Hutchesons' Grammar School

Thomas Hutcheson (1590–1641).[3]

1639 - George Hutcheson (c1560-1639) left provisions for a Glasgow Hospital (home for the aged and infirm) and a 'draft contract' for the founding of a school.

1641 (19th March) - The building of Hutchesons' Hospital began in the Trongate, with additional funding from Thomas Hutcheson, brother of George Hutcheson. This was to provide for twelve 'indigent orphans'. Thomas laid the foundation stone on 19th March 1641.

1641 (1st September) - Thomas Hutcheson died on 1st September 1641, just 6 months after he laid the foundation stone for the Hospital. Fortunately all plans were already in place and by 1643 the first pupil, Archibald Edmiston, was enrolled. The building was two storeys high and had a 100ft steeple roofed in lead with a clock and a bell tower.

1805 - In 1799 the decision was made to build a new Hospital in Ingram Street, at the head of Hutchesons' Street, although building work did not begin until 1802.The new Hospital was completed in 1805 by the architect David Hamilton. The school was located in the room above the 'Great Hall'.

1829 - John McArly became the schoolmaster in 1829 and was the first to be described as 'Headteacher'. The first Dux medal was awarded in the school in 1829.

1841 - With a growing roll, a new school on Hospital lands in Crown Street was opened in 1841. Built by Robert Craig, it was T-shaped in design and boasted 3 classrooms and a large living space for the Rector. It also had something new, a playground.

1842 - The patrons held that 'great good' would result if the benefits of the Hospital were extended to girls. This was a very early statement in national terms. In 1847 the patrons set up a committee to look into establishing a 'female school' in the Crown Steet building.

1861 - Thomas Menzies was appointed as headteacher. From his training in Stow's Normal Seminary, he learned 'simultaneous' (whole class) teaching. This was the beginning of modern class teaching in the school.

1869 - The Hospital and Endowed Institutions Act gave Hutchesons' Hospital the right to educate girls. The Hutchesons' Hospital Act received Royal Assent and the patrons had the right to set up schools across the city. By 1873 the school had grown and the site at Crown Street was redesigned by architect, Robert Craig and now consisted of 11 classrooms, a large hall and a gymnasium. Just over 1000 boys attended the first school session.

1876 - Years of planning was reversed when Hutchesons' was offered the Gorbals' Youth School in Elgin Street. This became Hutchesons' Girls' School. The Boys' School became Hutchesons' Grammar School and both schools opened as private fee-paying schools for the first time.

1894 - The first pupil-produced school magazine 'The Hutchesonian Monthly Magazine' was published in 1894 and was intended for both the Boys' and the Girls' School, although the Girls' school was not much involved. The first magazines produced by the school were published in 1914 and there were serparate magazines for the Boys' and Girls' Schools.

1912 - By 1903 conditions in the Elgin Street Girls' School were becoming cramped so a new school was proposed. The new school was opened in Kingarth Street and had something the Boys' School didn't have until 1927...electricity. It was built on the new 'hub' model with classrooms on two levels, around a central hall.

1938 - With deteriorating conditions at the Crown Street school, a new site was proposed at Crossmyloof in 1938, and acquired 18 months later. However, due to the outbreak of World War II, the planning and building of the new school wasn't realised until 1956.

In March 1941 Crown Street was bombed and closed for two weeks. During the war some pupils were evacuated but both schools managed to stay open.

1960 - Work on the new school at Beaton Road began in 1956 and it opened officially in 1960. The Junior School had six classrooms and a gynasium whilst the Senior School had 23 classrooms, a gymnasium, a botany greenhouse, five science rooms, four art rooms and a music room.

1976 - In 1976 the Boys' School and the Girls' School amalgamated. The Kingarth Street school became the Primary School and the school at Beaton Road became the Secondary School. The combined school became fully independent.

1991 - In 1991 the school celebrated its 350th anniversary. Between 1987 and 1999 a lot of building work took place including a new science block, a Sports Complex with hockey pitch and a international standard track as well as a double floor library along with a new Infant Department building at the primary school.

