Scotland's education system was established way back in the Middle Ages when sons of barons and rich freeholders could send their children to Church choir schools or grammar schools. After the Reformation, these Choir schools lost out to the formation of Parish schools and by the 17th century legislation was passed creating schools in every parish, with local landowners being responsible for providing a school house and paying for a schoolmaster. Education was still basic, short and not compulsory. Sunday schools were established in the 19th century, but attending school was only made compulsory in 1846 and only compulsory between the ages of 5 and 13. Subsequently the leaving age was raised to 14 in 1901, then left untouched until it was raised to 16 in 1973.
So can we find records of school attendance of our ancestors anywhere? Although the first census in Scotland took place in 1841, school attendance was not recorded until the next census in 1851.
In the 1851 census, I found evidence of my 2 x great grandparents, William Johnston and Anne Boston, sending their children to school. Their son William at age 11 is listed as a stonebreaker, like his father, but he is attending Sunday School (Sabbath Scholar) and his younger brother Thomas at age 8 is recorded as both a Day Scholar and a Sabbath Scholar. Their elder brother, James, at 14 was 'too old' for school and was already apprenticed to his father.
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There was not that much change in the generation after that, that of my parents. As far as schools were concerned, after primary school you either went to the 'high school' if you were deemed 'clever enough' or you went to the other less academic secondary school, where you would leave at age 14 to enter the world of work. My mum, from a working class family, thus went to Wishaw Central and not Wishaw High. After leaving school at age 14, she worked in various local shops - a greengrocer's, a baker's - until she got married and then she had to give up her job. My dad, on the other hand, despite coming from an equally working class mining family, did attend Bellshill High School and went on to study at Glasgow University, before leaving to become a civil engineer.
My sister stayed on at school until she was 15. She attended Wishaw Public Primary School and then Wishaw High. Our dad's job then took us south to Newcastle upon Tyne, where she attended Heaton High School until she left aged 15 to go to Newcastle College of Commerce.
Being 13 years younger than her, I started my schooldays in Newcastle, attending Cragside Primary, before moving back up to Wishaw, where I attended Wishaw Academy.
By the time I went to high school, my mum's old school (Wishaw Central) was being demolished and the high schools in the area were in a bit of flux. So I ended up spending my first year and a half at Coltness High, before the new high school, Garrion Academy, opened.
I remember my school days quite fondly. I remember my first day going to visit the school in Newcastle, where we were given orange juice in small bottles and allowed to play with a sandpit! I remember too, the stories of Greek and Roman heroes we were told.
When we moved back to Wishaw, my first teacher's name was Mrs Gowans. I thought she was about 90! She had actually taught my sister many years before, but I guess she was probably in her 50s. She used to refer to us as 'Room 7 Circus', so I guess we were not all that well behaved. She, like all of the teachers in those days, kept discipline by way of the belt. I must confess to having had the belt many a time - usually for talking too much in class! Yet I remember my mum and dad telling me that the teachers they had had were far stricter than mine.
I enjoyed high school too - I liked learning French and German, and to be honest, I was good at everything except for art and 'homecraft', so that helped. I didn't get the belt in high school, but I did get sent to the headteacher for refusing to hand in a punishment exercise for something I believed I hadn't done :)
I spent a lot of time in the music department and down in the PE block doing various sporting activities. We were very fortunate having great PE teachers and brand new facilities, including a swimming pool. I got on well with my teachers too, so I guess I was very lucky.
I doubt if my ancestors had such a positive experience of their schooldays, if indeed they were fortunate enough to go to school.
And, as fate would have it, I eventually ended up back at Coltness High as a teacher! So, apart from a little break to go to university, my schooldays ended up lasting 35 years!!
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