by WC1 » Mon Apr 14, 2014 9:27 pm
The problem with writing any history is finding reliable sources. For most schools, there are very few such sources extant, and that's partly because schools in Scotland didn't come under the management of the 'state' until late in the 19th century, 1872 to be precise. Before then, they were managed by the church, which is why the churches still have the right to be represented on council education committees. In terms of sources, this means that any references to schools will be found principally in parish records. In the case of Campbeltown Grammar School, the situation is slightly different in that it was jointly managed - after 1700 at least - by the church and the town council, so there may be council records available too, but such records as do exist and are accessible have already been mined for anything of historical interest - the impact of schisms in the church and the infamous Hastie case for example.
After 1872, schools had to keep a log book recording significant events. The older log books for CGS were transferred to the care of the Argyll and Bute Council archivist between ten and fifteen years ago. Keeping a school log book ceased to be required by law even before I became Rector of CGS in 1992, though I did keep one going for a while. Another source is the admissions records, but some of these contain personal information about individuals who are still alive and are therefore subject to an obvious duty of confidentiality. Nowadays, of course, everything is electronic, and I doubt very much if any of that information is being archived, or even if it can be archived in any way that would be accessible to future historians.
Even the log books are 'thin' when it comes to any information that might be of value to posterity. The problem is that so much of what happens in schools is of a purely routine nature. The appointment or departure of a particular teacher might or might not be recorded, for example. My own appointment as Rector is only in there because I put it in myself, not that it was of any historical significance of course. Times when pupil absence rates were higher than normal might be recorded - measles outbreaks etc feature a lot - but these may not be of importance in the history of the school per se even if they might mean something in terms of wider social history. And historians will look in vain for mention of important 'old boys', since they weren't important when they were wee boys, of course.
Have a look at my chapter in 'The Campbeltown Book' (Three Hundred Years of Education in Campbeltown). It was put together from such sources as I could trace, including some not publicly available. You may find it of interest. But as for the history specifically of Campbeltown Grammar School, I doubt there is much out there to be discovered.
WC1