About us

Thurso High School, built in 1958, is the most northerly secondary school on the Scottish mainland serving the coastal town of Thurso and the west of Caithness. We educate around 700 young people in a truly comprehensive environment and are proud of the social diversity of our catchment. The headteacher is supported by three Depute Headteachers, seven Curriculum Faculty Heads, four Pupil Support teachers and a Faculty Head of Learning Support.

We have seven associated primary schools covering a wide geographic area. More than 50% of pupils use school transport with some pupils travelling up to twenty miles.

We work hard to offer as broad a curriculum as possible with very good numbers of pupils moving into positive post-school destinations.

Inclusion is a strong feature of our school with all pupils welcomed and valued equally. We have an Enhanced Provision base for pupils with severe and complex physical and learning difficulties and can offer pupils, where appropriate, an individualised blend of mainsteam and Enhanced Provision learning. We aim for all pupils to be supported in appropriate and inclusive settings and pride ourselves on our provision for pupils to proactively address any barriers to learning with a Nurture programme that includes a Softstart Base, a Children’s Service Worker base with excellent support for pupils, in school Youth Development Officer support and safe space provision and varied further opportunities for pupil support such as an in-school mentoring programme. Our experienced and extremely hard-working Pupil Support team provide excellent pastoral support to pupils. We aim to personalise what we offer wherever possible to ensure achievement and wellbeing for all pupils.

We have been a Gaelic Medium school since 2020-21, with one feeder primary school, Mountpleasant Primary School. Our first cohort of Gàidhlig pupils and Gaelic Learners entered S4 in session 2023-24.

Visitors to the school consistently find the pupils of Thurso HS to be polite and helpful and obviously proud of their school, with a warm, friendly atmosphere in the school. We also consistently receive excellent reports of the conduct of our pupils when away from school on trips or outings. We have good parental support through Parent Council.

All our staff, teaching and non-teaching, are valued members of our community and all are highly committed to providing the best for the pupils, who in turn contribute to the school in many ways including through our Prefect and House system which promotes our core values of Teamwork, Respect, Attainment, Commitment and Kindness.