Portlethen Academy is a six-year comprehensive secondary school in

Portlethen Portlethen (; gd, Port Leathain) is a town located approximately 7 miles south of Aberdeen, Scotland along the A92. The population according to the 2011 census was 7,130 making it the seventh most populous settlement within Aberdeenshire. To ...

Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire ( sco, Aiberdeenshire; gd, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the County of Aberdeen which has substantially differe ...

, Scotland.

History

With the expansion of the communities of Portlethen and Newtonhill in the 1980s, the Education Committee of

Grampian Regional Council Grampian ( gd, Roinn a' Mhonaidh) was one of nine former local government regions of Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and abolished in 1996 by the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. The region t ...

decided to build a new six-year Academy in Portlethen. Until then, pupils from the area were bused to Mackie Academy, in near-by

Stonehaven Stonehaven ( , ) is a town in Scotland. It lies on Scotland's northeast coast and had a population of 11,602 at the 2011 Census. After the demise of the town of Kincardine, which was gradually abandoned after the destruction of its royal cast ...

. Portlethen Academy opened on 20 April 1987 as a new school for the communities of

Newtonhill Newtonhill is a commuter town in Kincardineshire, Scotland. It is popular due to its location, just six miles south of Aberdeen with easy reach of Stonehaven and with views over the North Sea. History The town was originally called Skateraw. Sk ...

Muchalls Muchalls is a small coastal ex-fishing village in Kincardineshire, Scotland, south of Newtonhill and north of Stonehaven. Muchalls is situated slightly north of a smaller hamlet known as the Bridge of Muchalls. At the western edge of Muchalls is ...

and

Banchory-Devenick Banchory-Devenick ( gd, Beannchar Dòmhnaig) is a village approximately two kilometres south of the city of Aberdeen, Scotland in the Lower Deeside area of Aberdeenshire. The village should not be confused with the historic civil parish of the s ...

. Originally owned by Grampian Regional Council, the school passed to

Aberdeenshire Council Aberdeenshire ( sco, Aiberdeenshire; gd, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the County of Aberdeen which has substantially different boundaries. The Aberdeenshire Council area includ ...

, when it formed in 1996. The school opened with 180 pupils in Years 1 and 2 and a capacity of around 650. It has expanded in numbers each session since April 1987, reaching over 800 pupils. As the roll rose, the school became too small to accommodate all the pupils and staff. Seven temporary classrooms were added to the school prior to closure. The current Headteacher is Barry Drennan. Aberdeenshire Council commissioned a new school under the PPP Scheme.

Current building

As early as the turn of the millennium, plans existed for a new school, to be built and managed by Robertson FM, as part of the Government's PPP scheme. It was built on the playing fields adjacent to the existing Academy. Construction started in June 2004, and was completed by the end of July 2006. Originally set to open in June 2006, for the start of the new timetable, a burst pipe delayed the school's opening until August. The new building opened on 22 August 2006 with a roll of 867. The old school has been knocked down, and the main car park which forms part of the area along with the all-weather pitch made up stage 2 of the relocation programme.

Footnotes

External links

* {{authority control Secondary schools in Aberdeenshire Portlethen