Our Lady & St Patrick's High School, DUMBARTON
Our Lady & St Patrick's High School is a secondary school for pupils in Dumbarton. It has a Roman Catholic religious character.
- Attendance
- 86.4%
Data last updated 25 Oct 2026
Our Lady & St Patrick's High School in detail
School in Scotland
Our Lady & St Patrick's 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 968 pupils and 12.6 pupils per teacher.
19% of pupils are registered for free school meals, 49% of pupils have an additional support need recorded and 4% speak English as an additional language.
36% of its pupils live in Scotland's most deprived fifth of areas and 6% in the least deprived fifth (SIMD).
Attendance was 86.4% in 2024/25, and 47.2% of pupils were persistently absent (missing 10% or more of sessions).
The 2026 school estate survey rated its buildings' condition as good (A) and their suitability for teaching as good (A); the school was 70% full.
91% of pupils who left in 2024/25 went on to a positive destination - further or higher education, training, work or volunteering, against 94% for its "virtual comparator", a matched group of pupils with similar backgrounds from across Scotland.
Our Lady & St Patrick's High School in its own words
In its own words: "“At our school everyone will be helped towards their fullest spiritual, educational, social, vocational and physical development.” This has clear implications for the expectations and values which we hold and the responsibilities all of us share to achieve this goal. • Promoting in our students a strong sense of Catholic values and spiritual awareness."
Clubs and activities named on the school's website include choir and guitar.
Vision and values (school website)Clubs (school website)
Source: The school's own website
Compared with nearby schools
The nearest other state secondary schools to Our Lady & St Patrick's High School are Dumbarton Academy (0.8 miles), Vale Of Leven Academy (1.9 miles), Port Glasgow High School (4.8 miles) and St Stephen's High School (4.8 miles).
Dumbarton AcademyVale Of Leven AcademyPort Glasgow High SchoolSt Stephen's High School
Getting there
The nearest railway station is Dumbarton Central Rail Station, about 1 mile away in a straight line.
8 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is Barwood Hill (after), 20 metres away.
Primary schools nearby
The primary schools closest to Our Lady & St Patrick's High School are Aitkenbar Primary School (under 0.1 miles), St Peter's Primary School (under 0.1 miles), Braehead Primary School (0.7 miles) and St Patrick's Primary School (0.9 miles). In Scotland, secondary places normally follow the catchment area, and each secondary school has associated primary schools; West Dunbartonshire publishes both.
Aitkenbar Primary SchoolSt Peter's Primary SchoolBraehead Primary SchoolSt Patrick's 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 Our Lady & St Patrick's High School in March 2026.
- 2.3 Learning, teaching and assessmentgood
- 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.
About
Our Lady & St Patrick's High School is a six-year co-educational comprehensive Roman Catholic school, situated in the Bellsmyre area of Dumbarton, Scotland. It is the only denominational secondary school for Dumbarton, the nearby Vale of Leven Community and Helensburgh.
From Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
At a Glance
No
Boarding
No
Nursery
No
Special Measures
Keep up with Our Lady & St Patrick's High School
Getting There
Bus Stops
Safety and surroundings
Road collisions within 500 m (2021 to 2025)
- Collisions
- 2
- Fatal
- 0
- Serious
- 0
- Children hurt
- 2
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, 0 serious and 2 slight.
2 children aged 0 to 15 were 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 West Dunbartonshire is 4 (the median across 41 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
Our Lady & St Patrick's High School
Showing 10 of 12 linked schools
Questions parents ask about Our Lady & St Patrick's High School
When was Our Lady & St Patrick's High School last inspected?
HM Inspectorate of Education (Education Scotland) last published an inspection of Our Lady & St Patrick's High School in March 2026. Inspectors evaluated learning, teaching and assessment as good and raising attainment and achievement as good, on a six-point scale from unsatisfactory to excellent.
What is the catchment area for Our Lady & St Patrick's High School?
Scottish schools have catchment (zoned) areas, and Our Lady & St Patrick's 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 West Dunbartonshire. West Dunbartonshire publishes the zone boundary.
How do I apply to Our Lady & St Patrick's High School?
If you live in Our Lady & St Patrick's High School's catchment zone your child is normally allocated a place automatically, and West Dunbartonshire will write to you. To ask for a place here from outside the zone, make a placing request to West Dunbartonshire - requests usually open in November and close in mid-March for the following August.
How many road collisions happen near Our Lady & St Patrick's 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, 0 serious and 2 slight. 2 children aged 0 to 15 were 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 West Dunbartonshire is 4 (the median across 41 schools, same distance and years).
Where is Our Lady & St Patrick's High School?
Our Lady & St Patrick's High School is at Howatshaws Road, Bellsmyre, DUMBARTON, DUMBARTON, G82 3DR.
Source: Department for Transport, Road Safety Data (STATS19)