Harris Parochial School 1836/7

I have happened upon a source relating to the school at Rodel:

'The Sessional Papers printed by Order of the House of Lords or presented by Royal Command in the Session 4 and 5 Victoriae, Volume III – Education Returns, Scotland Part II, page 173' pub 1841

These were answers given by Schoolmasters to a list of questions that had been submitted to them in 1836. The report even 'names & shames' those Schoolmasters who had failed to make a return!

From it we may glean that the school had been established at an uncertain date and was benefiting from no private endowment, which may go some way to explaining why there was no regular school-house for the teacher.

There were 25 boys and 5 girls attending the school in 1836 and 1837 and they started when aged between 4 and 8 and only finished school when they were 15.

The schoolmaster, A. Macdougall, who took-up the post in 1829, appears to have been educated in Perth and to have received a salary of £22. A price list of 1s 6d, 2s, 2s 6d & 3s for scholars is given but which additional subjects were attracting the higher three rates is not specified.

There was an annual report made to the Presbytery and a list of the texts used is provided:

English – Dr Thomson's books

Greek – Collectanea Minora and Xenophon, etc

Latin – Caesar, Sallust, Virgil, etc

Mathematics – Euclid

Arithmetic – Gray's and Morrison's

Geography – Stewart's

History – Simpson's Histories

Religious – Scriptures

Catechism – Assembly's Shorter Catechism, and Williason's

The school hours were from 9 to 12 and then from 2 to 6 with an annual break of generally about 4 weeks, presumably to allow the children to assist with harvest.

Note: Unfortunately I have not been able to discover the original questions and hence have restricted this account to those where a description is given in the answer.

(The only exception is where it is clear that the question asked if there was a private endowment)

The nature of the questions where no expansion is provided from Harris might be guessed-at from answers given elsewhere but I have elected to wait until the original questions are found.