Lenzie Academy is a

co-educational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

comprehensive secondary school located in

Lenzie Lenzie () is an affluent town by the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway in the East Dunbartonshire council area of Scotland. It is about north-east of Glasgow city centre and south of Kirkintilloch. At the 2011 census, it had a population of 8,873. ...

East Dunbartonshire East Dunbartonshire ( sco, Aest Dunbartanshire; gd, Siorrachd Dhùn Bhreatainn an Ear) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the north of Glasgow and contains many of the affluent areas to the north of the city, including Bear ...

, Scotland. The catchment area covers Lenzie,

Auchinloch Auchinloch ( Gaelic: ''Achadh an Locha'') is a village in Scotland, situated within the North Lanarkshire local authority area but very close to the boundary with East Dunbartonshire and sharing the G66 postcode of the town of Kirkintilloch a ...

and southern parts of Kirkintilloch.

Senior management team

The school is managed by the senior management team, composed of the Head Teacher and six Deputy Head Teachers, each in charge of a year group. In 2011–present the headteacher was Brian Paterson.

School roll

The most recently reported school roll is 1296, taught by a teaching staff of 101.
/ref> The S1 intake cap is 240, based on an average annual first year intake of eight classes of approximately thirty pupils each, mostly coming from four associated primary schools, namely

, Millersneuk, Lairdsland and Lenzie Meadow Primary. Approximately 40% of the total roll are from outside the catchment area (human geography), catchment area, attending as placing requests. The S1 rolls have slightly reduced in recent years and in early 2012 the reported 2012/2013 intake was 226 pupils, consisting of 125 from the zoned area and 101 through placing requests.
/ref> The total school roll has been falling every year for the last 8 years with the 2011/2012 figure being 25 pupils lower than the previous years 1321 pupils.http://www.lenzieacademy.e-dunbarton.sch.uk/_files/newsletters/autumn%202010%20newsletter.pdf

Table

Alcohol and drugs controversies

In October 1995, two 12-year-old boys were suspended for dealing with drugs. It followed a string of other drug-related incidents. In 1994, a 16-year-old was expelled for drug dealing, then re-admitted. Also that year, four pupils were suspended over claims of drug taking, and a 15-year-old boy was arrested outside school and charged with possessing cannabis (drug), cannabis." Eight pupils who smoked cannabis on a

school trip A field trip or excursion is a journey by a group of people to a place away from their normal environment. When done for students, as it happens in several school systems, it is also known as school trip in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and ...

Alton Towers Alton Towers Resort ( ) (often referred to as Alton Towers) is a theme park and resort complex in Staffordshire, England, near the village of Alton. The park is operated by Merlin Entertainments Group and incorporates a theme park, water park, ...

were suspended for a fortnight following a disciplinary hearing at the school in June 1998.

Black Lives Matter controversy

An investigation by

Council started on 4 June 2020 after Lenzie Academy's physics department account published a tweet which reportedly mocked the Take the Knee campaign. The campaign had taken off after the

murder of George Floyd On , George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was murdered in the U.S. city of Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old white police officer. Floyd had been arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill. Chauvin knelt on Floyd's n ...

a week previously in the USA. The tweet, which has since been deleted along with the account itself, stated: "#TaketheKnee? Aye you can f*** right off". The council confirmed that they had reported the incident to the police. The local MP,

Amy Callaghan Amy Callaghan (born 21 May 1992) is a Scottish National Party (SNP) politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for East Dunbartonshire since the 2019 general election. She unseated the then Liberal Democrat leader, Jo Swinson, with a narr ...

, said that she had contacted the council and the school headmaster about the tweet, and that she had also heard from students of the school about their experience of racism.

Bullying and gang issues

The school has also received continuing attention for problems with

gangs A gang is a group or society of associates, friends or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over territory in a community and engages, either individually or collectivel ...

bullying Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively dominate or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception (by the bully or by others) of an imba ...

as well as

knife crime Knife legislation is defined as the legislation, body of statutory law or case law promulgated or enacted by a government or other governing jurisdiction that prohibits, criminalizes, or restricts the otherwise legal manufacture, importation, sale, ...

. In 2016, a boy aged 14 years old was reported to the police after a knife incident at the school. The suicide of Nicola Ann Raphael, a pupil at Lenzie Academy, in 2001 was heavily covered in local and national press and came after Raphael had suffered years of bullying.

