The Royal High School, Edinburgh
The Royal High School is a secondary school for pupils in Edinburgh.
- Attendance
- 92.5%
Data last updated 25 Oct 2026
The Royal High School in detail
School in Scotland
The Royal 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 1578 pupils and 14 pupils per teacher.
6% of pupils are registered for free school meals, 47% of pupils have an additional support need recorded and 13% speak English as an additional language.
5% of its pupils live in Scotland's most deprived fifth of areas and 66% in the least deprived fifth (SIMD).
Attendance was 92.5% in 2024/25, and 21.7% 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 satisfactory (B); the school was 117% full.
96% 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.
The Royal High School in its own words
In its own words: "The Royal High School supports every young person to achieve and attain their very best. We respect individuality and celebrate diversity. We provide opportunities for success through a variety of curricular and extra-curricular options and pathways. We encourage creativity and support our young people to build the skills and resilience they need for the future."
Vision and values (school website)
Source: The school's own website
Compared with nearby schools
The nearest other state secondary schools to The Royal High School are Craigroyston Community High School (1.3 miles), Craigmount High School (1.5 miles), St Augustine's High School (2.1 miles) and Forrester High School (2.3 miles).
Craigroyston Community High SchoolCraigmount High SchoolSt Augustine's High SchoolForrester High School
Getting there
The nearest railway station is South Gyle Rail Station, about 2 miles away in a straight line.
5 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is Clermiston Drive (opposite), 220 metres away.
Primary schools nearby
The primary schools closest to The Royal High School are Clermiston Primary School (0.4 miles), Davidson's Mains Primary School (0.6 miles), Cargilfield School (0.7 miles) and Fox Covert Primary School (0.9 miles). In Scotland, secondary places normally follow the catchment area, and each secondary school has associated primary schools; Edinburgh City publishes both.
Clermiston Primary SchoolDavidson's Mains Primary SchoolCargilfield SchoolFox Covert 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 The Royal High School in February 2023.
- 1.3 Leadership of changeexcellent
- 2.3 Learning, teaching and assessmentvery good
- 3.1 Ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusionexcellent
- 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.
About
The Royal High School (RHS) of Edinburgh is a co-educational school administered by the City of Edinburgh Council. The school was founded in 1128 and is one of the oldest schools in Scotland.
From Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
At a Glance
No
Boarding
No
Nursery
No
Special Measures
Keep up with The Royal High School
Getting There
Bus Stops
Safety and surroundings
Road collisions within 500 m (2021 to 2025)
- Collisions
- 8
- Fatal
- 1
- Serious
- 4
- Children hurt
- 1
Within 500 m of the school's mapped location, police recorded 8 road collisions in which someone was injured in 2021 to 2025: 1 fatal, 4 serious and 3 slight.
1 child aged 0 to 15 was 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 Edinburgh City is 12 (the median across 140 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
The Royal High School
Showing 10 of 14 linked schools
Questions parents ask about The Royal High School
When was The Royal High School last inspected?
HM Inspectorate of Education (Education Scotland) last published an inspection of The Royal High School in February 2023. Inspectors evaluated leadership of change as excellent; learning, teaching and assessment as very good; ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusion as excellent and raising attainment and achievement as very good, on a six-point scale from unsatisfactory to excellent.
What is the catchment area for The Royal High School?
Scottish schools have catchment (zoned) areas, and The Royal 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 Edinburgh City. Edinburgh City publishes the zone boundary.
How do I apply to The Royal High School?
If you live in The Royal High School's catchment zone your child is normally allocated a place automatically, and Edinburgh City will write to you. To ask for a place here from outside the zone, make a placing request to Edinburgh City - requests usually open in November and close in mid-March for the following August.
How many road collisions happen near The Royal High School?
Within 500 m of the school's mapped location, police recorded 8 road collisions in which someone was injured in 2021 to 2025: 1 fatal, 4 serious and 3 slight. 1 child aged 0 to 15 was 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 Edinburgh City is 12 (the median across 140 schools, same distance and years).
Where is The Royal High School?
The Royal High School is at East Barnton Avenue, Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH4 6JP.
Source: Department for Transport, Road Safety Data (STATS19)