Boclair Academy

Boclair Academy

Motto	Wisdom, Justice, Compassion and Integrity[1]
Established	1978
Type	State secondary school
Religion	Non-denominational
Headteacher	Neil Shaw BSc BA (Hons)
Location	Inveroran Drive Bearsden East Dunbartonshire G61 2PL Scotland
Staff	74 (Sept 2010)[2]
Students	912 (Sept 2010)[2]
Gender	Co-educational
Ages	11–18
Colours	Junior colours Senior colours
Publication	Bac Talk
Feeder Schools	Killermont Primary, Westerton Primary, Colquhoun Park Primary, Torrance Primary
Website	Official website

Boclair Academy is a co-educational comprehensive secondary school located in the Greater Glasgow suburb of Bearsden, East Dunbartonshire, Scotland. The school serves pupils aged 11 – 18 from Southern Bearsden and Torrance. Boclair Academy is affiliated with four local primary schools within its catchment area, Westerton Primary School, Killermont Primary School, Colquhoun Park Primary School and Torrance Primary School Schools. The school's exam achievement has improved in recent years, in 2011 27% of S5 gained at least 5 Higher passes (A-C), which placed it 21st in Scotland for a state school.^[3]

History and recent upgrades

Boclair Academy from Kessington Road

Boclair Academy was built in 1976 to meet increased demand in the area; initially the school accommodated overflow with Douglas Academy and Bearsden Academy but later the school had an increased number of placing requests from outside East Dunbartonshire. In 1998, because the school was over capacity, a temporary annex was erected for the Maths department. It has yet to be replaced with a permanent building.

HMIe inspection

The school's last inspection was carried out in January 2009 by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education (merged in 2011 with Learning and Teaching Scotland to form Education Scotland).^[4] The report, published 17 March 2009, was largely positive and praised the following particular strengths:

• Positive relationships between staff and young people
• Enthusiastic, well-motivated and friendly young people
• High-quality learning and teaching in all departments
• Consistently high attainment in national examinations
• Effective partnership working to support young people with additional support needs
• Effective pastoral support for young people moving from primary school into S1, particularly for those most likely to find the move difficult.

HMIe also agreed the following areas for improvement with the school and education authority:

• Continue to improve learning and teaching by better sharing of good practice and through more effective self-evaluation
• Continue to improve achievement by building more effectively on young people’s learning at primary school and through better links with community partners.^[5][6]

The inspection of the school was accompanied by an inspection of the learning community surrounding Boclair Academy.^[7] There was also a follow through report, which evaluated the school's progress, published by East Dunbartonshire Council in February 2011.^[8]

Dress code and uniform

Boclair school junior tie (left) and senior tie (right)

The following is according to the 'student planner' 2012-2013 issued to all pupils (see Bibliography below)

• White Blouse/shirt
• Clearly visible school tie
• Black skirt/trousers
• Plain black top (jumper, cardigan etc.)
• Blazers

Campus

The school is spread over four buildings within its 16 acres (65,000 m²) site. The main building contains an assembly hall, dining area, staff room, pupil social areas, green house and classrooms over five floors for Art,English, Home Economics, Business & IM, Modern Languages, Social Subjects and Science. There are separate buildings for Technical, Physical Education (which has its own swimming pool) and mathematics which is housed in a 'temporary' annex.

Departmental facilities and equipment

Physical Education

Exercise bikes in the PE fitness room. The windows look down on the small games hall.

The PE department has a swimming pool. It also has a variety of equipment to cater for sporting activities within two games halls (used for gymnastics, circuit training, social dance, badminton, basketball, football, and indoor games such as Danish Longball) and an outside area consisting of two all-weather pitches for football and hockey, two grass rugby pitches, and spare grass areas used for football. In the PE building upstairs there is a fitness room.^[9]

interior of typical classroom

Modern Languages

French, Spanish and German are taught depending on course choices available and picked.^[10]

The school library, showing computer suite

Picture taken from grass rugby pitch shows all weather pitches (red) in background and PE block on the left.

RMPS

The Religious, Moral and Philosophical Studies department runs a chess club and a debating society which has produced finalists in the Junior English-Speaking Union Scotland debating competition and more recently semi finalists in the Law Society of Scotland Donald Dewar Memorial Competition.^[11] It also runs a novelty 'rock, paper, scissors club' every so often in place of chess/debating clubs when they cannot run.

Other

There are other activities within the school including a school magazine, which won several awards in the Scottish school magazine awards 2008,^[12] a number of school trips run by lots of departments and after school supported study groups around exam time for specific subjects.

In the news

• The Evening Times reported on a pupil beating the UK Pi memorising record (12 May 2008).^[13]
• The BBC reported on a technician being injured following an explosion in the school laboratory (23 June 2009).^[14]

Popular culture

Scottish musician Tommy Reilly,^[15] the winner of Orange unsigned act 2008, was a pupil at the school until 2007.

The school building has been used for several sketches in the second series of Burnistoun. (see Bibliography below)

Notable former alumni

• Dr Eleanor Gilroy, winner of the Peter Massalski Prize for her scientific research into potato disease.^[16]
• Don Maclean, wounded Royal Marine who took part in a 3,000 mile cycle across America for charity Help for Heroes.^[17]

References

Bibliography

• "Episode 3", Burnistoun Series 2, BBC One, Television, First Broadcast 18 Apr 2011.
• Boclair Academy School Handbook 2012-2013
• Boclair Academy Student Planner 2012-2013

External links

• Official website
• Boclair's page on Scottish Schools Online
• East Dunbartonshire Council

Coordinates: 55°54′59″N 4°18′14″W / 55.91639°N 4.30389°W / 55.91639; -4.30389