Devon Bank School

DEVON BANK SCHOOL THE EDUCATION OF YOUNG LADIES, 19, Maxwell Drive, Pollokshields.

    For the beauty and salubrity of its surroundings, the general excellence and adaptability of its appointments, as well as for the high-class character and efficiency of its tuition, there are few schools in the West of Scotland that can be compared with Mr. Black’s establishment at Pollokshields, known so well and widely as the Devon Bank School.

The building itself is a very handsome, spacious, and comfortable-looking structure standing alone in its own grounds and most beautifully and tastefully surrounded by a variety of carefully tended trees and shrubs. There are several large class-rooms, all lofty and well lighted, and many of them having been specially constructed for educational purposes are fully equipped with the newest and best of school furniture and appliance. Very special attention has been paid to the heating and ventilating of the premises, and all that personal supervision and sanitary science can do to ensure the health and comfort of the pupils has been done, and, owing partly to this and partly to the acknowledged healthiness of the locality, Devon Bank School has enjoyed a remarkable immunity from serious illness or infectious disease.

    For the recreation of the pupils a large and well-arranged playground has been provided and placed under the care of the janitor, whose duty it is to report to the principal any roughness or unbecoming conduct on the part of the pupils. Besides this, very special attention is given to the physical development and graceful deportment of the young lady pupils by a series of carefully graduated exercises in calisthenics and Swedish drill with musical accompaniment, and too much praise can hardly be accorded to Miss Bowie for the most gratifying results which have attended her efforts in this department.

    The school was established for the purpose of providing young ladies of Pollokshields and its immediate vicinity with a sound and liberal English education at a most moderate fee, and whilst boys are received into the junior department of the school and are there well and efficiently taught, the curriculum has been arranged with special regard to the future needs of the young ladies, and for them is of the fullest and completest character possible. Mr. Black is a most conscientious and painstaking principal, and, whilst he has been fortunate in securing a most eminent and competent staff of teachers, he in no single instance leaves a class entirely in the hands of an assistant, but maintains a direct and personal superintendence over the whole school. The classes are all limited in size and so arranged that, without distraction or confusion of any kind, each pupil can receive that amount of individual attention so essential to the ready and intelligent apprehension of the subjects taught.

    The school is divided into three departments, viz., the initiatory, junior, and senior, and these are so systematically arranged and thoroughly supervised that, by an easy and interesting series of studies, the very maximum of educational results is achieved by the pupils at the smallest possible demand on their attention and time. Home lessons are prescribed that the teachers may judge how far the explanations of the class have been apprehended by the scholars ; but these are always so regulated as to quantity and anticipated as to difficulties that all exercises thus given may be easily and satisfactorily accomplished by the unaided efforts of the pupils. The course of instruction is an exceedingly liberal and comprehensive one, and, commencing at the easiest and most elementary of the Kindergarten exercises, leads the pupils on through the varying stages of history, grammar, geography, mathematics, Latin, French, German, writing, drawing, singing, science, etc., until, with a certain assurance of success, she can take her place at any of the University Local Examinations. In addition to the ordinary curriculum subjects, arrangements have been made by which the young ladies of the school can receive very special instruction in advanced music, solo singing, violin playing, art needlework, wax and clay modelling, painting in oil and water colours, and on china, etc., at the hands of the best of teachers.

    These are but a few of the features of interest which characterise this truly excellent school, and parents and friends will do well to accept the invitation of Mr. Black and see for themselves something of the able and satisfactory working of the same; and those who may be solicitous as to what to do with their girls cannot do better than visit Devon Bank School and make arrangements with Mr. Black by which their daughters may share in the many educational advantages his establishment offers. For the information of such, it might be stated that Mr. Black can be most conveniently seen on school business between one and two or after four o’clock.

Back to Index of Firms (1891)