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It occurred to me the other day, why are some secondary schools in Scotland called Academies*? Is there any kind of historical reason for it? I thought it was a specifically NE Scotland thing but a quick google shows various Academies throughout Scotland (perhaps more prevalent away from the Central Belt?). Here in Aberdeenshire, I'm pretty sure most folk would say "Academy" instead of Secondary School, I never really give it any thought until you meet someone from elsewhere refering to it as "High School" or whatever. I've tried googling it but I just get a load of stuff about Academies in E&W.
[*to be clear to English & Welsh posters, these are council run state schools, not the independently run state schools you have down there]
4 secondary schools in the west of Scotland town I grew up in and they were all "academy"
Does it mean your a bit brighter than normal high school folk ? Must be a few down in South Lanarkshire as they named their fitba team Hamilton Academicals
Its historical . I lot of them used to be grant maintained ( partly? ) state funded selective schools. A bit like English grammer schools.
these are council run state schools, not the independently run state schools you have down there
Not all though. Both secondary schools I went to were called an Academy, one had been the grammar school equivalent before becoming a state school (and then Waterloo Road…), the other had never been a state school.
I can think of at least three other private Academies in the central belt, though at least one of those is as Tjagain describes.
Does it mean your a bit brighter than normal high school folk ? Must be a few down in South Lanarkshire as they named their fitba team Hamilton Academicals
Not a patch on Unseen Academicals
In Arbroath where my son goes there's both and academy and a high school, both are what I'd have just called in England a secondary school.
I'd assumed the academy was like the English academy schools, but it's not and the academy there just got a pretty poor Ofsted fwiw.
Thanks all, I think TJ has it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Scotland_in_the_twentieth_century
The Scottish Education Department introduced vocational supplementary teaching in the elementary schools, later known as advanced divisions, up until the age of 14, when pupils would leave to find work. This was controversial because it seemed to be counter the cherished principle that schooling was a potential route to university for the bright "lad o' parts".[5] Larger urban school boards established about 200 "higher grade" (secondary) schools as a cheaper alternative to the burgh schools, most in relatively poor inner city areas.[4][5] There were also about 60 secondaries established by 1900.[5] The school leaving age was raised to 14 in 1901.[6]
The Education (Scotland) Act 1918 introduced the principle of universal free secondary education, although due to financial crisis and resistance from the SED it took almost two decades to implement. Most of the advanced divisions of the primary schools became junior secondaries, where students received a vocationally orientated education until the age of 14. The old academies and Higher Grade schools became senior secondaries, giving a more academic education, presenting students for the leaving certificate. Selection between the two types of school was determined at age 12 by an intelligence test, the "qualifying examination", known colloquially as "the qualy".[5]
I just didn't suspect something like that as lots of Academies are the only secondary for miles around, I'm guessing in those settings it was a case of pass the exam or start work on a farm?
I'd assumed the academy was like the English academy schools, but it's not and the academy there just got a pretty poor Ofsted fwiw.
Ofsted presumably failed their geography exam 😉
my father grew up in a very rural setting, at 11 he passed an exam that entitled him to go to the Grammar school (a daily hour long bus ride each way) which he did till 17 and eventually going to college in Glasgow. Had he failed he’d have kept going to the village school (what we now call a primary school) until 14 and then would have gone to work - probably as a shepherd which he did at the weekends/holidays.Thanks all, I think TJ has it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Scotland_in_the_twentieth_century
The Scottish Education Department introduced vocational supplementary teaching in the elementary schools, later known as advanced divisions, up until the age of 14, when pupils would leave to find work. This was controversial because it seemed to be counter the cherished principle that schooling was a potential route to university for the bright "lad o' parts".[5] Larger urban school boards established about 200 "higher grade" (secondary) schools as a cheaper alternative to the burgh schools, most in relatively poor inner city areas.[4][5] There were also about 60 secondaries established by 1900.[5] The school leaving age was raised to 14 in 1901.[6]
The Education (Scotland) Act 1918 introduced the principle of universal free secondary education, although due to financial crisis and resistance from the SED it took almost two decades to implement. Most of the advanced divisions of the primary schools became junior secondaries, where students received a vocationally orientated education until the age of 14. The old academies and Higher Grade schools became senior secondaries, giving a more academic education, presenting students for the leaving certificate. Selection between the two types of school was determined at age 12 by an intelligence test, the "qualifying examination", known colloquially as "the qualy".[5]
I just didn't suspect something like that as lots of Academies are the only secondary for miles around, I'm guessing in those settings it was a case of pass the exam or start work on a farm?
Not all are as TJagain said. I went to an Academy school that was about 5 years old by the time I went. It was just a state secondary school, but I suspect it was either called an Academy to fit in with a lot of the other schools in the North East or was a bit aspirational (the village was and is a bit up itself, which is one of the main reasons I left as soon as I could).
TJ is probably right about how it started, but not how it is now for all schools that are called Academies. I thought it was weird that they were called High Schools when I moved South.
Aye. Its just a name with little meaning behind it now
I asked the OS to stop labelling them on maps as academies in Scotland and they agreed. The word has a very specific meaning in England and Wales while in Scotland they are just secondary schools. Likewise Grammars, eg. Musselburgh and Dunbar.
IIRC 1971 was the last "qualy" and then they all became High Schools. Where I lived in Edinburgh there was 3 tiers of state secondary prior to that and you were sent to whichever one your qualy graded you at. The exam was actually split into two, months apart. I missed my second due to appendicitis but was given the same score as my first, so ended up at Boroughmuir Senior Secondary. There was one more intake after us before it all went comprehensive and then school selection was done on a geographic basis.
Boroughmuir and the other Senior Secondaries tended to include rugby as a school sport. I guess it was more aspirational.
I went to a High School, our enemies were a College.
In deepest darkest fife. Despite being a normal comprehensive its a rugby powerhouse.
@fasgadh 'Grammar' in England is even more of a minefield - some of them are directly funded and selective entry (and some of those belong to Academy chains), some of them are private, and some of them are state secondaries. And which it is depends largely on which local authority you are in.
I started my school years in the primary school section of Belmont High School. In primary 3 we all moved to a newly built school across the road That was 1968 in 1974 I went to secondary school back across the same road in what had become Belmont Academy