Islay High School, ARGYLL
Islay High School is a secondary school for pupils in Argyll.
- Attendance
- 90.2%
Data last updated 25 Oct 2026
Islay High School in detail
School in Scotland
Islay 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.
Islay High School offers Gaelic-medium education.
In the 2025 pupil census it had 178 pupils and 8 pupils per teacher.
52% of pupils have an additional support need recorded.
0% of its pupils live in Scotland's most deprived fifth of areas and 0% in the least deprived fifth (SIMD).
Attendance was 90.2% in 2024/25, and 34.8% 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 47% full.
100% of pupils who left in 2015/16 went on to a positive destination - further or higher education, training, work or volunteering, against 95% for its "virtual comparator", a matched group of pupils with similar backgrounds from across Scotland.
Getting there
There is no railway, tram or Underground station within about three miles of Islay High School.
5 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is Islay High School (at), 50 metres away.
Primary schools nearby
The primary schools closest to Islay High School are Bowmore Primary School (0.1 miles) and Bowmore Primary Gaelic Unit (0.1 miles). In Scotland, secondary places normally follow the catchment area, and each secondary school has associated primary schools; Argyll & Bute publishes both.
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 Islay High School in March 2023.
- 1.3 Leadership of changesatisfactory
- 2.3 Learning, teaching and assessmentsatisfactory
- 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.
At a Glance
No
Boarding
No
Nursery
No
Special Measures
Keep up with Islay High School
Getting There
Bus Stops
Safety and surroundings
Road collisions within 500 m (2021 to 2025)
- Collisions
- 2
- Fatal
- 0
- Serious
- 1
- Children hurt
- 1
Within 500 m of the school's mapped location, police recorded 2 road collisions in which someone was injured in 2021 to 2025: none fatal, 1 serious and 1 slight.
1 child aged 0 to 15 was hurt.
0 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 Argyll & Bute is 0 (the median across 82 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
Islay High School
Questions parents ask about Islay High School
When was Islay High School last inspected?
HM Inspectorate of Education (Education Scotland) last published an inspection of Islay High School in March 2023. Inspectors evaluated leadership of change as satisfactory; learning, teaching and assessment as satisfactory; 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 Islay High School?
Scottish schools have catchment (zoned) areas, and Islay 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 Argyll & Bute. Argyll & Bute publishes the zone boundary.
How do I apply to Islay High School?
If you live in Islay High School's catchment zone your child is normally allocated a place automatically, and Argyll & Bute will write to you. To ask for a place here from outside the zone, make a placing request to Argyll & Bute - requests usually open in November and close in mid-March for the following August.
How many road collisions happen near Islay High School?
Within 500 m of the school's mapped location, police recorded 2 road collisions in which someone was injured in 2021 to 2025: none fatal, 1 serious and 1 slight. 1 child aged 0 to 15 was hurt. 0 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 Argyll & Bute is 0 (the median across 82 schools, same distance and years).
Where is Islay High School?
Islay High School is at Bowmore, Isle Of Islay, ARGYLL, ARGYLL, PA43 7LS.
Source: Department for Transport, Road Safety Data (STATS19)