The School in Ingram Street 1805-1841
Hutchesons' School began to grow in size and reputation, with around fifty pupils at the end of the the eighteenth century. The Trongate Hospital had fallen into disuse and was fully sold off by 1795, requiring for the School at least two moves to new but now unknown addresses before it moved into the new Hospital building in Ingram Street in 1805.By 1810, continued growth meant a move to yet another new site, adjacent to the new Hospital and originally intended as the Master's house.It was "mean and plain-looking", unlike the very impressive Hospital which had been built as a memorial to the Founders. Around eighty boys were taught in the schoolroom, still under a single master but one trained in a new method of teaching which involved the use of monitors,or senior pupils who supervised the instruction of younger pupils. By mid-century up to 175 boys were being taught by these means. The ambition for most Hutchesonians at the start of the century, as earlier, was to be articled to a trade as "honest craftsmen".
Apprenticeship Articles for a Hutchesons'-educated pupil , William Whyte, in 1805
By the end of the eighteenth century the school had a curriculum much advanced on the usual one for a charity school educating children below twelve. Writing was still rarely taught elsewhere, and arithmetic too was new and ahead of its time (in the parish schools, it was usually restricted to those who could pay tuition fees). It was to ensure the highest standards of work to meet with their concern for the School that the Hospital Patrons (its governing body) linked the pay of the teacher to results from 1801, and also insisted on the teacher having qualifications and references. The first Dux Medal was awarded in 1824, boosting corporate esteem and showing a shift to the more individualistic, competitive ethos of the new industrial century.
Glasgow in 1797
By the end of the time in Ingram Street, there were two teachers and a division of the schoolroom into "class-space".Assistant masters and divided schoolrooms were not then common.