Lendrick Muir School was a Scottish residential school for children of above average

intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. It can be described as t ...

, aged 11–19 (originally 7–18) or latterly children with

dyslexia Dyslexia (), previously known as word blindness, is a learning disability that affects either reading or writing. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, reading quickly, wri ...

, located in

Perth and Kinross Perth and Kinross (; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and a Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area. It is bordered by Highland (council area), Highland and Aberdeenshire to the north, Angus, Scotland, Angus, Dundee, and F ...

on an unclassified road from

Rumbling Bridge Rumbling Bridge is a small village built on both sides of a gorge of the River Devon, Clackmannanshire, River Devon, which formed the boundary between the historic counties of Perthshire and Kinross-shire and is now within the combined Perth and K ...

Crook of Devon Crook of Devon is a village within the parish of Fossoway in Kinross-shire about west of Kinross on the A977 road. Its name derives from the nearly 180-degree turn, from generally eastwards to generally westwards and resembling the shape of ...

Etymology

The places in Scotland with the name ''Lendrick'' are derived from Brittonic ''llanerch'' (or ''*lanerc''), meaning "a vale, a space of level ground" or ''clearing, pasture''.

Pupils

Children from all over the country, and a few from other parts of the United Kingdom, attended, and all were funded by their local authorities.

School refusal School refusal is a child-motivated refusal to attend school or difficulty remaining in class for the full day. Child-motivated absenteeism occurs autonomously, by the volition of the child. This behavior is differentiated from non-child-motivate ...

was a common reason for pupils being placed here, and many had psychological and behavioural problems due to familial abuse or neglect. The school claimed not to accept pupils who were "sexually promiscuous, psychotic, habitually delinquent or seriously behaviourally disturbed". Children were expected to be able to follow an academic syllabus, leading to examinations such as Ordinary Grades,

Highers In the Scottish secondary education system, the Higher () is one of the national school-leaving certificate exams and university entrance qualifications of the Scottish Qualifications Certificate (SQC) offered by the Scottish Qualifications ...

Certificate of Sixth Year Studies In the Scottish secondary education system, the Certificate of Sixth Year Studies (CSYS) was the highest level of qualification available to pupils from 1968 until circa 2000. Overseen by the Scottish Examination Board (SEB), it was taken by s ...

, set by the

Scottish Examination Board The Scottish Examination Board (SEB), formerly known as the Scottish Certificate of Education Examination Board (SCEEB), was the academic examination board for Scottish schools from 1965 to 1997. History From their introduction in 1888 until ...

Location and environs

The school was located off Naemoor Road, an unclassified road, connecting the A823 at

with the A977 at

. It was about 800 metres east of Rumbling Bridge and one kilometre west of Crook of Devon, situated at

latitude In geography, latitude is a geographic coordinate system, geographic coordinate that specifies the north-south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from −90° at t ...

56.18629

longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east- west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek lett ...

-3.57635. Male pupils lived within the main school building, while female pupils were housed separately in a large detached property, 'Craigard', a few kilometres away. Nearby villages, in addition to the two mentioned include Drum, Yetts o' Muckart and Pool of Muckhart. The school was about 500 metres south-west of the River Devon and, because the river changes direction at Crook of Devon, it was also located about 500 metres north of the River Devon. The school was about 3 kilometres south-east of the

Ochil Hills The Ochil Hills (; ) is a range of hills in Scotland north of the River Forth, Forth valley bordered by the cities of Stirling, Perth, Scotland, Perth and the towns of Alloa, Kinross, and Auchterarder . The only major roads crossing the hil ...

. The

school A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the Educational architecture, building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most co ...

was situated in 200

acres The acre ( ) is a unit of land area used in the British imperial and the United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet), which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, ...

of rough estate except for the potato field leased to a local farmer. The Sports field covered 25 acres and was often grazed by the same farmer's sheep.

Sports

The School provided facilities for

hockey ''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

, and

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

. Other leisure time facilities included hill-climbing and

canoeing Canoeing is an activity which involves paddling a canoe with a single-bladed paddle. In some parts of Europe, canoeing refers to both canoeing and kayaking, with a canoe being called an 'open canoe' or Canadian. A few of the recreational ...

, and various indoor pastimes. The school had a

house system The house system is a traditional feature of schools in the United Kingdom. The practice has since spread to Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries. The school is divided into units called "houses" and each student is allocated to on ...

for the purposes of sports competitions. To begin with there were two houses: Devons and Muirs. Later there was an Ochil House but that was discontinued after a time.

Naemoor House

The school was housed in Naemoor House, formally Naemoor School, a neo-classical mansion designed by Adam Frame of

Alloa Alloa (Received Pronunciation ; Scottish pronunciation /ˈaloʊa/; , possibly meaning "rock plain") is a town in Clackmannanshire in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It is on the north bank of the Forth at the spot where some say it ceases to ...

which was listed in 1977, and this was a continuation of Riverview Private School in

, run by husband and wife team John and Janet Grieve. Shortly before it became Lendrick Muir School, William Younger, the brewer, from Alloa injected finance into it.

Change in direction

In 1988, the School changed its policy on admissions and its client groups, focussing on children with

. It retained this focus until its closure in 1998.

Closure

It closed in 1998, following a "damning verdict on the ..accommodation, management and curriculum". According to the Sunday Mail, among other things, " he Schoolwhich receives more than £250,000 a year in fees has been branded unsafe, dirty and lacking in resources. ..The inspectors' report revealed a long list of problems. They found dirty and unsafe rooms, bad teaching and a lack of books and computers, and said the dinners were poor." The head of the school, John McLaughlin, ( who joined the school in its last year) accepted these criticisms and said: " o stay openwe would have to have put in place a whole range of things. There would be no more communal showering, individual rooms where possible, pleasant views from windows, proper systems of care, quality learning for staff, appropriate ratios."

Current use

The building has been owned and run by the

Scripture Union Scripture Union (SU) is an international, interdenominational, evangelical Christian organisation. It was founded in 1867, and works in partnership with individuals and churches across the world. The organisation's stated aim is to use the Bibl ...

since its closure as a school in 1998, and the SU now offers residential activity breaks for young people.

External links

- Lendrick Muir website

- Children's Hearings Website

- Scottish Children's Reporter Administration

- Archive of Lendrick Muir School

Notes

{{authority control Defunct special schools in Scotland Defunct boarding schools in Scotland Defunct schools in Perth and Kinross Special schools in Scotland