John Paul Academy

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John Paul Academy, more commonly referred to by its pupils as JPA, is a Roman Catholic secondary school in the residential Area of Summerston in Glasgow. It mainly serves the areas of Summerston, Maryhill, Ruchill, Possilpark and Milton districts of Glasgow and has a rough capacity of 800 pupils. The Catchment area for the school has changed since the mid-late 1990s; the areas of Ruchill, Possilpark and Milton were provided by St Augustine's Roman Catholic Secondary School within Milton area, whilst the areas of Bearsden and Milngavie had their children of Catholic denomination taught at JPA.

Opened in 1982 by the then Strathclyde Regional Council it is named after Pope John Paul II who visited Glasgow and hosted an open-air mass in Bellahouston Park during that year.

The current head teacher of John Paul Academy is Miss Mary Weeple. Her predecessor and founding head was the late Mr Eamon Rafferty.

In 2002 the school was closed for almost a week due to a fire which started during school hours, all the students were evacuated safely without any injury. The cause of the fire is thought to have started due to an electrical fault in a circuit board located in the Music Department's instrument storage area, however, this can only be assumed due to the area in which the fire started as no official evidence of this has ever become public knowledge.

In recent years the school has seen a rise in Standard Grade pass rates. Behaviour, by and large has also improved although it is still one of the main problem issues for the school.

3ED, the company in charge of the refurbishment of all 29 of Glasgow's Secondary Schools completed their refurbishment of John Paul, a vast improvement to the school. See below for a link to the Project Roundup on the 3ED website.