St Margaret's Academy
St Margaret's Academy in Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland is a Catholic secondary school.
The school serves Broxburn, East Calder and the areas of Livingston:Eliburn, Deans, Howden, Craigshill, Dedridge, Ladywell, Livingston Village and Knightsridge. It opened officially in 1994 as the successor to Saint Mary's Academy in Bathgate and Our Lady's High School, Broxburn. In 1993 both schools, as two different entities, changed their name and uniform to Saint Margaret's. The school is set in the Howden area of Livingston in a prominent site near the town centre. There are plans to extend the school and the school roll will rise to over 1300 pupils. St Margaret's Academy received a very good Inspection report in 2008. The attainment of pupils and the school's ethos and leadership were highlighted. St Margaret's Academy is also the high school attended by footballers Scott Arfield (Falkirk), Mark Burchill (Kilmarnock), Danny Wilson (Rangers), figure-skater John Alastair Kerr and international reject Chubbe Anucha
The associated primary schools are St John Ogilvie Primary School, St Ninian's Primary and St Andrew's Primary in Livingston, St Paul's Primary, East Calder, St Nicholas' Primary, Broxburn and Holy Family Primary in Winchburgh.
The current headteacher is Mr James Cameron.
Capacity Roll : 990 Current Roll : 1050
Pupil Council
Each class in the school has one or two class representative(s) and two year representatives in the Pupil Council. To become a member of the Pupil Council each has a Class has an Election. Candidates give speeches to their class about what they plan to do if elected to be the pupil council class representative. After all the class reps have been decided, they all run to be the year rep. Members of each Year Council can stand for election to the whole school Pupil Council. In every three or so weeks all the class reps in each year meet and discuss their year. On average throughout a pupil's time in St Margaret's they get a chance to become a Pupil Council candidate three times. The school also has an elected Head Boy and Head Girl and their Deputes who are nominated by S6 students and voted upon by S5 and S6 students and staff.
Houses
St Margaret's introduced a House system in 2008. There are 4 Houses for First to Fourth Years, Aidan, Columba, Loretto and Sinclair. Therere is a Senior House for Fifth and Sixth Years.
Choosing Subjects
In first year pupils get a mixture of subjects. At the end of this year pupils choose a small number of subjects such as a Social Subject (Modern Studies, History or Geography), picking between Art, Music and Drama and choosing either CDT (Craft Design Technology), Health and Technology (Home Economics) or IT. When approaching third year pupils decide on all their subjects for S3 and S4 usually depending on the career they plan to do when they leave school. The same is done for fifth and sixth years.