2001 - This year the school expanded into Glasgow's West End when it merged with Laurel Park School and created a nursery and primary school on Lilybank Terrace, although this has since closed.[4] The building suffered heavy damage in a fire in November 2008, and again in early 2019.[5][6]

2004-2005 - The Fotheringay Centre was purchased and opened by the school incorporating the existing Congregational Church complete with internal stained glass windows and red Glasgow sandstone walls. In 2005 Graham W. A. MacAllister was appointed Interim Rector, the first former pupil to be given charge of the modern School.

2011-2012 - In 2011, Hutchesons' Grammar School was named Scottish Independent School of the Year by the Sunday Times. In 2012 the new state of the art Drama Studios were opened.

2018 - In 2018 the School expanded again with a Pre School department opening at the primary school.

2020 - The School went into lockdown with the rest of the United Kingdom in March 2020 and therefore teaching resumed online. Pupils were welcomed back into the school in August (in a socially distanced manner). In the Sunday Times the same year, Hutchesons' Grammar School was named the best school in the West of Scotland.

2021 - In 2021 the school purchased a new facility at Pollock Country Park and titled it Hutchesons' at Pollock Park (H@PP). It includes a large indoor sports centre, complete with climbing walls and a upper floor with a dance studio and mezzanine overlooking the sports hall in a pavilion building along with sports fields and pitches allowing Hutchesons' to develop outdoor learning experiences across the whole school.

In November 2011, Hutchesons' Grammar School was named the 'Scottish Independent Secondary school of the year'.[4]

In 2020, Hutchesons' Grammar School was named the best school in the West of Scotland by the Sunday Times

• Madge Easton Anderson – first female professional lawyer in Britain
• Kevin Sneader – global managing partner CEO [5] of McKinsey
• Kenny McBain – TV director and producer. Responsible for Inspector Morse TV series
• John Buchan – novelist, historian and Governor-General of Canada
• Alan Bulloch- former Scottish rugby union player
• O. Douglas (Anna Buchan) – novelist
• Lionel Charles Knights – King Edward VII Professor of English Literature, University of Cambridge, 1965–73 [6]
• Nan Dunbar – fellow and tutor in classics at Somerville College, Oxford
• Alison Di Rollo – Solicitor General for Scotland[7]
• Alix Jamieson – Olympic athlete
• Archibald Leitch – architect [8]
• James Maxton – MP and leader of the Independent Labour Party
• Derry Irvine (Baron Irvine of Lairg) – barrister, QC and former Lord Chancellor
• Carol Smillie – TV presenter and former model
• Gordon Bulloch – Played professional rugby union for Scotland and captained the British and Irish Lions
• Ken Bruce – BBC Radio 2 DJ
• Adair Turner (Lord Turner of Ecchinswell) – chair of the Financial Services Authority
• John Mason – Scottish National Party MSP[9]
• Daniel Lamont – Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland from 1936 to 1937
• Leon Smith – current British Davis Cup captain
• Cordelia Oliver – journalist, painter and art critic
• J David Simons – novelist
• Imtiaz Dharker – poet and artist
• John Barbour – footballer and soldier killed in World War I[10]
• Hugh Wyllie – former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
• Jerry Morris – epidemiologist who established the importance of physical activity in preventing cardiovascular disease.
• Anas Sarwar- Leader of the Scottish Labour Party, Labour list MSP, former Westminster MP
• Humza Yousaf – SNP MSP, youngest MSP and first ethnic minority cabinet member in Scottish government
• Myra MacDonald – journalist and author
• Colin Epsie – is a Scottish professor of Sleep Medicine in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neuroscience at the University of Oxford and Fellow of Somerville College

• Hutchesons' Website
• Hutchesons' Grammar School page on Scottish Schools Online
• "Statues of the Hutcheson Brothers" Glasgow – City of Sculpture By Gary Nisbet