Hazlehead Academy ''(''

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...

: ''Àrd-Sgoil Cheann Challtain''), formerly known as Central School then Aberdeen Academy, is a comprehensive

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 ...

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

, Scotland. It has five main feeder primary schools, Airyhall Primary School, Fernielea Primary School, Hazlehead Primary School, Kingsford Primary School and Countesswells Primary School – in addition to this, pupils who have been part of a Gaelic unit at Aberdeen's Gilcomstoun Primary School can transfer to the school, which offers Gaelic as part of the curriculum.

History

Hazlehead Academy is a six-year comprehensive school on the western edges of Aberdeen, adjacent to

Hazlehead Park Hazlehead Park is a public park in the Hazlehead, Aberdeen, Hazlehead area of Aberdeen, Scotland. 180 hectares in size, it was opened to the public in 1920, having formerly been the estate of Hazlehead House, home of William Rose, shipbuilder. I ...

. It has a history stretching back for over 100 years. In 1901, Aberdeen School Board built Central School on the corner of Schoolhill and Belmont Street, on a site now occupied by a shopping centre named The Academy. In 1954, the school was renamed Aberdeen Academy. When the school closed, the pupils were moved to the new Hazlehead Academy. Hazlehead Academy was officially opened by Queen

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

on 7 October 1970. Plans were laid towards the end of the 1950s. The education committee at the time had under consideration the reorganisation of the existing Secondary provision of 3 Senior Secondary schools and a number of Junior Secondary schools into 10 co-educational comprehensives. Hazlehead Academy would become one of these senior secondaries and then a comprehensive school. The current head teacher is Jim Purdie who took up post in August 2016. The school roll is around 1,100 pupils. In 2012, the school was selected as the Aberdeen base for the

Scottish Football Association The Scottish Football Association (; also known as the Scottish FA and the SFA) is the governing body of football in Scotland and has the ultimate responsibility for the control and development of football in Scotland. Members of the SFA incl ...

's Performance Schools, a system devised to support the development of the best young talented footballers across the country. There are seven such schools across Scotland.

Notable former pupils

* Stuart Armstrong: professional footballer, currently playing for Southampton F.C. * Fraser Fyvie: professional footballer, currently playing for Cove Rangers F.C. * Lee Mair: professional footballer, notably formerly of

Aberdeen F.C. Aberdeen Football Club is a Scottish professional Association football, football club based in Aberdeen, Scotland. They compete in the and have List of unrelegated association football clubs, never been relegated from the top division of th ...

and St Mirren F.C. *

Derek Rae Derek Rae (born 9 April 1967) is a Scottish association football commentator and presenter. He currently works for ESPN and ABC in the United States for the English-language coverages of Bundesliga, DFB Pokal, and La Liga and Deutsche Fußball ...

: football commentator, currently working for

BT Sport TNT Sports (formerly BT Sport) is a group of pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Now owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe, Warner Bros. Discovery and BT Group, they first launched as B ...

and

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

* David Rowson: professional footballer, notably formerly of

and Partick Thistle F.C. * Hugh Robertson: professional footballer, notably formerly of Ross County F.C. and Hartlepool United F.C. *

Neale Cooper Neale James Cooper (24 November 1963 – 28 May 2018) was a Scottish football player and coach. He played as a midfielder during the 1980s and 1990s, most prominently for the Aberdeen team managed by Alex Ferguson, and later played for Aston V ...

: professional footballer, notably of

and former manager of Hartlepool United F.C. *

Rachel Corsie Rachel Louise Corsie (born 17 August 1989) is a Scottish professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Defender (association football), defender. She is the captain of the Scotland women's national football team, Scotland national ...

: professional footballer, currently playing for

Utah Royals FC The Utah Royals (formerly Utah Royals FC) are an American professional soccer team based in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Established on November 16, 2017, as an expansion team, ...

and Scotland women's national football team * Laura Main: singer and actress. Star of BBC One's drama ''

Call the Midwife ''Call the Midwife'' is a British period drama television series about a group of nurse midwives working in the East End of London in the late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. The principal cast of the show has included Jessica Raine, Miranda Hart, ...

'' * Richie Ramsay: professional golfer and former champion of

U.S. Amateur The United States Amateur Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Amateur, is the leading annual golf tournament in the United States for amateur golfers. It is organized by the United States Golf Association and is currently held each August ov ...

References

External links

* {{authority control Secondary schools in Aberdeen Educational institutions established in 1963 1963 establishments in Scotland Youth football in Scotland