School Records

Useful places to look up facts

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sheilajim
Posts: 787
Joined: Fri Jul 01, 2005 10:42 pm
Location: san clemente california

School Records

Post by sheilajim » Mon Nov 03, 2014 1:57 am

Hi Everybody

I notice that Find My Past has school records for England and Wales. Are there any school records available for Scotland anywhere? It would be a wonderful resource if they existed.
Sheila

WilmaM
Posts: 1870
Joined: Fri Dec 17, 2004 10:46 am
Location: Falkirk area

Re: School Records

Post by WilmaM » Mon Nov 03, 2014 3:08 pm

I think you'll find that individual councils will hold their own archive records for schools.

I know that Falkirk Council has School Records in the archives - perhaps held at Callendar House? they have a search facility at :
http://collections.falkirk.gov.uk/

I've never used them for schools but the staff are very helpful.

Scotland Street School Museum in Glasgow may be the best place for the City school Archives.
Wilma

LesleyB
Posts: 8184
Joined: Fri Mar 18, 2005 12:18 am
Location: Scotland

Re: School Records

Post by LesleyB » Tue Nov 04, 2014 12:10 am

As far as I remember , the Mitchell also hold some school records for the Glasgow area.

sheilajim
Posts: 787
Joined: Fri Jul 01, 2005 10:42 pm
Location: san clemente california

Re: School Records

Post by sheilajim » Tue Nov 04, 2014 3:08 am

Hi All,

Thank you, Leslie and Wilma for your input. :D What I really want to know is if Scotland kept the school records of their students. England seems to have done so. I would love to find out where my mother and her sisters and brother went to school and what they learned there. It would be even more interesting to learn more about my grandparents, etc.
Sheila

WilmaM
Posts: 1870
Joined: Fri Dec 17, 2004 10:46 am
Location: Falkirk area

Re: School Records

Post by WilmaM » Tue Nov 04, 2014 10:01 am

The education system in Scotland wasn't complicated - if you know where your folks lived then you'll find that they went to the closest school, or the nearest RC school. Look on an old map and see which it would have been.
Secondary education was a bit different depending on the 'qually' resulys. A test they took at 11+ years to see which school they would go to - the cleverer ones would go to the school offering more academic subjects while the others would have gone to a school offering more vocational courses - for instance my FIL went to Falkirk High [eventually to University], my MIL went to Graham High dubbed a technical school, but their friend went to Redding school [though he ended up a college lecturer].
Check the individual local authority to see what records they hold.
Wilma

sheilajim
Posts: 787
Joined: Fri Jul 01, 2005 10:42 pm
Location: san clemente california

Re: School Records

Post by sheilajim » Wed Nov 05, 2014 3:25 am

Hi Wilma,
It is difficult to find out about schools in Scotland when you live in California as I do. :cry: However, I found out where my Grandparents were living in the years between 1901 and 1911 from births, one death and the 1911 census. My goodness, they certainly moved around a lot in those years, although they never left Renfrew. I have 5 different address for them. They mostly lived in the Moorpark area. Was is usual in those days to move so often?
I have been having difficulty finding the proper map. I don't even know if these streets still exist: Pinkerton Lane, Newton St. Clark St. and Moorpark St. :shock:
Sheila

Currie
Posts: 3924
Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2007 3:20 am
Location: Australia

Re: School Records

Post by Currie » Wed Nov 05, 2014 8:36 am

Hello Sheila,

My guess is that the so called “National School Admission Registers & Log-Books 1870-1914” on FMP represents only a tiny fraction of English and Welsh Admission Registers that were ever kept in that period. http://search.findmypast.com/search-wor ... 1415082768

I rarely found my lot in the same place twice. The home ownership rate was extremely low in Scotland at that time, the vast majority of people lived in rented accommodation and were at the mercy of the landlord. They had very few possessions compared to nowadays, and they had to live close to employment.

Renfrew directories for various years are available here. Renfrew will be in a separate section towards the back. https://archive.org/search.php?query=di ... pe%3Atexts

Here's the 1905-06 edition with a list of schools. https://archive.org/stream/paisleydirec ... 4/mode/2up

This document, from Parliamentary Papers, 1908, shows numbers of students, teachers etc at each. Yoker appears to be across the river so perhaps in another directory, although in the same School Board District.
1908 [Cd. 4084, 4085] Report of the Committee of Council on Education in Scotland. http://i944.photobucket.com/albums/ad28 ... f64642.jpg


All the best,
Alan

WilmaM
Posts: 1870
Joined: Fri Dec 17, 2004 10:46 am
Location: Falkirk area

Re: School Records

Post by WilmaM » Wed Nov 05, 2014 10:35 am

Funnily I used to work around the schools in the Renfrewshire area so the ones from 20+ years ago I knew pretty well ;)
The town of Renfrew is now mainly fairly new, property-wise, the older part nearer the River Clyde was more industrial - though it's now being 'regenerated' with posh flats.

Use the NLS map site to find places then & now
this is my favourite: http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=8& ... rs=10admin
but the main pages http://maps.nls.uk/ are brilliant too.

Clark street is still there [ though probably new houses] - just off Porterfield Road, which is where Moorpark Primary School is. A big red sandstone Victorian building - so that would be a good one to start with.
St James school used to be on Inchinnan Road [ behind the church] but it's now on Albert Road actually directly behind Moorpark school.
The other current schools are mainly newer build ones, to serve all the newer houses so they wouldn't be of use to you.
The Pinkerton Lane in Renfrew now is not the one you are talking about - it's a new build 1970/1980 vintage but obviously named after an older street.
Wilma

Ina
Global Moderator
Posts: 1367
Joined: Wed Dec 08, 2004 6:46 am
Location: California,originally from Greenock.

Re: School Records

Post by Ina » Wed Nov 05, 2014 1:51 pm

I was surprised to learn that my mother saved all of my school report cards. She gave them to me a few years before she died. My grandchildren get a kick out of reading them.......so different from the report cards of today.

Ina

sheilajim
Posts: 787
Joined: Fri Jul 01, 2005 10:42 pm
Location: san clemente california

Re: School Records

Post by sheilajim » Fri Nov 07, 2014 3:46 am

Hi Wilma & Alan,

Alan- you are probably right about there only being a few school records in FMP.
From the link to the Paisley Directory there are only 2 schools they could have gone to, Moorpark & Oswald Public Schools.

Wilma- From the links to the maps, I could only find Pinkerton Lane and it was very close to that big church.
I think that my mother and her older sister must have gone to Moorpark Public School as they seemed to live near it.

Thanks to all for your help. :D
Sheila

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