# St Kentigern's Academy

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 and again in 2009. Major reconstruction began in 2023 after reports of RAAC in part of the schools roofing.
Scottish singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi was a former pupil at the school as was playwright Stephen Greenhorn.

## School leadership

Senior Management
•Mr G Burns - Head teacher (acting)
•Miss L Lawlor - Depute head teacher
•Mr P Christie - Depute head teacher
•Mr S Young - Business manager
Department Heads
•Mr A McIntosh - Maths and Computing
•Mr A Jack- Science
•Mr B Johnson - Art, CDT and HFT
•Mr M Donelly - Social subjects and business (acting)
•Mrs K Moore - PE, Music and Drama (acting)
•Mrs M Duff - English and modern languages (acting)
Accurate as of the 2024/25 school year*

## Notable former pupils

* Susan Boyle (b. 1961) — singer
* 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

## 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.
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.
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
In 2022, all schools in Scotland where ranked by exam pass rate, St Kentigern's Academy placed 10th in West Lothian Bearley beating Deans Community High and placing 112th out of 340 in Scotland.
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
In 2023, urgent repairs and refurbishments began at the school after an earlier inspection found RAAC in part of the schools roofing. The repairs are valued at £35 million and are expected to be completed by August 2026.
In 2024, head teacher, Andrew Sharkey, suddenly passed away after the discovery of a brain tumour, Mr Sharkey served as head teacher of St Kents from April 2014 until his passing in late November.