Eastern High, Cardiff

Eastern High 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 1150 pupils in the 2025/26 school census.

45% of pupils are eligible for free school meals (three-year average).

Of its pupils, 9% have additional learning needs (31% in 2020/21); 3% are learning English as an additional language; and 29% are from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.

Year groups range from 202 pupils (Year 8) to 259 (Year 7).

Its delegated budget for 2026-27 works out at £6,172 per pupil, against £5,520 in 2021-22. It carried forward £962k of reserves at the end of 2024-25.

Estyn's report on its December 2022 inspection summarises Eastern High like this:

"Staff at Eastern High School place a high priority on pupils’ well-being and provide them with high levels of care, support and guidance. They know their pupils well, and many teachers plan their lessons carefully to capture pupils’ imagination and ensure they make good progress in their subject knowledge and understanding. Provision for those with additional learning needs (ALN) is particularly well-coordinated and effective. In general, staff are calm and foster positive working relationships with pupils. As a result, many pupils respond positively to the opportunities offered to them and behave well in lessons and around the school."

"In a majority of cases, pupils make strong progress in their subject knowledge and understanding. However, the provision for developing pupils’ literacy, numeracy, Welsh and digital skills across the curriculum is underdeveloped. While pupils develop their understanding of the importance of exercise and a healthy diet well, they do not have enough opportunities to learn about matters associated with sexual health or drug misuse. A majority of pupils enjoy coming to school and there are high levels of participation in extra-curricular activities such as sports, musical shows and debates. The school has suitable procedures to ensure pupils’ attendance and staff work constructively with parents to improve this aspect if necessary."

"However, a few pupils do not attend regularly enough or avoid certain lessons when they are in school, which restricts their progress. The headteacher communicates his vision for each pupil to flourish and reach their potential clearly. In general, he is supported well by the rest of the senior leadership team. They have a suitable understanding of what needs to be done to improve certain aspects of the school’s work. However, when judging the quality of teaching, leaders do not consider its impact on pupils’ learning closely enough."

Estyn made 4 recommendations: (1) Strengthen systems to improve pupils’ attendance, and reduce persistent absenteeism and internal truancy; (2) Improve the provision for developing pupils’ skills across the curriculum including their command of Welsh; (3) Strengthen the provision for personal and social education; (4) Ensure that leaders understand how to evaluate the school’s provision in light of its impact on pupils’ learning.

The nearest other state secondary schools to Eastern High are St Illtyds R.C. High School (0.2 miles), St Teilo's C.I.W. High School (1.2 miles), Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Bro Edern (1.9 miles) and Corpus Christi Catholic High School (2.2 miles).

The nearest railway station is Heath High Level Rail Station, about 2.7 miles away in a straight line.

10 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is Rumney High School (outside), 220 metres away.