Llanishen High School


Llanishen High School is an English-medium secondary school based in Llanishen, Cardiff, Wales. It has approximately 1700 students, making it the largest single-site secondary school in Cardiff. It also has a sixth form college for 16–18 year olds.
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History

The school was originally founded as Heol Hir County Secondary School in 1957. Initially, it operated as two separate institutions: a boys' school and a girls' school. This model continued until it was officially reorganised and renamed Llanishen High School in 1969. The school's official opening by the Lord Mayor took place on Valentine's Day, 1958. The school's early years and its transition from a secondary modern school to a comprehensive high school are documented in local records and school archives.
In 2016, Llanishen High School was rated "adequate" by Estyn and put into monitoring. It was removed from monitoring later the same year, and has made significant progress since then. Part of this has been attributed to a newer, smarter uniform policy. This uniform policy was heavily disputed at first, with a petition of over 200 signing a petition opposing the changes due to cost and practicality.
In 2019, the school notably got its own therapy dog, Daisy, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. She is meant to help with student stress and anxiety, and also to improve behaviour. This followed a similar move by Bishop of Llandaff Church in Wales High School. This inspired other schools in Cardiff to provide similar student support.

School buildings

Much of the school was built during the 1950s, but some buildings were built in later decades. The School has a hockey pitch, basketball court, indoor tennis courts, fields for athletics/cricket/football and rugby and enters teams in a variety of competitions - usually competing against local schools. A new D.T. block has been built. The LRC and Sports Hall have been renovated.
In Autumn 2018, work on a new 3G pitch was completed on the site of the grass banks. New changing rooms and a clubhouse for Llanishen RFC have also been erected, in place of the indoor tennis facility, as part of an ongoing partnership between the school and the local rugby club.

Media

LHTV was a small TV Station based at the school. The station was involved in an award won at the European Languages Awards 2007 when the Modern Foreign Languages Department won the award for the best "Foreign Language Film".
In 2022, the school television station One Llanishen was launched. Its inaugural production was the Transition Video 2022, and it later went on to produce news, sport, and drama programming such as News Llanishen and Weekly. In September 2025, the station was rebranded to CORE.

Sport

The school has teams participating in local, regional and national competitions in a variety of sports. The school enjoys particular success in rugby, with the First XV Boys rugby team winning the Welsh Cup in 2014, 2015 and 2016, as well as reaching the final in 2011.
The schools year 7 football boys also won the WSFA under 12 cup in 2022.

Notable former pupils