St Michael's Academy, Kilwinning

St Michael's Academy was a Roman Catholic secondary school in Kilwinning, North Ayrshire, Scotland. The secondary school served the Roman Catholic community of the towns of Irvine and Kilwinning and the villages of Beith, Kilbirnie and Dalry, which make up the Garnock Valley. Opened in Irvine in 1921, and located in Kilwinning from 1965, the school held over 800 pupils and 200 members of staff. When St Michael's closed in 2007, a staff committee compiled a history of the 86 years, a paperback which sold out of 1000 copies in six months. Most (95%) of its contents were then adapted for the web by a now-retired staff member - the link is shown below. A new school, St Matthew's Academy, was built in Saltcoats to accommodate pupils and staff from both the old St Michael's in Kilwinning and St Andrew's Academy. The new school opened in October 2007.