Moray House Training College in the Cannongate, Edinburgh

The roots of teacher training in Scotland can be traced back to the early 1800s. While Scotland as a whole was benefiting from a general increase in wealth from increased international trade and industrialization, poverty in the cities was extensive and the number of schools and the number of teachers had not kept pace with the increase in population. Edinburgh, for example, was plagued by organized gangs of youths. The problem came to a head at the Hogmanay celebrations in 1811 when the gangs carried out widespread assaults, robberies and murder across the city. Sixty-eight youths were arrested, 3 were hanged in the High Street and a number transported. Church Ministers met to consider ways in which the root causes of this rioting could be addressed. Their solution was to arrange for the wider provision of education, particularly religious education, for the poor.

Sunday schools were established in every parish in the city with the necessary teachers appointed and paid. However, the real problem was the lack of elementary schools in the city. Consequently, Edinburgh’s churches agreed that, as a start, one sessional school should be established to which they could all send a number of their parish children. The emphasis was to be on reading, writing and counting. Since there were a large number of children attending this school, and since they had only one schoolmaster, the school was organized under a monitorial system through which older and more able students were given the role of a monitor and, after themselves having received instruction from the school master, they in turn would instruct the children. Initially, monitors worked with students in groups of 10, but later those groups were expanded to 30. While the monitorial education was inexpensive, the education that was provided was regimented and mechanical.

In 1824, Edinburgh's sessional school moved to a facility on Market Street that consisted of a single classroom measuring 83 feet by 35 feet. Students were drawn from the poorest families in Edinburgh. At its worst, the school handled 601 students in this single room.

During this period, Scotland had no requirement that teachers had to have formal professional training. Some schools required their teachers to have a master’s degree, or at least some evidence of having attended one of Scotland’s four ancient universities, but many schools had to appoint teachers who had few qualifications. The Church of Scotland's Education Committee recognized that there was a need for teachers to not only understand the subject they taught, but they should also have training in the actual business of teaching. The committee arranged with the Edinburgh sessional school for teachers bound for remote school to undertake a course of observation and practice at the Market Street school. The Edinburgh Sessional School's role as a model school had begun.

By the 1830s, a more formal training programme had been developed. This comprised daily instruction in the subjects to be taught and practice in the art of teaching by serving as monitors under the guidance of the schoolmaster. After a period, usually no longer than six months, those who were considered proficient were awarded a diploma. It was further agreed that all teachers appointed to Church of Scotland schools should receive such training. A training department was introduced at the Market Street Sessional School and it became the General Assembly’s Normal Seminary in Edinburgh. In 1837, the school was renamed the Normal and Sessional School of Edinburgh. It had some 300 pupils and in 1840 its associated teacher training centre (Normal School) had over 50 students passing through it. The Market Street site became too small and a new school was built at Johnston Terrace close by the Castle. In 1848, the school was once again relocated to the Moray House (see image above) located in the Cannongate (Old Edinburgh). This was to be the start of over 150 years of teacher training based at Moray House.

The Moray House building was an aristocratic mansion built in 1618. It is one of the few remaining original aristocratic houses built in the Cannongate in the 16th and 17th centuries. The current Old Moray House, developed from a group of three buildings of different ages, originally grouped around a small courtyard. The earliest building was Mary, Countess of Home’s 1618 mansion. The Regent’s House to the east followed, probably before 1647. Finally the New House was built to the south in 1755.

The Edinburgh Normal and Sessional School followed the pattern of the time with a large model school and an associated Normal School for those students training as teachers. The student teachers were usually personally recommended and certificated by a local minister. The school was co-educational, although at first the majority of student teachers were men. A diploma was awarded after a minimum of one year’s attendance and students had to pass an examination conducted by members of the church’s Education Committee. Moray House’s first diplomas were awarded in 1850. However, this arrangement was later replaced by examinations and certificates organized by the government.

As part of the government's increasing role in teacher training, a national pupil - teacher scheme was introduced in 1846. Parish schools could select promising thirteen year old students who they felt could undertake an apprenticeship of up to five years duration. During the day, they followed the school’s curriculum and then they received additional instruction outside school hours on the art of teaching from staff appointed for this purpose. The most able students, selected through a competitive examination, were awarded a Queen’s Scholarship. Successful male students were awarded a grant of £25 and female students two thirds of this. These grants supported their maintenance at the Normal School. At the end of their course of studies, the students would take an examination in both general and professional subjects that was conducted by Her Majesty’s Inspectors. The achievement of a Leaving Certificate carried with it an enhanced salary funded by the government. This pupil-teacher scheme was an improvement on the previous monitorial model since it guaranteed a minimum level of personal knowledge and the achievement of recognized teaching skills. Certificated teachers were sent out to work able to organize and teach the large number of children in the schools. In 1850, the Moray House diploma was based on satisfactory completion of: Attendance, attention to studies, religious knowledge, reading, spelling, grammar and composition, geography, history, penmanship, arithmetic, French, vocal music, drawing, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, skill in teaching, and general conduct.

In 1858, Scotland's Normal School regular curriculum was extended to two years, upon which time students received a leaving certificate. To qualify for their diploma, students had to undertake a further two years of work teaching in a school. This new system of teacher training began to have a major effect on Scottish education. Newly qualified and certificated teachers were sought after and reasonably well paid. Their training gave them a wider knowledge than many parish school teachers and this in turn enabled them to teach a broader curriculum to children. The link with the churches was also lessening with increased government funding and the abolition of the need for teachers to sign the Confession of Faith.

The 1872 Education Act marked a watershed in Scottish education. For the first time elementary education was made compulsory for all children aged between 5 and 13. The existing parish and burgh schools were taken over by the state and managed by locally elected School Boards. The new system was co-ordinated nationally by the Scotland Education Department with the curriculum emphasizing the teaching of reading, writing, and arithmetic. The churches made a crucial contribution to the new system by handing over their schools without charge to the School Boards.

Whilst the Act did not deal directly with teacher training, it had an immediate effect. The new School Boards had confidence in the teacher training institutions like the Moray House Training College, (now its official title) but there was an urgent need for more trained, certificated teachers. By 1876, the training colleges had responded by increasing the number of students to over 1000. At Moray House, a new Training Department facility was opened in session 1878/9. The main floor of this building had four classrooms and the upper floor included a large Hall. There were later additions for Art and Science including a model kitchen for practicing cookery lessons. The curriculum of the training colleges was extended and remained exceptionally demanding. Criticism lessons were a central feature with each student giving several such lessons in the session commented on by the Rector and other members of staff.

There's much more history on the Moray House which you can read by going to the website cited in the Sources below. In 1998, Moray House was merged with the University of Edinburgh. It continues to provide teacher training.

Sources

Various web sites, including:

History of Moray House: http://www.education.ed.ac.uk/aboutus/morayhouse/history/index.html

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moray_House_School_of_Education#History