Eirias High School, Colwyn Bay

Eirias 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 1187 pupils in the 2025/26 school census.

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

Of its pupils, 8% have additional learning needs (16% in 2020/21); 3% are learning English as an additional language; and 14% are from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.

Year groups range from 75 pupils (Year 12) to 212 (Year 7).

Its delegated budget for 2026-27 works out at £6,451 per pupil, against £4,976 in 2021-22. It ended 2024-25 with a deficit of £486k.

Estyn's report on its November 2022 inspection summarises Eirias High School like this:

"Ysgol Eirias is a caring and inclusive community which provides a welcoming environment for pupils, staff and visitors. Pupils’ emotional health and well-being is a key priority, and this is promoted well through day-to-day activities and the school’s pastoral care system. As a result, most pupils behave well and treat their peers and others with respect and care. Leaders have successfully created a strong culture for safeguarding within the school and relationships between staff and pupils are positive. Consequently, most pupils feel safe at school, and that they would have a trusted adult to which they could turn to should they need support. The school works well with outside agencies to ensure that most pupils have returned to school following the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this work has not had sufficient impact on the attendance of pupils who are eligible for free school meals. Although the school has sound arrangements to safeguard pupils, a few health and safety matters were raised with the school during the inspection."

"The school is well led by the headteacher and the senior leadership team. There are clear lines of accountability which ensure that leaders and staff take full responsibility for the impact of provision within their areas of responsibility. Governors take an active role in the leadership of the school and provide a good balance of support and challenge to leaders. Leaders at all levels know the school well. They have a suitable understanding of the main strengths and areas for improvement, identify development priorities suitably, and plan well for improvement. However, leaders do not always evaluate the quality of the provision for skills precisely enough, by considering its impact on the standards of pupils’ work. The professional development of staff is a strength of the school. Leaders have built a culture of reflection within the school where staff regularly participate in valuable research and training activities to improve their practice."

"As a result, teaching is effective in many instances and this ensures that pupils make secure progress in their subject skills and knowledge. However, teachers’ feedback to pupils is not precise enough and, too often, this does not support improvement in their work. There are valuable opportunities for pupils to develop their numeracy skills, both within mathematics and in other relevant subjects. The school offers beneficial opportunities for pupils to develop their thinking skills, their physical skills and their creativity. However, in general, pupils do not have enough worthwhile opportunities to develop their advanced reading, extended writing and digital skills. The school’s curriculum builds well on pupils’ prior learning and there is a wide range of courses available. The school offers a wide and varied range of extra-curricular trips and clubs, especially sports clubs, where rates of participation are particularly high. The sixth form contribute well to the life of the school, and pupils in the sixth form generally make strong progress."

Estyn made 5 recommendations: (1) Improve provision for the progressive development of pupils’ literacy and digital skills; (2) Strengthen improvement processes so that they focus sharply on the impact of learning opportunities on the development of pupils’ skills; (3) Improve the quality and impact of assessment and feedback; (4) Improve the attendance of pupils who are eligible for free school meals; (5) Address the health and safety concerns shared with the school during the inspection.

From the headteacher's welcome: "Ysgol Eirias is a centre of excellence in learning where everyone is encouraged to reach their potential. We endeavour to equip the members of our school body with the confidence and skills to enable them to make a positive contribution to the world of work and in our local and wider community."

The nearest other state secondary schools to Eirias High School are Ysgol Bryn Elian (0.7 miles), Ysgol Y Creuddyn (2.9 miles) and Ysgol John Bright (4.9 miles).

The nearest railway station is Colwyn Bay Rail Station, about 800 metres away (roughly a 10-minute walk).

5 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is Eirias High School (outside), 30 metres away.