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Dundas Vale Teachers' Centre

Glasgow City Archives, Department of Education

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Dundas Vale Teachers' Centre

Dundas Vale Teachers' Centre on New City Road in Cowcaddens.

Built in 1837, the Normal School for the Training of Teachers (later named Dundas Vale College) was designed by David Hamilton. It was the first institution in Britain specifically for the professional training of teachers.

The Normal School was the brainchild of David Stow, a leading figure in the Glasgow Educational Association. He had worked in Thomas Chalmer's Sabbath Schools and established a school for poor children in Drygate. Stow was prominent in the campaign to provide professional training for teachers, which led to the establishment of the Normal School (the name was borrowed from the French Ecole Normale). The school's management was entrusted to the Church of Scotland in 1841, but Stow did not remain for long - after the Disruption in 1843, he joined the Free Church of Scotland and established the Free Church Normal College (later renamed Stow College) in 1845.

Dundas Vale College was merged with Stow College in 1906 and in 1922 Glasgow's teacher training was transferred to the new Jordanhill College of Education. In the early 1970s the Cowcaddens building still housed a Teachers' Centre. In 2004 it serves as an auxiliary fire station.

Reference: D-ED 5/29/8/163

Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Libraries Information and Learning

Keywords:
Dundas Vale College, Dundas Vale Teachers' Centre, fire stations, Glasgow Educational Association, Glasgow Educational Society, Glasgow Infant School Society, Glasgow Normal School, Glasgow Normal Seminary, Jordanhill College of Education, Normal School for the Training of Teachers, teacher training colleges



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