St Kentigern's Academy

St Kentigern's Academy
Address
60 West Main Street Blackburn , West Lothian , EH47 7LX Scotland (UK)
Coordinates	55°52′17″N 3°38′03″W / 55.8714°N 3.6342°W / 55.8714; -3.6342
Information
Type	Secondary school
Motto	Latin: Carissimus Deo
Religious affiliation(s)	Roman Catholic
Founded	1945
Local authority	West Lothian Council
Head Teacher	Andrew Sharkey
Gender	Mixed
Age	11 to 18
Houses	Columba, Margaret and Ninian
Colour(s)	Green, black, and white
Website	www.stkentigernsacademy.org

St. Kentigern's Academy is a Roman Catholic, comprehensive school 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.

In 2023 urgent repairs began at the school after RAAC was found in parts of the building. The repairs are expected to cost £35 million and temporary class rooms have been set up on campus.

Scottish singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi was a former pupil at the school as was playwright Stephen Greenhorn.

Notable former pupils

• Susan Boyle (b. 1961) - singer^[1]
• Stephen Greenhorn (b. 1964) - playwright and screenwriter
• John Rae (b. 1966) - jazz drummer, composer, and band leader
• Fern Brady (b. 1986) - comedian, podcaster, and writer
• Lewis Capaldi (b. 1996) - singer-songwriter and musician^[2]

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, as well as singer Susan Boyle, who is a former pupil.^[3]

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. As well as winning the competition, they were also awarded a Rotary Young Citizens Award.^[4][5]

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".^[6]

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.^[7]

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^[8]

On Tuesday 6th June 2023, 14 year-old Hamdan Aslam died following an incident. Police were called to the school at approximately 13:20 and the boy was taken by ambulance to hospital where he died shortly after. A post mortem was carried out and the cause of death was determined to be natural causes via a heart condition. A report has been sent to the procurator fiscal^[9]

In 2023, urgent repairs began at the school after an earlier inspection found RAAC in part of the schools roofing. The repairs have cost £35 million which is being payed for by West Lothain Council and the Scottish Government. This money is being used to demolish the 'infected' parts of the building and construct a new, modern, wing of the school. This should be completed by August 2026, until then some classes and services have moved to the remaining building and the Portakabins set up on campus.^[10]

References

This page was last edited on 25 March 2024, at 07:45