School Chooser

Harlaw Academy

Secondary · ages 11-18MixedCouncilNon-denominational1,174 pupilsAberdeenAberdeen City
School Chooser ScoreNot scoredScotland doesn't publish results or inspection grades for individual schools, so we can't give its schools a score. Pupil numbers, free school meals, extra support, staffing and class sizes are below.
Pupils registered for free school meals24%P6 and above; Scotland 20%
Pupils getting extra support49%Scotland 50%
Pupils per teacher13.1Scotland 12.1
Pupils from the poorest fifth of areas6%Scotland 21%
Pupils on roll1,174Census September 2025
NeighbourhoodAmong the wealthiest areasScottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2020

Harlaw Academy is a council school in Aberdeen for boys and girls aged 11 to 18. It has 1,174 pupils. About 24 in every 100 pupils come from a low-income family, about the same as most schools in Scotland.

18/20 Albyn Place, Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB10 1RG01224 589251harlawacademy.aberdeen.sch.ukAll details

Inspection

Schools in Scotland are inspected by HM Inspectorate of Education. Its reports grade a few areas on a scale from excellent to unsatisfactory, but the grades aren't published as a list we can use.

Results

Scotland publishes no school-level exam results as open data.

Leaver attainment and destinations for individual schools appear only on the Scottish Government's School Information Dashboard, which cannot be reproduced here. Open the dashboard and search for Harlaw Academy.

Getting a place

Catchment area

Aberdeen City council has drawn an official catchment area for this school. You can see it on the map below; it covers about 8.8 square kilometres. If you live inside it, your child has the right to a place here. Families outside it can ask for a place (a placing request), which is only given if there is room.

Set your home postcode at the top of the page to see whether you live inside it.

There is no entrance test. Every address in Scotland has a catchment primary and secondary school. If you want a different school, you ask the council for a place there (a placing request).

You apply through Aberdeen City council, not the school.

Who goes here

Who the school teaches, from the latest school census.

Pupils on roll1,174Census September 2025
Pupils registered for free school meals24%P6 and above. Every P1 to P5 pupil gets a free meal in Scotland
Pupils getting extra support49%Additional support needs
Pupils learning English15%First language is not English
Pupils from the poorest fifth of areas6%Scotland 21%
Pupils from the wealthiest fifth of areas32%Scotland 17%
NeighbourhoodAmong the wealthiest areasIf Scotland's neighbourhoods were split into ten groups from poorest to wealthiest, this one is in group 10 (Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2020)
By stage
Pupils in each year, 2025/26
Year groups up to S4 are about the same size. Pupils can leave after S4, so S5 and S6 are smaller.
227S1
232S2
207S3
207S4
171S5
130S6
Trend
Pupils on roll
2022 to 2026
2022: 1,0011,00120222023: 1,0191,01920232024: 1,0751,07520242025: 1,1611,16120252026: 1,1741,1742026
Since 2022: +173
How the school has changed
Year2025/262024/252023/242022/232021/222020/212019/20
Pupils on roll1,1741,1611,0751,0191,001
Pupils from low-income familiesFree school meals23.7%14.0%19.2%18.4%
Pupils getting extra supportAdditional support needs (ASN)48.6%56.7%56.5%52.9%51.1%
Pupils learning EnglishEnglish as an additional language14.7%21.4%21.3%19.4%
Pupils per teacherPupil to teacher ratio13.113.113.112.412.814.212.4

Staff

From the pupil and teacher census of September 2025.

Teachers89.8full-time equivalent
Pupils per teacher13.1Scotland 12.1

Nearby schools

The closest secondary schools, nearest first. Hover over a row to see it on the map.

Well aboveAboveIn lineBelowWell belowNot scored
SchoolTypeDistancePupilsOfstedScore
Aberdeen Grammar SchoolCouncil510 m1,369HMIE, no open dataCompare
St Machar AcademyCouncil1.7 miles1,032HMIE, no open dataCompare
Northfield AcademyCouncil1.8 miles746HMIE, no open dataCompare
Hazlehead AcademyCouncil2.3 miles1,077HMIE, no open dataCompare
Lochside AcademyCouncil2.8 miles1,205HMIE, no open dataCompare
Bridge Of Don AcademyCouncil3.0 miles810HMIE, no open dataCompare
Cults AcademyCouncil3.3 miles1,346HMIE, no open dataCompare
Oldmachar AcademyCouncil3.4 miles992HMIE, no open dataCompare

Questions parents ask

Is Harlaw Academy a good school?

We don't have enough published data to score Harlaw Academy yet. Scotland doesn't publish results or inspection grades for individual schools.

How many pupils does Harlaw Academy have?

1,174 pupils aged 11 to 18 were on the roll in September 2025.

These answers come straight from the figures on this page and update when new data comes out.

Contact and details

Address
18/20 Albyn Place, Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB10 1RG
Telephone
01224 589251
Website
www.harlawacademy.aberdeen.sch.uk
Type of school
Council school (Local authority school, local authority maintained schools)
Phase
Secondary school, ages 11-18
Gender
Mixed
Religious character
Non-denominational
Local authority
Aberdeen City
Setting
Large urban areas
SEED code
5243238
Medium of education
English medium only
Email
[email protected]

Where these figures come from