Ardrossan Academy is a Scottish

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

, opened in October 1882, serving

Ardrossan Ardrossan (; ) is a town on the North Ayrshire coast in southwestern Scotland. The town has a population of 10,670 and forms part of a conurbation with Saltcoats and Stevenston known as the 'Three Towns#Scotland, Three Towns'. Ardrossan is loca ...

, with pupils also coming from nearby

Saltcoats Saltcoats (; Scots: ''Saulcuts'') is a town on the west coast of North Ayrshire, Scotland. The name is derived from the town's earliest industry when salt was harvested from the sea water of the Firth of Clyde, carried out in small cottages ...

West Kilbride West Kilbride () is a village and historic parish in North Ayrshire, Scotland, on the west coast by the Firth of Clyde, looking across the Firth of Clyde to Goat Fell and the Isle of Arran. West Kilbride and adjoining districts of Seamill and P ...

, Seamill, Fairlie,

Largs Largs () is a town on the Firth of Clyde in North Ayrshire, Scotland, about from Glasgow. The original name means "the slopes" (''An Leargaidh'') in Scottish Gaelic. A popular seaside resort with a pier, the town markets itself on its histor ...

and other areas.

Notable alumni

* June Andrews, nursing expert, director of

NHS Scotland NHS Scotland, sometimes styled NHSScotland, is the publicly–funded healthcare system in Scotland and one of the four systems that make up the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. It operates 14 territorial NHS boards across Scotland ...

Centre for Change and Innovation, professor of dementia studies at

University of Stirling The University of Stirling (abbreviated as Stir or Shruiglea, in post-nominals; ) is a public university in Stirling, Scotland, founded by a royal charter in 1967. It is located in the Central Belt of Scotland, built within the walled Airth ...

* Tom Black, cricketer * Peter Duncan, MP, chairman of the

Scottish Conservative Party The Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party (), known as Scottish Tories, is part of the UK Conservative Party active in Scotland. It currently holds 5 of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons, 30 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Par ...

* Sir William Barr McKinnon Duncan, chief executive of Rolls-Royce *

Janice Galloway Janice Galloway FRSL (born 1955 in Saltcoats, Scotland) is a Scottish writer of novels, short stories, prose-poetry, non-fiction and libretti. In 2023, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Biography She is the second d ...

, writer ( ''The Trick is to Keep Breathing'', etc.) * William Hilton, MP, trade unionist, director general of the Federation of Master Builders * Roy Howat, internationally renowned French music scholar and performer * Gordon Jackson QC, former MSP, lawyer"North Ayrshire Council: Schools by region A-Z"
''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...

'', 22 April 2008. *

Edith MacArthur Edith MacArthur (8 March 1926 – 25 April 2018) was a Scottish actress noted for her elegant screen presence. Early life MacArthur was born in Ardrossan, North Ayrshire, the daughter of Donald MacArthur and Minnie Ross MacArthur. She studi ...

, actress *

Iain McNicol Iain Mackenzie McNicol, Baron McNicol of West Kilbride (born 17 August 1969) is a British politician, trade unionist and life peer who served as General Secretary of the Labour Party from 2011 to 2018. He was National Political Officer of the ...

, General Secretary, Labour Party

Notable staff

* John Watt Butters (1863–1946), mathematician, was Rector 1899–1928 * John Aitkenhead, teacher, co-founder of Kilquhanity School * Morag Aitkenhead (Robina Roy MacKinnon), teacher, co-founder of Kilquhanity School"Morag Aitkenhead"
''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'', 18 October 2007.

References

External links

*
Former official website
(still useful for its archives) {{authority control Secondary schools in North Ayrshire Educational institutions established in 1882 1882 establishments in Scotland Ardrossan−Saltcoats−Stevenston