a Catering Direct Regional Award for hygiene.

Perhaps one of the school's most significant achievements in the eighties however was to win a prestigious national prize for the Schools' Curriculum Award in 1987. Head Teacher Mr Kay and Mrs MacIntyre took two nominated pupils from P.7, Katie Orr and Pauline Proudlock, to London on the 5th November, for the award ceremony at the Barbican Centre. Back home several celebratory parties followed including a regional ceremony when the school was consequently acclaimed as a prime example of Strathclyde's educational excellence. Perhaps the only disappointment linked to this impressive achievement came in March the following year when the actual prize, a specially commissioned work of art, arrived in Dalmally broken in transit. However in September that year the award, a ceramic fox, was finally and safely delivered by the sculptress in person, direct from her Cornwall studio.