Kilmarnock Academy

Kilmarnock Academy (Scottish Gaelic: Acadamaidh Chille Mheàrnaig), formerly Kilmarnock Burgh School, is an 11–17 co-educational secondary school in Kilmarnock, Scotland, currently serving in its fourth location on Sutherland Drive in the New Farm Loch area of the town. Previous sites for Kilmarnock Academy include College Wynd, erected during the 1680s–1690s, Green Street, erected in 1752, and Elmbank Drive, erected in 1898.

The school can be traced back to the 1630s when it was established by the Kilmarnock Burgh Council as 'Kilmarnock Burgh School', making it one of the oldest schools in the United Kingdom and Scotland. The current head teacher is David Rose who was appointed in June 2015 on an acting basis, and was made permanent Head Teacher of Kilmarnock Academy (the newly formed school following merger with James Hamilton Academy) in April 2017.

Kilmarnock Academy is one of a few schools in the UK, and the first school in Scotland, to have educated several Nobel laureates: Alexander Fleming, discoverer of penicillin, and John Boyd Orr, 1st Baron Boyd-Orr, for his scientific research into nutrition and his work as the first Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Kilmarnock Academy thus matches Eton College in the number of Nobel laureate graduates.

From 1945, it was a state co-educational grammar school. It became a comprehensive school in 1968, fees having been abolished for pupils attending Kilmarnock Academy in 1945 following World War II. In 1997 Kilmarnock Academy appointed its first woman Head Teacher, Carole Ford, who served in the position from 1997–2011.

At one point, Kilmarnock Academy had provided both primary and secondary education on a fee-paying basis to Kilmarnock's school children.

Kilmarnock Academy can trace its history back to the local burgh school founded in the 1630s and the first school to bear the name was established in 1807. A Kilmarnock Academy operated from Green Street in Kilmarnock, before being relocated to Elmbank Drive to accommodate increased demand for places at the school. The first mention of a town schoolmaster in Kilmarnock came before the Scottish Parliamentary legislation which was passed in 1633 which required there to be a school in every parish in Scotland. In the early records published in 1629, there is mention of John Andersoune as the schoolmaster of Kilmarnock. Andersoune had died that year, however, the first relative clear indication of a burgh school having been established in Kilmarnock in the late sixteenth century is from the notable education Zachary Boyd. It is speculated that Kilmarnock Burgh School was situated in College Wynd in the town centre of Kilmarnock, just off Bank Street. The parish school was situated in College Wynd, behind the Laigh Kirk. The Parish School was a single-teacher school and was speculated to have been a grammar school which provide potential university entrants with the necessary skills in Latin in order to obtain a place at university. James Smith was appointed schoolmaster in 1736 which resulted in the teaching duties being split between two teachers, one which was based in the grammar (or parish) school, and the other in the newly-founded burgh school.

John Graham was the schoolmaster in the grammar school from 1763–1779. He later moved to London and was eventually hanged as result of participating in a money forgery scheme. John Duncan succeed Graham as schoolmaster and served from 1779–1797, and was credited as being the first known rector of the grammar school. William Thomson, who was appointed in 1797 as schoolmaster, was the first rector of renamed school, Kilmarnock Academy. In 1898, the school officially moved from Green Street to Elmbank Drive.

A new replacement Kilmarnock Academy opened on North Hamilton Street in August 1876, replacing the former Kilmarnock Academy on Green Street. The foundation stone for the new Kilmarnock Academy was laid on 20 November 1875, with the building designed by William Railton. The North Hamilton Street building cost £4,500 to build and was constructed by Andrew Calderwood, a local builder within Kilmarnock.