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Oldmachar Academy

secondary school in Aberdeen City, Scotland, UK

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 7, 2026
Entity authorityQ16931201
Source-derived summary

Oldmachar Academy is situated in Bridge of Don in the north of Aberdeen in an area of private housing. It is a six-year comprehensive, non-denominational school which opened to pupils in August 1982 (April 1983 on its present site). In 2004 it was ranked in the top 50 Secondary Schools in Scotland.

Overview

The school consists of seven blocks built to form an irregular quadrangle, with playing fields to the north of the school. The school buildings have often been a target for vandals, with 140 incidents recorded between 2016 and 2019.

The school receives Primary 7 pupils from the 5 associated Primary schools in its 'Associate Schools Group'. These schools are:

Danestone Primary School

Forehill Primary School

Glashieburn Primary School

Greenbrae Primary School

Middleton Park School

The current head teacher is Joanne Hesford, who took over in 2022 from Judith Mohammed.

The school has a capacity of 1,104 pupils. The school roll has gradually fallen over the years, with figures from Aberdeen City Council listing a roll of 852 in 2012, dropping to 656 in 2018, before being forecast to rise slightly in 2020.

The school has a tradition of promoting healthy eating among its pupils, including limiting the amount of fried food available in the canteen.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Oldmachar Academy” is secondary school in Aberdeen City, Scotland, UK. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Oldmachar, Academy and secondary, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewMost useful as a place-based finding aid connecting the present description to earlier jurisdictions, maps and built evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1982, 1983, 2004, 2016—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1982. For this dossier, Oldmachar, Academy and secondary is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “secondary school in Aberdeen City, Scotland, UK” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16931201. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1982, 1983, 2004 and 2016.

Critical limits

A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Oldmachar Academy”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Oldmachar Academy primary sources, Oldmachar Academy archive and Oldmachar research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Oldmachar Academy”?
  2. Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
  3. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Oldmachar Academy” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.