School Chooser

Portobello High School

Secondary · ages 11-18MixedCouncilNon-denominational1,520 pupilsEdinburghEdinburgh City
School Chooser ScoreNot scoredScotland doesn't publish results or inspection grades for individual schools, so we can't give its schools a score. Pupil numbers, free school meals, extra support, staffing and class sizes are below.
Pupils registered for free school meals11%P6 and above; Scotland 20%
Pupils getting extra support49%Scotland 50%
Pupils per teacher14.7Scotland 12.1
Pupils from the poorest fifth of areas15%Scotland 21%
Pupils on roll1,520Census September 2025
NeighbourhoodAbove-average income areaScottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2020

Portobello High School is a council school in Edinburgh for boys and girls aged 11 to 18. It has 1,520 pupils. About 11 in every 100 pupils come from a low-income family, far fewer than at most schools in Scotland.

1 Milton Road, Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH15 3BY0131 669 2324portobellohighschool.org.ukAll details

Inspection

Schools in Scotland are inspected by HM Inspectorate of Education. Its reports grade a few areas on a scale from excellent to unsatisfactory, but the grades aren't published as a list we can use.

Results

Scotland publishes no school-level exam results as open data.

Leaver attainment and destinations for individual schools appear only on the Scottish Government's School Information Dashboard, which cannot be reproduced here. Open the dashboard and search for Portobello High School.

Getting a place

Catchment area

Edinburgh City council has drawn an official catchment area for this school. You can see it on the map below; it covers about 7.3 square kilometres. If you live inside it, your child has the right to a place here. Families outside it can ask for a place (a placing request), which is only given if there is room.

Set your home postcode at the top of the page to see whether you live inside it.

There is no entrance test. Every address in Scotland has a catchment primary and secondary school. If you want a different school, you ask the council for a place there (a placing request).

You apply through Edinburgh City council, not the school.

Who goes here

Who the school teaches, from the latest school census.

Pupils on roll1,520Census September 2025
Pupils registered for free school meals11%P6 and above. Every P1 to P5 pupil gets a free meal in Scotland
Pupils getting extra support49%Additional support needs
Pupils learning English10%First language is not English
Pupils from the poorest fifth of areas15%Scotland 21%
Pupils from the wealthiest fifth of areas39%Scotland 17%
NeighbourhoodAbove-average income areaIf Scotland's neighbourhoods were split into ten groups from poorest to wealthiest, this one is in group 7 (Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2020)
By stage
Pupils in each year, 2025/26
Year groups up to S4 are about the same size. Pupils can leave after S4, so S5 and S6 are smaller.
273S1
263S2
261S3
267S4
259S5
197S6
Trend
Pupils on roll
2022 to 2026
2022: 1,4451,44520222023: 1,4411,44120232024: 1,4231,42320242025: 1,4561,45620252026: 1,5201,5202026
Since 2022: +75
How the school has changed
Year2025/262024/252023/242022/232021/222020/212019/20
Pupils on roll1,5201,4561,4231,4411,445
Pupils from low-income familiesFree school meals11.4%10.5%11.4%11.0%
Pupils getting extra supportAdditional support needs (ASN)49.1%46.9%43.7%43.7%39.9%
Pupils learning EnglishEnglish as an additional language9.6%9.3%8.7%8.9%
Pupils per teacherPupil to teacher ratio14.714.613.014.113.914.013.9

Staff

From the pupil and teacher census of September 2025.

Teachers103.3full-time equivalent
Pupils per teacher14.7Scotland 12.1

Nearby schools

The closest secondary schools, nearest first. Hover over a row to see it on the map.

Well aboveAboveIn lineBelowWell belowNot scored
SchoolTypeDistancePupilsOfstedScore
Castlebrae Community High SchoolCouncil1.2 miles567HMIE, no open dataCompare
Holy Rood RC High SchoolCouncil1.2 miles1,222HMIE, no open dataCompare
Musselburgh Grammar SchoolCouncil2.4 miles802HMIE, no open dataCompare
Liberton High SchoolCouncil2.6 miles859HMIE, no open dataCompare
Leith AcademyCouncil2.6 miles978HMIE, no open dataCompare
Gracemount High SchoolCouncil3.1 miles670HMIE, no open dataCompare
Drummond Community High SchoolCouncil3.2 miles636HMIE, no open dataCompare
James Gillespie's High SchoolCouncil3.4 miles1,829HMIE, no open dataCompare

Questions parents ask

Is Portobello High School a good school?

We don't have enough published data to score Portobello High School yet. Scotland doesn't publish results or inspection grades for individual schools.

How many pupils does Portobello High School have?

1,520 pupils aged 11 to 18 were on the roll in September 2025.

These answers come straight from the figures on this page and update when new data comes out.

Contact and details

Address
1 Milton Road, Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH15 3BY
Telephone
0131 669 2324
Website
www.portobellohighschool.org.uk
Type of school
Council school (Local authority school, local authority maintained schools)
Phase
Secondary school, ages 11-18
Gender
Mixed
Religious character
Non-denominational
Local authority
Edinburgh City
Setting
Large urban areas
SEED code
5533538
Email
[email protected]

Where these figures come from