page_title: History of schools in Scotland
section_title: Early Middle Ages
hierarchical_section_title: History of schools in Scotland / Middle Ages / Early Middle Ages
caption_attribution_description: Cours de philosophie à Paris Grandes chroniques de France
context_page_description: The history of schools in Scotland includes the development of all schools as institutions and buildings in Scotland, from the early Middle Ages to the present day. From the early Middle Ages there were bardic schools, that trained individuals in the poetic and musical arts. Monasteries served as major repositories of knowledge and education, often running schools. In the High Middle Ages, new sources of education arose including choir and grammar schools designed to train priests. Benedictine and Augustinian foundations probably had charitable almonry schools to educate young boys, who might enter the priesthood. Some abbeys opened their doors to teach the sons of gentlemen. By the end of the Middle Ages, grammar schools could be found in all the main burghs and some small towns. In rural areas there were petty or reading schools that provided an elementary education. Private tuition in the families of lords and wealthy burghers sometimes developed into "household schools". Girls of noble families were taught in nunneries and by the end of the fifteenth century Edinburgh also had schools for girls, sometimes described as "sewing schools".
context_section_description: From the early Middle Ages there were bardic schools, that trained individuals in the poetic and musical arts, but because Scotland was a largely oral society, little evidence of what they taught has survived. The establishment of Christianity from the sixth century brought Latin to Scotland as a scholarly and written language. In the early Middle Ages monasteries served as major repositories of knowledge and education, often running schools and providing a small, educated and overwhelmingly male, elite, who were essential to create and read documents in a largely illiterate society.
caption: A French illustration of teaching from the late fourteenth century
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