Corpus Christi Catholic High School, Cardiff

Corpus Christi Catholic High School is an English-medium school in Wales. Welsh schools are inspected by Estyn rather than Ofsted, and its latest report is published on Estyn's website.

It had 1143 pupils in the 2025/26 school census.

17% of pupils are eligible for free school meals (three-year average).

Of its pupils, 4% have additional learning needs (14% in 2020/21); 6% are learning English as an additional language; and 47% are from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.

Year groups range from 214 pupils (Year 8) to 247 (Year 9).

Its delegated budget for 2026-27 works out at £5,561 per pupil, against £4,340 in 2021-22. It ended 2024-25 with a deficit of £507k.

Estyn's report on its March 2023 inspection summarises Corpus Christi Catholic High School like this:

"Corpus Christi Catholic High School seeks to enrich pupils’ lives through faith and extremely high-quality care, support and guidance. This is a notable strength of the school and contributes positively to pupils’ well-being, behaviour and engagement in learning. Pupils enjoy being at school and achieve well. Senior leaders ensure that all members of the school community place pupil and staff well-being at the heart of all that they do. The school has developed strong relationships with a wide variety of partners to broker the best possible support for pupils. It has developed highly effective approaches to support pupils in overcoming barriers to learning."

"There are robust procedures in place that keep all pupils safe, and the culture of safeguarding permeates throughout the school. In collaboration with its partner primary schools, the school has developed a clear vision for the development of Curriculum for Wales. The importance of good teaching and subject knowledge is at the core of this vision and leaders are developing valuable learning opportunities for pupils. Generally, teachers have suitably high expectations for pupils and ensure helpful levels of challenge and support in the classroom. The curriculum provides appropriate opportunities for pupils to develop their literacy and numeracy skills. The provision for digital skills is at an early stage of development and currently the school does not promote the use of the Welsh language strongly enough in areas other than Welsh lessons."

"The school is well led and managed. Leaders have established a culture of collaboration and mutual respect based on Catholic values. They foster a sense of pride in the school that is shared by all staff and pupils and promote successfully a community where all are supported to achieve. The school has developed its processes for self-evaluation and planning for improvement suitably. However, a few aspects of self-evaluation lack precision, particularly in teaching and learning, and this means that departmental and whole- school priorities for improvement tend to be too broad."

Estyn made 2 recommendations: (1) Refine self-evaluation so that it identifies precisely any aspects of teaching and learning that need improvement; (2) Increase the range of opportunities for pupils to practise their Welsh language and digital skills.

In its own words: "At Corpus Christi, we strive to live the values of the gospel. Our curriculum is firmly rooted in the teachings of the Church and we try to provide an education which nurtures and develops all children so that they lead caring, compassionate and fulfilling lives."

From the headteacher's welcome: "Corpus Christi is an 11-16 Catholic comprehensive school situated in the north of Cardiff. We are very proud of our rich Catholic faith, our history and our Welsh heritage and serving the Archdiocese of Cardiff."

Clubs and activities named on the school's website include football, netball, rugby, hockey, cricket, tennis, athletics, badminton, cross-country and dance.

The nearest other state secondary schools to Corpus Christi Catholic High School are Llanishen High School (1.1 miles), Cardiff High School (1.3 miles), St Teilo's C.I.W. High School (1.6 miles) and Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Bro Edern (2.1 miles).

The nearest railway station is Llanishen Rail Station, about 0.9 miles away in a straight line.

8 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is Corpus Christi High School (in), 90 metres away.