The Glasgow Academy is a coeducational
independent day school for pupils aged 3–18 in
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated pop ...
,
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...
. In 2016, it had the third-best
Higher level exam results in Scotland. Founded in 1845, it is the oldest continuously fully
independent school in Glasgow.
History
The school war memorial was designed by former pupil
Alexander Nisbet Paterson in 1922.
In 1981 the school admitted girl pupils for the first time.
In 1991, Glasgow Academy merged with
Westbourne School for Girls
The Glasgow Academy is a coeducational independent day school for pupils aged 3–18 in Glasgow, Scotland. In 2016, it had the third-best Higher level exam results in Scotland. Founded in 1845, it is the oldest continuously fully independent s ...
, adopting the distinctive purple of its uniform in the school badge and tartan. It is located in the
Kelvinbridge area and has approximately 1350 pupils, split between three
preparatory school sites and a
senior school.
The current
rector
Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to:
Style or title
*Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations
*Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...
is Matthew Pearce, who has held the position since 2019.
The Academy is one of the schools in Scotland which are Stonewall School Champions, an LGBT initiative which provides training for staff and pupils against homophobic bullying.
The Glasgow Academy’s preparatory school is the first school in the UK to have been awarded the Diana Gold Award for Anti-Bullying.
HMIe last inspected the school in November 2008.
House system
The school has a well established
house system, which divides all pupils in the school into four different Houses, each represented by a School Colour:
* Arthur
* Fraser
* Morrison
* Temple
All of the houses are named after notable alumni or previous Rectors that have influenced the Academy greatly.
In the Senior School, House assemblies are normally held once a week and are run by two teachers, one male and one female, as Head of Houses.
Senior Pupils enter a wide range of activities competing in Houses. These activities include
football,
rugby,
hockey,
debating as well as an annual House
singing competition and an annual Sports Day.
Notable alumni
*
Frederick Anderson, Chairman, Municipal Council, Shanghai International Settlement, 1905–06.
*
John Arthur, Church of Scotland missionary to East Africa.
*
J. M. Barrie, writer of ''
Peter Pan''
*
Laura Bartlett, British hockey international and Olympic athlete
*
John Beattie (rugby player), rugby player for Scotland and British Lions
*
James Bridie playwright, screenwriter and physician
*
Jack Buchanan, actor, singer & dancer.
*
Sir James Caird James Caird may refer to:
* Sir James Caird (politician) (1816–1892), Scottish writer and politician
* Sir James Caird, 1st Baronet, of Belmont Castle (1837–1916), Scottish jute baron and philanthropist who sponsored Ernest Shackleton's ''Endur ...
(1864–1954), founder of the
National Maritime Museum
The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is a maritime museum in Greenwich, London. It is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, a network of museums in the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Like other publicly funded national museums in the Unit ...
.
*Sir
David Young Cameron (1865–1945), Scottish painter and etcher.
*Billy Campbell, winner of the 2009
Scottish BAFTA Best Fictional Film award for 'Life of a Pigeon'.
*
Sir John Cargill, Chairman of
Burmah Oil Company, 1904–1943
*
Jackson Carlaw,
Scottish Conservative Party MSP
*
Horatio Scott Carslaw (1870–1954), Professor of Pure and Applied Mathematics at the
University of Sydney.
*
Archibald Corbett, 1st Baron Rowallan, politician and philanthropist.
*
Douglas Crawford,
Scottish National Party
The Scottish National Party (SNP; sco, Scots National Pairty, gd, Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence from ...
MP
*
Pippa Crerar
Pippa Crerar (born 19 June 1976) is a British journalist who is the political editor of ''The Guardian''. She was previously the ''Daily Mirror''s political editor from 2018 to 2022. While at the ''Mirror'', she reported extensively on Partygate ...
, Political Editor of the ''
Daily Mirror
The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print ci ...
''
*
Darius Campbell (born Danesh), singer-songwriter & actor
*
Ryan Dalziel
Ryan Dalziel ( ; born 12 April 1982), is a Scottish professional racing driver. Dalziel has seen the most success in his career in the United States, racing in the American Le Mans Series GT1 class and the Champ Car World Series, and winning ...
, professional racing driver
*
Donald Dewar,
Scottish Labour Party
Scottish Labour ( gd, Pàrtaidh Làbarach na h-Alba, sco, Scots Labour Pairty; officially the Scottish Labour Party) is a social democratic political party in Scotland. It is an autonomous section of the UK Labour Party. From their peak o ...
MP and MSP, first
First Minister of Scotland
The first minister of Scotland ( sco, heid meinister o Scotland; gd, prìomh mhinistear na h-Alba ) is the head of the Scottish Government and keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland. The first minister chair ...
*
Professor Ronald Drever, Professor of Physics at
Caltech and part of the team that first detected gravitational waves
*
Andrew Dunlop, Baron Dunlop, Conservative peer
*
Walter Elliot,
Scottish Unionist Party MP,
Secretary of State for Scotland
The secretary of state for Scotland ( gd, Rùnaire Stàite na h-Alba; sco, Secretar o State fir Scotland), also referred to as the Scottish secretary, is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), secretary of state in the Government of the Unit ...
*
Niall Ferguson, Professor of History at Harvard University
*
Alexander Forrester, cricketer and cricket administrator
*
George MacDonald Fraser, author
*
John Gardner (law)
John Gardner (23 March 1965 – 11 July 2019) was a Scottish legal philosopher. He was senior research fellow at All Souls College, Oxford University, and prior to that the Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Oxford and a fellow of ...
