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St Andrew's Academy first opened on 26th August 1971. It occupied the buildings of the former Saltcoats Secondary school in Jacks Road; existing secondary pupils who had been at St Peter's school were joined by a comprehensive first year intake, and the school was due to expand to become a full 11-18 Roman Catholic comprhensive secondary serving the Three Towns area.

Here's a picture of some of the pupils on the first day :
In his opening address to staff and pupils, the rector Mr Thomas Finn said that in the future there would be no selection as there had been in the past, with pupils going on to St Michael's Academy or St Peter's Junior Secondary. From now on all Roman Catholic pupils from the Saltcoats area would go to St Andrew's. He paid tribute to the work done in the past by St Michael's and St Peter's. " It is your task to improve on their record ", he told the pupils.

" Here at St Andrew's Academy we are gathering together a very good enthusiastic staff and I am confident we can provide a full range of courses. As far as equipment is concerned the education committee has been very generous but unfortunately we are still awaiting delivery of many items.

" This building, which can be termed St Andrew's Academy Phase one, is beautifully situated, structurally sound, and has many pleasing features. It is also adequate to our present needs. Test borings have already been taken for Phase two, which when it is completed will make this school the equal of any in the county. "

Extension of the school duly proceeded , and St Andrew's Academy continued to serve the Three Towns until its replacement by the new St Matthew's Academy built on neighbouring ground at Jacks Road in the past couple of years.

Susan

Thanks for this..... I recognise 5 people in it, one of them is my sister.

SolcotsSue wrote:Thanks for this..... I recognise 5 people in it, one of them is my sister.

Which one is it Sue? Can you put names to faces for the others? Welcome aboard by the way.

Meg

I'm counting 16 heads....from left to right no matter who's at back or front....hope you get my meaning...

No 1 ........? Moriarty from Saltcoats (sorry forget her first name)
No 2 Margaret Hedger from Ardrossan...she had a sister called Jane.
No 6 Elaine Gough (spelling?) from Saltcoats
No 7 Alexis Higgins (my sister)
No 9 Carol Cunninghame (spelling?) from Saltcoats
No 12 Maria Todd from Saltcoats (it may be Marie)

Alexis was in my class at st andrews and also your cousin deirdre was in my class at st marys.I must say that I preferred st peters to st andrews, though we only did a year at st peters

linda

That's my big sister Margaret second from the left. Oh she has never changed. lOl

was the 26th August 1971 when the school had the ribbon cut or a plaque on the wall or was there a different date for that would anyone know can they let me know please.

Or was it not official opened because they had used an odler building from teh 1960s i wonder

boots1 wrote:was the 26th August 1971 when the school had the ribbon cut or a plaque on the wall or was there a different date for that would anyone know can they let me know please.

Or was it not official opened because they had used an odler building from teh 1960s i wonder

There was no fancy opening day whatsoever, nor was there ever, to my knowledge anyway, any sort of ceremony at a later date.

You're correct, it wasn't a brand new school.

I'm pretty sure it was formerly Saltcoats Public before becoming St Andrew's in 1971.

It was simply a case of lining up, and into the school.

True story.....one boy (now living in Canada) didn't line up quick enough that morning for a
new teacher barking the order and who'd just newly arrived from St Michael's to take up a new post at St Andrew's.

The boy in question was belted by this would-be hard man in front of all the pupils.

Obviously, it was a clear 'don't mess with me, or this is what you'll get' message to the assembled pupils.

This meant that boy was belted about 8.58am, BEFORE the school actually officially opened.

It's safe to say, if the lad in question was asked about his first day at St Andrew's, visions of ribbons or plaques would be very far from his mind. Guaranteed his thoughts would be of a quarter inch of leather slamming into his hands at an alarming rate.

This guy who did that was a truly horrible indivdual, and was thoroughly disliked by everyone.

To this day, I have absolutely no time for this bully who I see now and again still cutting about TTTs. :x

the incident must be about time barred now, so how about giving us the teachers name?

wellparkno9 wrote:the incident must be about time barred now, so how about giving us the teachers name?

Nice try wellparkno9, but I won't name names on here.

The teacher I mentioned in my last post had a rival in the abusive department too.

This other one took great delight in telling pupils who he deemed to be misbehaving, so therefore deserving of a severe doing, by taking 13, 14 & 15 year old boys into walk-in cupboards and literally punching lumps out of them, after the rest of the class had moved out of the room, of course. No witnesses you see.

These two "teachers" were the type who gave the teaching profession a bad name.

Thankfully, I never had these pair, but I know for certain the stories are entirely true.

However, I have to say, the rest of the teachers at St Andrew's were very good , and I really enjoyed my time there.

Incidentally, both these characters have been mentioned on this message-board in other threads

Would the above 'thug' be vertically challenged and not from St Michael's ?

There was no fancy opening day whatsoever, nor was there ever, to my knowledge, anyway, any sort of ceremony at a later
I'm pretty sure it was formerly Saltcoats Public before becoming St Andrew's in 1971.
It was simply a case of lining up, and into the school.
True story.....one boy (now living in Canada) didn't line up quick enough that morning for a
new teacher barking the order and who'd just newly arrived from St Michael's to take up a new post at St Andrew's.
The boy in question was belted by this would-be hard man in front of all the pupils.
Obviously, it was a clear 'don't mess with me, or this is what you'll get' message to the assembled pupils.
This meant that boy was belted about 8.58am, BEFORE the school actually officially opened.


This guy who did that was a truly horrible indivdual, and was thoroughly disliked by everyone.

I'm pretty sure I know who the teacher was. But theres no point now naming names.

By the way. being there that morning, I don't remember this event. But if it was, who I think it was, it would have been typical of him!