St Columba's High School, Gourock
St Columba's High School is a secondary school for pupils in Gourock. It has a Roman Catholic religious character.
- Attendance
- 89.5%
Data last updated 25 Oct 2026
St Columba's High School in detail
School in Scotland
St Columba'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 656 pupils and 12.5 pupils per teacher.
23% of pupils are registered for free school meals, 46% of pupils have an additional support need recorded and 2% speak English as an additional language.
34% of its pupils live in Scotland's most deprived fifth of areas and 23% in the least deprived fifth (SIMD).
Attendance was 89.5% in 2024/25, and 38.2% 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 good (A); the school was 97% full.
96% of pupils who left in 2021/22 went on to a positive destination - further or higher education, training, work or volunteering, against 96% 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 St Columba's High School are Clydeview Academy (0.7 miles), Inverclyde Academy (1 mile), Notre Dame High School (1.9 miles) and Dunoon Grammar School (4.1 miles).
Clydeview AcademyInverclyde AcademyNotre Dame High SchoolDunoon Grammar School
Getting there
The nearest railway station is Gourock Rail Station, about 1010 metres away (roughly a 13-minute walk).
12 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is Kingsway (opposite), 100 metres away.
Primary schools nearby
The primary schools closest to St Columba's High School are St Ninian's Primary School (0.2 miles), Gourock Primary School (0.4 miles), Moorfoot Primary School (0.6 miles) and St Andrew's Primary School (0.6 miles). In Scotland, secondary places normally follow the catchment area, and each secondary school has associated primary schools; Inverclyde publishes both.
St Ninian's Primary SchoolGourock Primary SchoolMoorfoot Primary SchoolSt Andrew'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 St Columba's High School in May 2024.
- 2.3 Learning, teaching and assessmentvery good
- 3.2 Raising attainment and achievementvery good
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 St Columba's High School
Getting There
Bus Stops
Safety and surroundings
Road collisions within 500 m (2021 to 2025)
- Collisions
- 1
- Fatal
- 0
- Serious
- 0
- Children hurt
- 1
Within 500 m of the school's mapped location, police recorded 1 road collision in which someone was injured in 2021 to 2025: none fatal, 0 serious and 1 slight.
1 child aged 0 to 15 was hurt: 1 on foot.
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 Inverclyde is 4 (the median across 30 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
Questions parents ask about St Columba's High School
When was St Columba's High School last inspected?
HM Inspectorate of Education (Education Scotland) last published an inspection of St Columba's High School in May 2024. Inspectors evaluated learning, teaching and assessment as very good and raising attainment and achievement as very good, on a six-point scale from unsatisfactory to excellent.
What is the catchment area for St Columba's High School?
Scottish schools have catchment (zoned) areas, and St Columba'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 Inverclyde. Inverclyde publishes the zone boundary.
How do I apply to St Columba's High School?
If you live in St Columba's High School's catchment zone your child is normally allocated a place automatically, and Inverclyde will write to you. To ask for a place here from outside the zone, make a placing request to Inverclyde - requests usually open in November and close in mid-March for the following August.
How many road collisions happen near St Columba's High School?
Within 500 m of the school's mapped location, police recorded 1 road collision in which someone was injured in 2021 to 2025: none fatal, 0 serious and 1 slight. 1 child aged 0 to 15 was hurt: 1 on foot. 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 Inverclyde is 4 (the median across 30 schools, same distance and years).
Where is St Columba's High School?
St Columba's High School is at Fletcher Avenue, Gourock, Gourock, PA19 1TN.
Source: Department for Transport, Road Safety Data (STATS19)