, Professor of Jurisprudence, University of Oxford
*
Thomas Dunlop Galbraith, 1st Baron Strathclyde
Thomas Dunlop Galbraith, 1st Baron Strathclyde, PC (20 March 1891 – 12 July 1985), was a Scottish Unionist Party politician.
After serving in the Royal Navy, he became a chartered accountant and practised, 1925–70. He was elevated to th ...
, Scottish Unionist Party MP
*Group Captain Sir
Louis Leisler Greig
Group Captain Sir Louis Leisler Greig, KBE CVO (17 November 1880 – 1 March 1953) was a Scottish naval surgeon, rugby player, courtier and a friend of King George VI.
Rugby union
Greig was a successful rugby player, and was capped for and t ...
, KBE, CVO British
naval surgeon, and intimate of King George VI (1880–1953)
*Sir
Angus Grossart, Chairman and executive director of merchant bank Noble Grossart
*
Rev. Dr Andrew Harper, Scottish–Australian Biblical scholar and Principal of the
Presbyterian Ladies' College, Melbourne and
St Andrew's College, Sydney
St Andrew's College is a residential college for women and men within the University of Sydney, in the suburb of Newtown. Home to over 380 male and female undergraduate students, postgraduate students, resident Fellows and graduate residents.
T ...
(also attended
Scotch College, Melbourne)
*Sir
Michael Hirst,
Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party MP and Chairman
*
Sir William Wilson Hunter,
KCSI CIE (1840–1900)
*
Andrew Innes, rhythm guitarist for Primal Scream
*
Andrew Innes, cricketer
*
Sir Jeremy Isaacs Founder of
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
*
William Paton Ker, literary critic
*
John Kerr, Baron Kerr of Kinlochard, diplomat and
crossbench life peer
*
Colin Kidd, Professor of Modern History at University of Glasgow
*
, philosopher
*
Maurice Lindsay CBE Scottish broadcaster, writer and poet (1918–2009).
*
Sir James Lithgow, shipbuilder and industrialist; 1883–1952
*
Neil MacGregor
Robert Neil MacGregor (born 16 June 1946) is a British art historian and former museum director. He was editor of the '' Burlington Magazine'' from 1981 to 1987, then Director of the National Gallery, London, from 1987 to 2002, Director of ...
, Director of the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docume ...
*
Robert Maclennan, Baron Maclennan of Rogart, leader of the
Social Democratic Party and the
Liberal Democrats
*
Alan MacNaughtan, actor
*
Guy McCrone
Guy Fulton McCrone (13 September 1898 – 30 May 1977) was a Scottish writer active from the late 1930s onwards. He was born in Birkenhead to Scottish parents. After the family returned to their native Glasgow, McCrone was educated at ...
, author and founding member of the
Glasgow Citizens Theatre
*
George Matheson theologian and preacher (1842–1906)
*
Jim Mollison pioneer aviator (1905–1959)
*
W. H. Murray, mountaineer, explorer and writer
*
Robin Nisbet (1925–2013), professor of Latin literature
*
David Omand Knight Grand Cross of the
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as ...
, former senior British
civil servant, visiting professor at
King's College London
*
Alexander Pollock, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party MP,
sheriff
A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...
*
James Prime, keyboard player for
Deacon Blue, lecturer at the
University of the West of Scotland
*
William Ramsay, Nobel laureate (Chemistry 1904), discovered the gas '
Argon
Argon is a chemical element with the symbol Ar and atomic number 18. It is in group 18 of the periodic table and is a noble gas. Argon is the third-most abundant gas in Earth's atmosphere, at 0.934% (9340 ppmv). It is more than twice as a ...
'
*
John Reith, 1st Baron Reith, founder of the
BBC
*
Albert Russell, Scottish Unionist Party MP,
Solicitor General for Scotland
*
James Scott James Scott may refer to:
Entertainment
* James Scott (composer) (1885–1938), African-American ragtime composer
* James Scott (director) (born 1941), British filmmaker
* James Scott (actor) (born 1979), British television actor
* James Scott (Sh ...
, obstetrician and gynaecologist
*
William Sharp, poet and
literary biographer
*
Chris Simmers
Chris Simmers (born 17 October 1969 in Scotland) is a Scottish former rugby union player. He played professionally for Glasgow Warriors and at amateur level for Glasgow Hawks normally playing at the Centre position.
As a schoolboy he played fo ...
, professional rugby union player and Scotland rugby league international
*Ninian Smart, scholar of religion
*Norman Stone, historian
*Euan Stubbs, cricketer
*Iain Vallance, Baron Vallance of Tummel, ex-Chief Executive of BT Group, BT, Liberal Democrats (UK), Liberal Democrat politician
*Herbert Waddell Scottish rugby internationalist and president of the Barbarians (1902–1988)
*William Walker (Scottish cricketer), William Walker, cricketer, cricket administrator, and British Army officer
*Sir James Wordie, polar explorer and geologist
Notable alumni of Westbourne School for Girls
* Vivien Heilbron, actress
* Fiona Kennedy, singer, actress and broadcaster
* Kate Mavor, CEO of English Heritage
Bibliography
MacLeod, Iain M., The Glasgow Academy 150 Years, (The Glasgow Academicals' War Memorial Trust, 1997)
References
External links
Official websiteThe Glasgow Academy's page on Scottish Schools OnlineProfileon the Independent Schools Council website
Saturday School Ltdwebsite.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Glasgow Academy
Independent schools in Glasgow
Member schools of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference
Charities based in Glasgow
Educational institutions established in 1845
Hillhead
1845 establishments in Scotland