Castlehead High School, PAISLEY
Castlehead High School is a secondary school for pupils in Paisley.
- Attendance
- 86.9%
Data last updated 25 Oct 2026
Castlehead High School in detail
School in Scotland
Castlehead High School is a local authority school in Scotland. Scottish schools are inspected by Education Scotland rather than Ofsted, and Scotland does not publish school-by-school exam league tables.
In the 2025 pupil census it had 739 pupils and 11.8 pupils per teacher.
22% of pupils are registered for free school meals, 57% of pupils have an additional support need recorded and 12% speak English as an additional language.
41% of its pupils live in Scotland's most deprived fifth of areas and 12% in the least deprived fifth (SIMD).
Attendance was 86.9% in 2024/25, and 43.6% of pupils were persistently absent (missing 10% or more of sessions).
The 2026 school estate survey rated its buildings' condition as satisfactory (B) and their suitability for teaching as satisfactory (B); the school was 60% full.
95% of pupils who left in 2022/23 went on to a positive destination - further or higher education, training, work or volunteering, against 96% for its "virtual comparator", a matched group of pupils with similar backgrounds from across Scotland.
Compared with nearby schools
The nearest other state secondary schools to Castlehead High School are Paisley Grammar School (0.9 miles), Gleniffer High School (1.4 miles), St Andrew's Academy (1.7 miles) and Rosshall Academy (2.7 miles).
Paisley Grammar SchoolGleniffer High SchoolSt Andrew's AcademyRosshall Academy
Getting there
The nearest railway station is Paisley Canal Rail Station, about 510 metres away (roughly a 6-minute walk).
9 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is High Calside (after), 150 metres away.
Primary schools nearby
The primary schools closest to Castlehead High School are St Mary's Primary School (0.4 miles), West Primary School (0.5 miles), St Charles' Primary School (0.7 miles) and Bushes Primary School (0.9 miles). In Scotland, secondary places normally follow the catchment area, and each secondary school has associated primary schools; Renfrewshire publishes both.
St Mary's Primary SchoolWest Primary SchoolSt Charles' Primary SchoolBushes Primary School
Sources: Scottish Government school statistics: pupil census, attendance and absence, school estate, leaver destinations (OGL); NaPTAN (Department for Transport)
Key Information
Scottish GovernmentInspection
HM Inspectorate of Education (Education Scotland) last published an inspection of Castlehead High School in January 2026.
- 1.3 Leadership of changevery good
- 2.3 Learning, teaching and assessmentgood
- 3.1 Ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusiongood
- 3.2 Raising attainment and achievementgood
HMIE grades on a six-point scale: unsatisfactory, weak, satisfactory, good, very good, excellent.
Source: HM Inspectorate of Education (Education Scotland), Open Government Licence.
About
Castlehead High School is a non-denominational, mixed state secondary school in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland. It was opened in 1971.
From Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
At a Glance
No
Boarding
No
Nursery
No
Special Measures
Keep up with Castlehead High School
Getting There
Train Stations
Bus Stops
Safety and surroundings
Road collisions within 500 m (2021 to 2025)
- Collisions
- 17
- Fatal
- 0
- Serious
- 8
- Children hurt
- 2
Within 500 m of the school's mapped location, police recorded 17 road collisions in which someone was injured in 2021 to 2025: none fatal, 8 serious and 9 slight.
2 children aged 0 to 15 were hurt: 2 on foot.
3 of the collisions happened on a weekday between 08:00 and 09:30 or 14:45 and 16:30, holidays included.
The typical figure for schools in Renfrewshire is 4 (the median across 69 schools, same distance and years).
Serious and slight counts use the Department for Transport's severity adjustment, which allows for changes in how police forces record injuries; they are estimates, rounded to whole numbers. Distances are in a straight line. Source: Department for Transport, Road Safety Data (STATS19), Open Government Licence v3.0.
Commute and house prices
Feeder Primary Schools
Primary schools that likely feed into this school, based on proximity
Castlehead High School
Showing 10 of 15 linked schools
Questions parents ask about Castlehead High School
When was Castlehead High School last inspected?
HM Inspectorate of Education (Education Scotland) last published an inspection of Castlehead High School in January 2026. Inspectors evaluated leadership of change as very good; learning, teaching and assessment as good; ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusion as good and raising attainment and achievement as good, on a six-point scale from unsatisfactory to excellent.
What is the catchment area for Castlehead High School?
Scottish schools have catchment (zoned) areas, and Castlehead High School is no exception: children living in its zone are normally given a place there automatically. Families who want a different school make a placing request to Renfrewshire. Renfrewshire publishes the zone boundary.
How do I apply to Castlehead High School?
If you live in Castlehead High School's catchment zone your child is normally allocated a place automatically, and Renfrewshire will write to you. To ask for a place here from outside the zone, make a placing request to Renfrewshire - requests usually open in November and close in mid-March for the following August.
How many road collisions happen near Castlehead High School?
Within 500 m of the school's mapped location, police recorded 17 road collisions in which someone was injured in 2021 to 2025: none fatal, 8 serious and 9 slight. 2 children aged 0 to 15 were hurt: 2 on foot. 3 of the collisions happened on a weekday between 08:00 and 09:30 or 14:45 and 16:30, holidays included. The typical figure for schools in Renfrewshire is 4 (the median across 69 schools, same distance and years).
Where is Castlehead High School?
Castlehead High School is at Camphill, off Canal Street, PAISLEY, PAISLEY, PA1 2HL.
Source: Department for Transport, Road Safety Data (STATS19)