St Joseph's Primary School, Helensburgh
St Joseph's Primary School is a primary school for pupils in Helensburgh. It has a Roman Catholic religious character.
- Attendance
- 93.1%
Data last updated 25 Oct 2026
St Joseph's Primary School in detail
School in Scotland
St Joseph's Primary 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.
St Joseph's Primary School offers Gaelic-medium education and has a pre-school (nursery) class.
In the 2025 pupil census it had 161 pupils, an average class size of 23 and 15.9 pupils per teacher.
47% of P6-P7 pupils are registered for free school meals, 34% of pupils have an additional support need recorded and 4% speak English as an additional language.
28% of its pupils live in Scotland's most deprived fifth of areas and 8% in the least deprived fifth (SIMD).
Attendance was 93.1% in 2024/25, and 21.6% 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 48% full.
Compared with nearby schools
The nearest other state primary schools to St Joseph's Primary School are John Logie Baird Primary School (0.2 miles), Colgrain Primary School (0.4 miles), Hermitage Primary School (0.5 miles) and Rhu Primary School (2.7 miles).
John Logie Baird Primary SchoolColgrain Primary SchoolHermitage Primary SchoolRhu Primary School
Getting there
The nearest railway station is Helensburgh Central Rail Station, about 1130 metres away (roughly a 14-minute walk).
13 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is McAuslan Place (before), 30 metres away.
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 Joseph's Primary School in October 2023.
- 2.3 Learning, teaching and assessmentvery good
- 3.2 Securing children’s progressvery 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
Yes
Nursery
No
Special Measures
Keep up with St Joseph's Primary School
Getting There
Bus Stops
Safety and surroundings
Road collisions within 500 m (2021 to 2025)
- Collisions
- 4
- Fatal
- 0
- Serious
- 1
- Children hurt
- 0
Within 500 m of the school's mapped location, police recorded 4 road collisions in which someone was injured in 2021 to 2025: none fatal, 1 serious and 3 slight.
No children aged 0 to 15 were among the people 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
Secondary Schools Nearby
Secondary schools pupils are likely to move to
St Joseph's Primary School
Questions parents ask about St Joseph's Primary School
When was St Joseph's Primary School last inspected?
HM Inspectorate of Education (Education Scotland) last published an inspection of St Joseph's Primary School in October 2023. Inspectors evaluated learning, teaching and assessment as very good and securing children’s progress as very good, on a six-point scale from unsatisfactory to excellent.
What is the catchment area for St Joseph's Primary School?
Scottish schools have catchment (zoned) areas, and St Joseph's Primary 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 St Joseph's Primary School?
If you live in St Joseph's Primary 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 St Joseph's Primary School?
Within 500 m of the school's mapped location, police recorded 4 road collisions in which someone was injured in 2021 to 2025: none fatal, 1 serious and 3 slight. No children aged 0 to 15 were among the people 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 St Joseph's Primary School?
St Joseph's Primary School is at Old Luss Road, Helensburgh, Helensburgh, G84 7LR.
Source: Department for Transport, Road Safety Data (STATS19)