St. Kentigern's Academy is a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

comprehensive school A comprehensive school typically describes a secondary school for pupils aged approximately 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is res ...

in Blackburn, West Lothian, Scotland. The school was built in 1973 and refurbished in 1995/6. An extensive refurbishment of the school was completed in September 2009. Scottish singer-songwriter

Lewis Capaldi Lewis Marc Capaldi ( ; born 7 October 1996) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and musician. He was nominated for the Critics' Choice Award at the 2019 Brit Awards. In March 2019, his single "Someone You Loved" topped the UK Singles Chart where ...

was a former pupil at the school as was playwright

Stephen Greenhorn Stephen Greenhorn (born 5 September 1964 in Fauldhouse, West Lothian, Scotland) is a Scottish playwright and screenwriter. He is the creator of the BBC Scotland soap opera ''River City''. Theatre Greenhorn’s plays have been produced by a wide ...

Notable former pupils

Susan Boyle Susan Magdalane Boyle (born 1 April 1961) is a Scottish singer. She rose to fame in 2009 after appearing as a contestant on the third series of ''Britain's Got Talent'', singing "I Dreamed a Dream" from '. Boyle's debut studio album, ''I D ...

Fern Brady Fern Marie Brady (born 26 May 1986) is a Scottish comedian, podcaster, and writer. Before becoming a stand-up comedian Brady worked as a journalist. She achieved fame as a stand-up comedian by entering stand-up competitions such as at the Edin ...

Press coverage

In 2009, there was a formal opening of a £19,000,000 refurbishment and extension to the school; guests included the late

Cardinal Keith O'Brien Keith Michael Patrick Cardinal (Catholic Church), Cardinal O'Brien (17 March 1938 – 19 March 2018) was a senior-ranking Catholic Church, Catholic prelate in Scotland. He was the Archbishop of Saint Andrews and Edinburgh from 1985 to 2013. C ...

, as well as singer

, who is a former pupil. In 2012, a group of pupils made a video to highlight the high rate of poverty amongst children in the UK, and submitted it to competition for

Unicef UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...

. As well as winning the competition, they were also awarded a Rotary Young Citizens Award. In 2017 a 16-year-old student was instructed by the Head Teacher, Mr Sharkey, to remove an LGBT Pride badge from his uniform on the basis that it "Promoted homosexuality". However, West Lothian Council later denied these claims stating "Pupils at St Kentigern’s are asked to remove all non-school related badges from their uniforms". In 2017 and 2019, Computing Science teacher, Toni Scullion, won a number of awards for her work in furthering women in Tech, including the 2019 Secondary Teacher of the Year award at the Scottish Women in Tech awards. The school also suffered a stabbing in 2017, where a 13-year-old slashed a 14-year-old in the canteen, which had around 200 people in it at the time. The weapon was believed to be a kitchen knife. Charges were pressed on the 13 year-old perpetrator and a report would be sent to the procurator fiscal

References

Catholic secondary schools in West Lothian {{authority control