Lenzie Academy

• Name — Lenzie Academy • Native Name — Acadamaidh Lenzie (Scottish Gaelic) • Motto — Ditior Quia Doctior (Richer through learning) • Established — 1886 • Address — Myrtle Avenue, Lenzie • City — Glasgow • State — Greater Glasgow • Country — Scotland • Postal Code — G664HR • Type — Comprehensive school • Affiliations — Auchinloch Primary School Lairdsland Primary School Lenzie Meadow Primary School Millersneuk Primary School • Head Label — Head Teacher • Head — Vicki Rice • Faculty — 101 • Enrollment — 1,158 in 2017 • Grades — S1 to S6 • District — East Dunbartonshire • Yearbook — Lenzie Academy Yearbook • Website — lenzieacademy.e-dunbarton.sch.uk

The school is managed by the senior management team, composed of the Head Teacher and six Deputy Head Teachers, each in charge of a year group. In 2011–present the headteacher was Brian Paterson.

• School year — School roll — S1 intake — S2 — S3 — S4 — S5 — S6 — Placing requests — Sources • 2004/2005 — 1,431 — 236 — 258 — 256 — 250 — 242 — 189 • 2005/2006 — 1,387 — 237 — 238 — 260 — 253 — 227 — 172 — 122 • 2006/2007 — 1,380 — 235 — 237 — 240 — 262 — 242 — 164 • 2007/2008 — 1,362 — 239 — 232 — 240 — 236 — 244 — 171 • 2008/2009 — 1,358 — 238 — 238 — 238 — 242 — 215 — 187 • 2009/2010 — 1,334 — 235 — 237 — 238 — 233 — 217 — 174 — 109 • 2010/2011 — 1,321 — 204 — 232 — 229 — 235 — 221 — 200 — 92 • 2011/2012 — 1,296 — 103 • 2012/2013 — 1,269 — 220 — 212 — 212 — 232 — 204 — 189 — 102 • 2013/2014 — 1,238 • 2014/2015 — 1,231 • 2015/2016 • 2016/2017 — 1,167 — 184 — 217 — 191 — 190 — 222 — 163 • 2017/2018 — 1,158 — 199 — 186 — 216 — 191 — 175 — 191

Eight pupils who smoked cannabis on a school trip to Alton Towers were suspended for a fortnight following a disciplinary hearing at the school in June 1998.

An investigation by East Dunbartonshire Council started on 4 June 2020 after Lenzie Academy's physics department account published a tweet which reportedly mocked the Take the Knee campaign. The campaign had taken off after the murder of George Floyd a week previously in the USA. The tweet, which has since been deleted along with the account itself, stated: "#TaketheKnee? Aye you can f*** right off". The council confirmed that they had reported the incident to the police. The local MP, Amy Callaghan, said that she had contacted the council and the school headmaster about the tweet, and that she had also heard from students of the school about their experience of racism.

The school has also received continuing attention for problems with gangs/bullying as well as knife crime. In 2016, a boy aged 14 years old was reported to the police after a knife incident at the school. The suicide of Nicola Ann Raphael, a pupil at Lenzie Academy, in 2001 was heavily covered in local and national press and came after Raphael had suffered years of bullying.

Lenzie Academy has had eleven head teachers. For 125 years until 2011, the head teacher was referred to as Rector. • Head Teacher — Start of office — End of office — Duration (years) — Comments — Sources • Alexander Buchanan M.A. — 1886 — 1919 — 33 — First head • Peter Dawson — 1919 — 1923 — 4 — Second head • George Murray — 1923 — 1935 — 12 — Third head • Charles Farquharson — 1935 — 1946 — 11 — Fourth head • John Kerr — 1946 — 1950 — 4 — Fifth head • George Young — 1950 — 1965 — 15 — Sixth head • James Hamilton — 1965 — 1977 — 12 — Seventh head • Colin M. Brown — 1978 — 1997 — 19 — Eighth Head • Roderick J. McLelland — 1997 — 2011 — 14 — Ninth to hold the role. He entered early retirement on Friday, 24 June 2011, after being in the position since May 1997, and Dr James R Melrose was acting head until the replacement was appointed. — | • Brian Paterson — 2011 — 2026 — 15 — Tenth head teacher and first to dispense with the term "rector". He was appointed and took up his post in September 2011 after serving as Head Teacher of the now closed Abronhill High School in nearby Cumbernauld. Retired August 2026. — | • Vicki Rice — 2026 — Eleventh Head Teacher. Former Acting HT and DHT at Stonelaw High School.

In 2014, the school was ranked 13th in STV's league table of Scottish state schools. This builds upon the 19th position achieved in 2013 and the 16th position achieved in 2012 based on the percentage of pupils obtaining five or more Highers at bands A-C.

The most recently reported school roll is 1296, taught by a teaching staff of 101. The S1 intake cap is 240, based on an average annual first year intake of eight classes of approximately thirty pupils each, mostly coming from four associated primary schools, namely Auchinloch, Millersneuk, Lairdsland and Lenzie Meadow Primary. Approximately 40% of the total roll is from outside the catchment area, attending as placing requests. The S1 rolls have slightly reduced in recent years, and in early 2012, the reported 2012/2013 intake was 226 pupils, consisting of 125 from the zoned area and 101 through placing requests. The total school roll has been falling every year for the last 8 years, with the 2011/2012 figure being 25 pupils lower than the previous year's 1321 pupils.

The current red brick Academy building was built in 1960, and extensions have been added over the years. The original school building dating from when the Academy was founded in 1886 has since served as Lenzie Primary school. More than 110 years after opening, the school admitted its first physically disabled student in 1996, which meant the school had to install a lift and ramps to make the whole building accessible.