Prestatyn High School, Denbighshire

Prestatyn 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 1550 pupils in the 2025/26 school census.

23% of pupils are eligible for free school meals (three-year average).

Of its pupils, 4% have additional learning needs (25% in 2020/21); 3% are learning English as an additional language; and 7% are from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.

Year groups range from 100 pupils (Year 13) to 284 (Year 8).

Its delegated budget for 2026-27 works out at £5,747 per pupil, against £5,208 in 2021-22. It ended 2024-25 with a deficit of £57k.

Estyn's report on its February 2023 inspection summarises Prestatyn High School like this:

"Prestatyn High School provides a positive and engaging learning environment where nearly all pupils develop as happy, kind, and respectful individuals. The school is an inclusive learning community where pupils and staff work closely and effectively as a team and these relationships form the heartbeat of the school. Through its ‘Engagement Centre’, well-being room and partnerships with outside agencies, the school provides strong and well-considered support for pupils’ well-being. As a result, most pupils feel safe and know who to turn to for support. The school’s curriculum is designed thoughtfully with the needs of pupils at its heart."

"Leaders have a deep understanding of the community they serve, and their commitment to ensuring that the school both supports and shapes that community is notable. Complementing the formal curriculum is a vibrant enrichment and extra- curricular offer, sometimes shaped and delivered by pupils themselves. Although areas such as the planning for the progressive development of pupils’ skills is at the early stages of development, the school provides an inclusive curriculum, which offers something for every pupil, regardless of their background. Where teaching is at its strongest, pupils make good progress. However, in a minority of instances, there is too much inconsistency in how well teachers plan to develop pupils’ knowledge, skills and understanding over time and pupils are not challenged well enough."

"This limits the progress that pupils make. The headteacher and his senior team have worked well to establish a culture of high expectations for all and shared well their vision that the whole-school community take positive responsibility for their actions and decisions. Governors, leaders, and staff care about their locality and strive to ensure that their school supports the community to thrive. Leaders gather a range of evidence to evaluate the school’s work and generally have a clear understanding of the strengths and areas for improvement. Although leaders evaluate the quality of teaching, this is not precise enough to meet all their aspirations and plan for improvement."

Estyn made 3 recommendations: (1) Strengthen evaluation and improvement processes so that leaders have a more precise understanding of the impact of their work, particularly the impact of teaching on learning; (2) Ensure that teaching supports all pupils to develop their knowledge, skills and understanding progressively; (3) Strengthen the provision for the progressive development of pupils’ skills.

The nearest other state secondary schools to Prestatyn High School are Rhyl High School (2.8 miles) and Christ the Word School (3 miles).

The nearest railway station is Prestatyn Rail Station, about 1080 metres away (roughly a 13-minute walk).

10 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is Prestatyn High School (outside), 90 metres away.