Moray House School of Education and Sport
The Moray House School of Education and Sport is a department within the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.
It is based in historic buildings on the Holyrood Campus, located between the Canongate and Holyrood Road. The school offers academic programmes at all levels of higher education, including teacher education, Community Education, Digital Education, Outdoor and Environmental Education, Language Education, Physical Education and Sports science.
The School has approximately 2000 students and nearly 500 academic and professional staff.
History
The school has existed in one form or another since the mid-19th century, joining the University of Edinburgh in 1998. The institution currently known as Moray House was originally opened as a normal school following the Disruption of 1843. Known as The Free Church of Scotland's Normal and Sessional School, it was originally located in Whitefield Chapel, and then in rooms below the Music Room in Rose Street. In 1848, the school moved to its current location in Moray House, in the Canongate.From 1864 to 1907 its Rector was Maurice Paterson LLD.
In 1907, this institution merged with its Church of Scotland equivalent and the Edinburgh Provincial Training Centre was formed, with the church training colleges subsumed within this organisation. The new teaching building opened at Moray House in 1931.
Moray House College of Education was officially formed in 1959.
In the early 1980s, Callendar Park College of Education, in Falkirk, was merged with Moray House.
In 1987, Moray House merged with the Dunfermline College of Physical Education based at Cramond, and continued to exist on two separate campuses until 2001.
In 1991, the institute was linked with Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh; and was retitled Moray House Institute of Education. On 1 August 1998, Moray House Institute of Education merged with the University of Edinburgh becoming its Faculty of Education.
Following internal restructuring of the University of Edinburgh in 2002, Moray House became known as the Moray House School of Education.
In August 2019, Moray House School of Education was renamed Moray House School of Education and Sport.
Structure
It is currently subdivided into four Institutes:- Institute for Education, Community and Society
- Institute for Education, Teaching and Leadership
- Institute for Sport, Physical Education and Health Sciences
- Institute for Language Education
Buildings of Moray House
The buildings of Moray House are located on the Holyrood campus adjacent to the Canongate in Edinburgh.Development and history
During the nineteenth century, part of the original open area to the west of St John's Street and north of the South Back was occupied by breweries. These made use of the high-quality water from the springs and wells in this part of the Canongate.In response to the shortage of teachers in Scotland in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Moray House looked to the possibility of building additional teaching facilities close to the existing estate at Holyrood. In 1961 Moray House purchased the property of the Aitchison Brewery. This included buildings at the ends of Playhouse and Old Playhouse Closes as well offices, a tenement and Maltings. The price paid was £50,000.
In the 1970s, three specialist teaching buildings were built from designs by architects Gordon and Dey. They were St Leonard's Land, Chessel's Land and St Mary's Land. The design of these buildings was representative of 1960s modernist architecture and somewhat out of sympathy with the surrounding areas of the Old Town. The bulk of the buildings were on land formerly occupied by the Edinburgh and Leith Brewery and before that by the Old Edinburgh Playhouse.
Chessel's Land
Chessel's Land was one of three buildings designed by architects Graham and Dey and constructed in the early 1970s; it opened in January 1974. It was unused for a number of years and demolished in 2013 to make way for student accommodation. Chessel's Land was designed as a specialist centre for the training of teachers in the Visual Arts, including painting, ceramics, textiles, sculpture, photography and jewellery. Inside the building were sixteen large studios and a large Exhibition Hall, which was available for both student and external use.In the original plan for the site, the raised patio in front of Chessel's Land was planned to connect with a proposed Library and a Theatre fronting onto Holyrood Road. These buildings in turn were to be connected with the St Leonard's Land building on the opposite side Holyrood Road. In the event these plans were ruled out by the SED in 1978. The Theatre was never built and a new Library was eventually developed in Dalhousie Land.
Chessel's Land takes its name from Archibald Chessel, a successful wright to trade and stalwart member of the Tron Kirk who lived in the eighteenth century. He built the nearby Chessel's Court between 1745 and 1748. These were much-admired mansion flats built to accommodate persons of standing. They are still standing today and remain as private flats.
In 1993 Chessel's Land became the base for the Aesthetic Studies Department, when Drama studios were added. In 1996 Music was transferred from Old Moray House. With St Mary's Land, Chessel's Land was demolished in 2013 in preparation for construction of new student accommodation.
Charteris Land
Charteris Land is home to Moray House's departments of Educational Studies and part of the department of Curriculum Research & Development.In 1964, draft plans for a ten-storey teaching block were drawn up by the architects, Gordon & Dey, to be built adjacent to the west side of St John Street. However, the Royal Fine Art Commission raised an objection to the planned height of the building. Consequently, the building of the finally agreed six storeys wasn't started until December 1966. Subsequent delays arising from industrial disputes meant the facility wasn't handed over until February 1969.
Following advice from the Edinburgh City Archivist this teaching block was named Charteris Land.
The front of Charteris Land boasts a sculptured wall, which were commissioned from David Miller, a member of staff at Moray House. The wall was cast in reinforced concrete into expanded polystyrene moulds. The sculpture was created in a continuous twenty-nine-hour operation by Arnott McLeod, Building Contractors.
The four panels all symbolise an aspect of educational theory:
- Panel 1 The Maze: Based on the use of the maze by psychologists such as Skinner and Tolman in experiments on rats to ascertain the power of deduction and memory retention in the learning process.
- Panel 2 Growth and Development: How a form of life starts with a coincidence of two elements and whose eventual shape is determined by external influences.
- Panel 3 Assimilation of Knowledge: Where differing units are selected and sorted in a rational way to form an organic retrieval system.
- Panel 4 Community: With different forms fitting together symbolising the interdependence of man, woman and child.
Dalhousie Land
This new building was opened on 2 May 1963 by the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the Very Reverend Dr Neville Davidson, and was named Dalhousie Land.
In the early 1990s, Dalhousie Land was refurbished to become the new library for the Holyrood campus. Previously, periodicals, learning resources and books had occupied various rooms over three floors in Paterson's Land. A grant was obtained in 1994 to enable the relocation of all library facilities to Dalhousie Land. The refurbishment plans involved the retention of the original concrete container of the swimming pool, which was redesigned to house the periodicals collection. The current ground floor is at the level of the original edge of the swimming pool, and now houses the main stock area and Service Desk. A new mezzanine area was inserted on the south side and housed the Children's Book collection. The top floor was opened out to house library and computer work stations. This new Library was opened in August 1996.
In 1999/2000, a further refurbishment was undertaken to allow for the transfer of the stock from the Cramond campus library before its closure. This involved the creation of a new floor 3 out of the former lecture theatres on floor 2.
Old Kirk
This building was the kirk of the Old Kirk, a congregation which had originally worshiped in part of St. Giles' Cathedral from 1560, and in this Old Kirk between 1882 and 1941. John Knox is claimed as the congregation's first minister.The building dates from 1881/2. The architects were Anderson and Browne. It stands on the site of the old drying green originally provided by the Earl of Wemyss to the residents of St John's Street in the 18th century.
In 1944 Moray House acquired the Old Kirk and its adjacent Hall. Following a major adaptation it became the base for the Music and Educational Handwork departments in 1949. A stage was constructed on the first floor using the timber from discarded desks. The City issued the Governors of Moray House in 1979 with a notice to demolish the Old Kirk's adjacent Hall, which had become dangerous. Until the merger with the University of Edinburgh in 1998 the building had latterly housed Moray House's Building Services. It closed and is currently a base for construction workers on adjacent sites.