SCHOOLING IN STRATHKINNESS

Although there is not a great deal of information about the first schools in

Scotland, it is known that there were some schools, in addition to the monas-

teries, and that there was a school in St. Andrews before 1216. There is

some slight evidence that in a few places poor scholars were paid for.

The first important Act concerning education was in 1494 when James IV

decreed that ‘the sons and heirs of all barons and freeholds’ were to be sent to

school. This was an attempt to have those people responsible for the adminis-

tration of the country better educated. It is also known from an Act of

Parliament in 1543 that the Bible could be read, not solely in Latin but in

either ‘lnglis or Scottis’ before the Reformation. The great impetus to educa-

tion came after the Reformation in 1560 when schools became an important

factor in establishing the Reformed Faith.

One of the aims of the early religious reformers in Scotland was that

every person should receive at least a minimal education. If possible every

parish was to have a school not more than three miles distant from any child

in the parish, and all children should be compelled to attend.

This early commitment to education became the basis of an educational

system which, although imperfectly carried out, did give more opportunities

to more people than were available in other countries. How many people took

advantage of this opportunity, and indeed how many were in a position to do

so, is sometimes exaggerated, but there is no doubt that the framework was

there.

The early reformers were interested in education mainly as a means of

imparting the gospel. Their concern was that all people should be able to read

the Bible in order to help them live more Godly lives.

That this idea was deeply ingrained can be seem as late as 1799 when a

group of parents in Kincaple petitioned for a school to be established in their

area, which had been without one for some time (the children being sent to

Strathkinness School). They desired a school ‘for training up our children to

read and write and in other branches of useful education that they may be

prepared for acquainting themselves with the Principles of our Religion in the

fear of God’.

Before 1600 only three parishes in the area, Forgan, Leuchars and Ceres

had schoolmasters. In 1646 the St. Andrews Kirk Session decreed that there

should be schools set up in the landward area of St. Andrews; at Boarhills,

Kincaple, and Strathkinness. it is not recorded when this was done, although

it is likely that there was a school in Kincaple in 1647. Much later, in 1868,

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