Schools and education
Archives relating to education and schools
The Education (Scotland) Act 1872 saw the introduction of state schools in Scotland, and compulsory attendance for all children between the ages of 5 and 12. School Boards with elected members were established to deliver education at local level.
School Boards and Education Committee records
School Boards dealt with a range of issues affecting schools under their remit, including employment of teachers. In 1919 the Boards were replaced by District Education Committees. Records are held for the following:
Clicking on a link will open the catalogue for the relevant collection in our database
Barra School Board / Management Committee, 1888-1966
North Uist School Board / Management Committee, 1893-1947
Harris School Board / Management Committee, 1918-1975
Lewis School Management Committee / Education Sub-Committee, 1869-1974
Achmore School Board, 1875-1919
Barvas School Board, 1873-1919
Lochs School Board, 1873-1919
Stornoway School Board, 1873-1919
Uig School Board, 1873-1919 [partially digitised – see Digitised Volumes page]
Trustees of the Nicolson Institution, Stornoway, 1870-1888
Mingulay and St Kilda school log books
The log books for Mingulay and St Kilda schools have been fully digitised with assistance from the National Records of Scotland and are available to browse online through our Digitised Volumes page.
School admission registers and log books
Under the 1872 Education (Scotland) Act, the head teacher of each school was obliged to keep a daily log book. Entries could relate to pupil attendance or factors affecting attendance such as epidemics, severe weather and staff absences. Other information might include attendance statistics, lists of teaching staff, subjects taught and dates and results of visits by HM Inspectors.
The log books of individual schools are held at various locations. Please contact the archive service for information about the location of particular school records.
Due to admission registers containing personal details regarding individual children they are closed for 100 years to comply with Data Protection legislation. If you are interested in information that may be contained within admission registers please contact us, as we may be able to check the records on your behalf.
Search the collections database here to locate individual school records that may be of interest to you, or contact the archive service. Please see this page for an overview of all our archive collections.
