Mearns Castle High School, GLASGOW
Mearns Castle High School is a secondary school for pupils in Glasgow.
- Attendance
- 92.1%
Data last updated 25 Oct 2026
Mearns Castle High School in detail
School in Scotland
Mearns Castle 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 1636 pupils and 13.5 pupils per teacher.
31% of pupils have an additional support need recorded and 7% speak English as an additional language.
0% of its pupils live in Scotland's most deprived fifth of areas and 62% in the least deprived fifth (SIMD).
Attendance was 92.1% in 2024/25, and 25.7% 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 102% full.
98% of pupils who left in 2024/25 went on to a positive destination - further or higher education, training, work or volunteering, against 98% 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 Mearns Castle High School are Williamwood High School (1.2 miles), Eastwood High School (1.5 miles), St Ninian's High School (2 miles) and Woodfarm High School (2.3 miles).
Williamwood High SchoolEastwood High SchoolSt Ninian's High SchoolWoodfarm High School
Getting there
The nearest railway station is Whitecraigs Rail Station, about 1.4 miles away in a straight line.
6 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is Broom Road East (before), 150 metres away.
Primary schools nearby
The primary schools closest to Mearns Castle High School are Calderwood Lodge P School (0.2 miles), St Clare's Primary School (0.2 miles), Kirkhill Primary School (0.4 miles) and Carolside Primary School (1.3 miles). In Scotland, secondary places normally follow the catchment area, and each secondary school has associated primary schools; East Renfrewshire publishes both.
Calderwood Lodge P SchoolSt Clare's Primary SchoolKirkhill Primary SchoolCarolside 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 Mearns Castle High School in April 2026.
- 2.3 Learning, teaching and assessmentexcellent
- 3.2 Raising attainment and achievementexcellent
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
Mearns Castle High School is a secondary school situated on Waterfoot Road in Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshire, Scotland roughly seven miles from Glasgow. It was built in 1978, and pupils from Eaglesham Primary, Kirkhill Primary, Maidenhill Primary, Calderwood Lodge and Mearns Primary are all part of the school's catchment area.
From Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
At a Glance
No
Boarding
No
Nursery
No
Special Measures
Keep up with Mearns Castle 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
- 0
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.
No children aged 0 to 15 were among the people hurt.
1 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 East Renfrewshire is 3 (the median across 33 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
Mearns Castle High School
Questions parents ask about Mearns Castle High School
When was Mearns Castle High School last inspected?
HM Inspectorate of Education (Education Scotland) last published an inspection of Mearns Castle High School in April 2026. Inspectors evaluated learning, teaching and assessment as excellent and raising attainment and achievement as excellent, on a six-point scale from unsatisfactory to excellent.
What is the catchment area for Mearns Castle High School?
Scottish schools have catchment (zoned) areas, and Mearns Castle 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 East Renfrewshire. East Renfrewshire publishes the zone boundary.
How do I apply to Mearns Castle High School?
If you live in Mearns Castle High School's catchment zone your child is normally allocated a place automatically, and East Renfrewshire will write to you. To ask for a place here from outside the zone, make a placing request to East Renfrewshire - requests usually open in November and close in mid-March for the following August.
How many road collisions happen near Mearns Castle 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. No children aged 0 to 15 were among the people hurt. 1 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 East Renfrewshire is 3 (the median across 33 schools, same distance and years).
Where is Mearns Castle High School?
Mearns Castle High School is at 51 Waterfoot Road, Newton Mearns, GLASGOW, GLASGOW, G77 5GU.
Source: Department for Transport, Road Safety Data (STATS19)