School buildings

The current red brick Academy building was built in 1960 and extensions have been added to it over the years. The original school building dating from when the Academy was founded in 1886 has since served as Lenzie Primary school.
/ref> More than 110 years after opening the school admitted its first physically disabled student in 1996 which meant the school had to install a lift and ramps to make the whole building accessible.

Head teachers

There have been ten head teachers of Lenzie Academy. For 125 years until 2011, the head teacher was referred to as Rector (academia), Rector.

Notable people educated at Lenzie Academy

* Moira Anderson (born 1938), Singer * Sir Andrew Baker (born 1965), High Court judge *

Martin Creed Martin Creed (born 21 October 1968) is a British artist, composer and performer. He won the Turner Prize in 2001 for exhibitions during the preceding year, with the jury praising his audacity for exhibiting a single installation, '' Work No. 2 ...

(born 1968), Turner Prize-winning artist *

Rona Dougall Rona, RONA or Róna may refer to: Places *Rona (Kristiansand), a neighbourhood in Kristiansand, Norway * Rona (river), a river in Maramureș County, Romania * Rona, Bellevue Hill, a historic house in the Sydney suburb of Bellevue Hill *Rona, Swit ...

, ''

Scotland Tonight ''Scotland Tonight'' is a Scottish news and current affairs programme, covering the two STV franchise areas of Northern and Central Scotland, produced by STV News. The programme is presented by ''STV News at Six'' Central anchor John MacKay on ...

'' presenter, broadcast journalist *

Jane Duncan Jane Duncan (10 March 1910 – 20 October 1976) was the pseudonym of Scottish author Elizabeth Jane Cameron, best known for her ''My Friends'' series of semi-autobiographical novels. She also wrote four novels under the name of her principal hero ...

(1910–1976), Author (known by her legal name of Elizabeth Jane Cameron while a pupil) * Andy Dunlop (born 1972), Travis guitarist * Alasdair Graham (pianist) (1934–2016), Scottish concert pianist. * Andrew Henderson (born 1980), Scottish

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

footballer. * Tom Johnston (politician) (1882–1965), Secretary of State for Scotland during the Second World War in Churchill's cabinet *

Jimmy Mack "Jimmy Mack" is a pop/soul song that in 1967 became a hit single by Martha and the Vandellas for Motown's Gordy imprint. Written and produced by Motown's main creative team, Holland–Dozier–Holland, "Jimmy Mack" was the final Top 10 pop h ...

(1934–2004), broadcaster *

Gus MacPherson Angus Ian MacPherson (born 11 October 1968) is a Scottish football former player and coach. MacPherson's playing career saw spells at Rangers, Exeter City, Kilmarnock, Dunfermline Athletic and St Mirren. His management career began at his f ...

(born 1968), footballer. *

Ian McCartney Sir Ian McCartney (born 25 April 1951) is a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Makerfield from 1987 and 2010. McCartney served in Tony Blair's Cabinet from 2003 until 2007, when Gordon Brown became Prime ...

(born 1951), former MP, chairman of the Labour Party and member of Tony Blair's cabinet He left the school at the age of 15 "under a bit of a cloud" without any qualifications or school prizes. *

Rhona McLeod Rhona McLeod is a Scottish broadcaster. McLeod is a former international athlete and was a member of the Scottish Athletics team for seven years Athletics career As an athlete, her preferred events included sprint hurdles and long jump and sh ...

(born 1966), news reader. * Nicola Raphael (1985–2001) – A pupil whose suicide and preceding bullying at the school led to press coverage and later legal action. *

Melissa Reid Melissa Rose Reid (born 19 September 1987) is an English professional golfer who plays on the Ladies European Tour and the LPGA Tour.Michael Shea (diplomat) (1938–2009), Press Secretary to

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

(1978–1987) He left the Academy after winning a scholarship to

Gordonstoun Gordonstoun School is a co-educational independent school for boarding and day pupils in Moray, Scotland. It is named after the estate owned by Sir Robert Gordon in the 17th century; the school now uses this estate as its campus. It is located ...

at the age of 14. * Billy Williamson (1922–2006), footballer, later a PE teacher at the school.

Academic rankings

In 2014 the school was ranked 13.th in STV's league table of Scottish state schools. This builds upon the 19th position achieved in 2013 and the 16th position achieved in 2012 based on the percentage of pupils obtaining 5 or more Highers at bands A-C.

References

External links

Lenzie Academy WebsiteLenzie Academy's page on Scottish Schools Online
{{authority control Secondary schools in East Dunbartonshire Educational institutions established in 1886 School buildings completed in 1960 Lenzie Kirkintilloch 1886 establishments in Scotland