Bearsden Academy
Bearsden Academy building in 2009
Address
Stockiemuir Road

Bearsden
,
East Dunbartonshire
,
G61 3SU

Scotland
Coordinates55°55′39″N 4°20′51″W / 55.9274°N 4.3476°W / 55.9274; -4.3476
Information
TypeState secondary school
MottoCommitted to excellence
Established1911 (1911)
Local authorityEast Dunbartonshire
Chair of Parent CouncilIain Pringle[1]
Head teacherGeorge Cooper[2]
Staffc. 100[3]
GenderCo-educational
Age11 to 18
Enrollmentc. 1188[4]
Colour(s)Navy, red, gold, green
    
AccreditationInvestors in People
PublicationThe BAnner
Websitebearsdenacademy.e-dunbarton.sch.uk

Bearsden Academy is a non-denominational, state secondary school in Bearsden, East Dunbartonshire, Scotland.

History

Bearsden Cross site (1911–1958)

In 1911, the school was situated on the corner of Roman Road and Drymen Road north of Bearsden railway station in the Bearsden Cross area of the town. It was originally known as New Kilpatrick Higher Grade School. It comprised both a primary school and a secondary school. The building was designed by the architectural firm James M. Monro & Sons. It opened on 17 August 1911. The first headmaster was Hugh Primrose. In 1920, the school was renamed Bearsden Academy. In 1958, with the town expanding, and becoming a burgh, a new secondary school was built on Morven Road and Bearsden Academy was moved there and the whole of the remaining building became Bearsden Primary School.[5]

Morven Road site (1958–2010)

From 1958 to 2010 the school was located on the south side of Morven Road in Bearsden. The old Morven Road site was redeveloped as a new housing estate, comprising detached and flatted dwellings known as Academy Grove in 2009–12. Norman McLeod was a rector at the school and one of the streets in Academy Grove is named in his honour.[6]

Stockiemuir Road site (2010–)

St Peter's College

The Stockiemuir Road site the academy occupies was originally a Roman Catholic seminary for the Archdiocese of Glasgow and then a teaching college. In 1874, the Archbishop of Glasgow, Charles Eyre originally established St Peter's College in Partickhill. In 1892, he decided to move it to Bearsden. The college chapel was the first to serve the local Catholic population.[7]

With the arrival of a railway to the area, the population increased and the college chapel was expanded. In 1946, a fire destroyed the college, razing it to the ground. The decision was made by the archdiocese to abandon the site and build a new seminary in Cardross. The seminary was moved to Darleith House in Cardross and then Kilmahew House, before the new purpose-built St Peter's Seminary in Cardross was ready in 1966.[8]

Teaching College

In 1966, to replace the seminary, a teaching college was built on the site. It was designed by the same architects as St Peter's Seminary, Cardross, the firm of Gillespie, Kidd & Coia (GKC). It was built in a U-shape, with two teaching blocks, a physical education building and five student accommodation buildings. In 1969, the complex was opened, as the Notre Dame College of Education.[9]

In 1981, it merged with Craiglockhart College and was renamed St Andrew's College of Education. On 4 March 1998, it was registered as a category A listed building.[10] In 1999, it joined with University of Glasgow to become the Faculty of Education of the University of Glasgow.[11] In 2002, the teaching college was relocated and the site was declared surplus to university requirements. After negotiations between Historic Scotland and East Dunbartonshire Council, it was decided to demolish the site and build a school.[9]

The new building was built under a public-private partnership. In August 2010 the new site for Bearsden Academy opened to staff and students.

Controversies

32-year-old pupil

In September 1995, it was discovered that Brian MacKinnon, a 32-year-old former student, had attended the academy for a year on the pretext of being a Canadian teenager named Brandon Lee. He had shaved his eyebrows to look younger and permed his hair. He starred in a school production of South Pacific and gained six highers (including five A grades, taking English, Maths, Chemistry, Physics and Biology), before going on to study medicine at Dundee University. Teachers had remarked on his mature appearance.[12][13]

A 2022 documentary film about the events, My Old School, was made by one of Mackinnon's fellow pupils. It contains interviews with students and staff from the time; Alan Cumming plays the adult MacKinnon, lip syncing to the audio of MacKinnon's interviews.[14][15]

Sex offenders

In November 2011, a married father of two was sentenced to a year and two months in jail for sexual offences relating to two pupils at Bearsden Academy. 39-year-old Maths teacher Muir McCormick admitted a total of four sex charges involving the girls, aged 16 and 17.[16] He had been suspended when the allegations first emerged, and later resigned.[17]

In 2005, East Dunbartonshire Council launched an inquiry into an allegation that another teacher had an affair with a former pupil. The teacher, who was not named, was sent home from the school after the 17-year-old girl's father made an official complaint.[18]

In 2007, Andrew Oliver Kingsley, a male student training to be a teacher while on placement at Bearsden Academy's music department, was convicted of 31 sexual offences committed against boys as young as twelve and sentenced to five years in jail.[19] Kingsley committed the crimes between 2006 and 2009 in Glasgow, Ayrshire, London and a Fife secondary school where he had his probationary year. None of these offences took place at Bearsden Academy.[20][21]

