Established 1893 Rector Bryan Paterson Ages 11–18 Founded 1893 | Religion Non denominational Gender Mixed Phone +44 131 478 5050 Number of students 811 | |
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Location Craighall Avenue
Edinburgh
EH6 4RT
Scotland Address Craighall Ave, Edinburgh EH6 4RT, UK Similar Broughton High School, Borough High School, The Royal High School, Holy Rood High School, Leith Academy Profiles | ||
Trinity Academy is a state-run secondary school in the north of Edinburgh, Scotland. It is located on the border between Trinity and Leith, next to Victoria Park, and a short distance from the banks of the Firth of Forth at Newhaven.
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Admissions
Trinity Academy was formerly a Grammar school, prior to the abolition of the selective 11‑plus exam, which was normally taken in Primary 7 at age 12 years. It is fed from three main primary schools; Trinity Primary (which is immediately adjacent), Victoria Primary in Newhaven, and Wardie Primary in Wardie. The school colours are black and yellow.
Craighall Road School
On 4 September 1893, Craighall Road School was opened with Thomas Trotter, formerly of North Fort Street, as Rector. With a frontage deemed ‘of a superior kind to most other schools’ it had cost £18,850 and five shillings, (excluding the purchase of the land from the Laird of Bonnington, James Clerk-Rattray) and had electric bells and voice tubes connecting the Rector's room to the classes and gas lamps throughout.
The formal opening was carried out by Flora Stevenson on 1 February 1894. The Board intended making all the elementary departments fee-paying, waiving fees only for the secondary, but a dissenting member wanted free education and complained to the Scottish Office. He pointed to friction at Leith Academy, with those paying fees looking down on those who did not. The majority prevailed and fees were paid at Trinity until the comprehensive schooling debate, three-quarters of a century later.
Trinity Academy
In 1895 the first 127 pupils were presented for Leaving Certificates in Mathematics, Arithmetic, English, French – 81 successfully. In 1901 the school became Trinity Academy under the new Rector, Thomas Duncan. The Great War claimed seventy-one former pupils and two teachers out of some three hundred who served.
The school operates a house system and the three houses are Arran, Skye and Orkney.
Second World War
Plans for a new block were again on the drawing board when the Second World War broke out. Many pupils were evacuated to Macduff on the Moray Firth until normal classes resumed in 1941. The following year Dr Albert Weir became Rector. In this war Trinity lost sixty-two former pupils.
Post-war landmarks during the rectorship of Alexander Neill between 1953 and 1969 were the completion of the new secondary block in March 1962 and the removal of the primary school from the huts at Bangholm to the new school on Newhaven Road in January 1968.
Trinity’s sixth rector, William Brodie, arrived in 1969 at a time when educational tides were turning, fees were being phased out, and the days of selective schooling in the public sector were numbered.
Comprehensive
In September 1974, Trinity Academy merged with David Kilpatrick’s to become a fully comprehensive secondary serving North and West Leith, Newhaven and Trinity. There was a split site, first with the David Kilpatrick building and then, after 1981, with the Holy Cross annexes. Declining school rolls across the city led to the possibility of closure of the school or of merger with Leith Academy.
Rugby
Trinity Academy's first XV rugby team won Rugby World Team of the Month in November 2005 after an unbeaten run including away wins at Heriots, Glenalmond and Hutchison Grammar School.