School roll

School yearTotal rollS1S2S3S4S5S6References
2000/20011373[22]
2001/20021375[23]
2002/2003[24]
2003/2004[25]
2004/20051303[26]
2005/2006
2006/20071201207206206232198152[27]
2007/20081186209206208199218146[28]
2008/20091183199208206209187174[29]
2009/20101185208207212209207142[30]
2010/20111211
2011/2012[31]
2012/20131188[4]

Notable alumni

References

  1. ↑ Parent Council from Bearsden Academy Archived 5 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ↑ "School Profile". Archived from the original on 19 October 2013. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  3. ↑ Scotland. "Bearsden Academy – East Dunbartonshire – Scottish Schools Online 2010/11". Government of the United Kingdom. Archived from the original on 24 December 2012. Retrieved 24 November 2011.
  4. 1 2 List of Primary Schools with pupil roll information as at September 2012 from Scottish Government. Retrieved 27 February 2015
  5. ↑ School History Archived 26 February 2015 at the Wayback Machine from Bearsden Primary School. Retrieved 25 February 2015
  6. ↑ "Gladedale Group – Academy Grove". Archived from the original on 1 March 2008. Retrieved 7 April 2008.
  7. ↑ Parish history from St Andrew's Bearsden. Retrieved 23 July 2013
  8. ↑ Buildings at Risk. Retrieved 15 September 2013
  9. 1 2 riskybuildings.org.uk Archived 8 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 15 July 2023
  10. ↑ British listed buildings. Retrieved 15 September 2013
  11. ↑ Buie, Elizabeth (6 April 1999). "A degree of concern over college merger". The Glasgow Herald. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  12. ↑ John Arlidge (20 September 1995). "Bogus pupil set to lose place at university". The Independent. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
  13. ↑ Ron Mackenna (27 September 1995). "EXCLUSIVE: Brian MacKinnon tells The Herald HOW I WAS UNMASKED". Herald Scotland. Retrieved 24 November 2011.
  14. ↑ Brian Ferguson (9 January 2022). "Alan Cumming to play 'Scotland's most notorious imposter' in new film". The Scotsman. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  15. ↑ "Brandon Lee: The model school pupil who was a 30-year-old imposter". BBC News. 3 March 2022. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  16. ↑ "BBC News - Teacher jailed for having sex with pupils". bbc.co.uk. 24 November 2011. Retrieved 25 November 2011.
  17. 1 2 "Teacher jailed after having sex with schoolgirls in classroom cupboard". The Scotsman. 24 November 2011. Archived from the original on 27 February 2019 – via Internet Archive.
  18. ↑ "UK | Scotland | Teacher inquiry over pupil claim". BBC News. 25 October 2005. Retrieved 7 January 2012.
  19. ↑ "HMA v ANDREW OLIVER KINGSLEY - Judgments & Sentences - Judiciary of Scotland". Scotland-judiciary.org.uk. Retrieved 18 August 2013.
  20. ↑ "BBC News - Paedophile teacher faces life in jail". Bbc.co.uk. 8 October 2010. Retrieved 18 August 2013.
  21. ↑ "BBC News - Paedophile teacher jailed for a minimum of five years". Bbc.co.uk. 28 January 2011. Retrieved 18 August 2013.
  22. ↑ "Scottish Secondary Schools League Tables : YOUR SCHOOL'S RATING. – Free Online Library". Thefreelibrary.com. 30 November 2001. Retrieved 7 October 2012.
  23. ↑ "HOW YOUR SCHOOL IS RATED IN EXAM TABLE; Find out how every school in Scotland performed in the academic stakes with our easy-to-follow guide. – Free Online Library". Thefreelibrary.com. 27 November 2002. Retrieved 7 October 2012.
  24. ↑ List of Primary Schools with pupil roll information from Scottish Government Archived 6 February 2013 at Archive-It
  25. ↑ List of Primary Schools with pupil roll information as at September 2003 from Scottish Government. Retrieved 27 February 2015
  26. ↑ "HOW DID YOUR SCHOOL DO. – Free Online Library". Thefreelibrary.com. 15 December 2005. Retrieved 7 October 2012.
  27. ↑ East Dumbarton School Rolls 2006
  28. ↑ East Dumbarton School Rolls 2007
  29. ↑ East Dumbarton School Rolls 2008
  30. ↑ East Dumbarton School Rolls 2009
  31. ↑ List of Primary Schools with pupil roll information as at September 2011 from Scottish Government. Retrieved 27 February 2015
  32. ↑ Nicolson, Stuart (18 February 2008). "UK | Defining the sound of young Scotland". BBC News. Retrieved 6 October 2012.
  33. ↑ Martin Williams (4 August 2012). "Olympic triumph at last for our brains trust in a boat". The Herald. Glasgow. Retrieved 6 October 2012.
  34. ↑ "School pain for Aasmah". Evening Times. 24 July 2017.
  35. ↑ "Bearsden's David Moyes lands Fergie's job at Manchester United". Milngavie Herald. 9 May 2013. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
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