1639- George Hutcheson (c1560-1639) in his Will provides for a city Hospital (home for the aged and infirm) and “Draft Contract” for Founding a School”.
1641 - Building begins on the Hutchesons’ Hosptital, with additional funding for the School from Thomas Hutcheson (c1590-1641), providing for twelve “indigent orphanes”.
1643 – Archibald Edmiston , “a burgess son of this Burgh, who is both fatherless and motherless)” becomes the first Hutchesons’ pupil.
1648 - Schooling begins in the Hospital building in Trongate . John McLay appointed as the first Hutchesons’ teacher. (Before 1648,(pupils were funded to be sent to a local “Inglis” school.)
1652- Boarding ends for pupils in the Hospital wing where the Schoolroom was located. The School closes, but private teaching continues in the building until a Council appointment is made again in 1655
1661 – Boys admitted again under the Hutchesons’ Foundation. The Hospital Patrons now distinct from the Town Council.
1663 – The full complement of twelve boys enrolled under teacher Robert Forrest (1661-1690)
1788- Classes established in the School, by this time educating 48, including 36 appointed by the City or other Foundations
1791- Entrance restricted to those who could prove previous attendance at school, give proof of age, “above seven...not exceeding eight”, and were “free from any infectious distemper.”
1801 – The teacher’s pay linked to results, for “the emeritus boys who leave the school”. The first F.P. Club is formed (the Hutchesons’ Society).
1803 - John Sharp is the first pupil to earn a bursary to the Grammar School (Glasgow High)
1805 – The Hospital and School move to a new building in Ingram Street. (The School had at least two other - unknown - locations between 1805 and 1795, when the Trongate property was sold).
1810 – The School moves to a new building next door, “mean or plain-looking” to accommodate ever-larger numbers (now around eighty) and the use of monitors under the Lancastrian method.
1824 – Award of the first Dux Medal.
1825 – An assistant teacher employed , leading towards divided spaces, “class rooms” , in the Schoolroom
1841 – A new school is built in Crown Street, Gorbals, using 3 “Schoolrooms”, later to be partitioned when small classrooms became the rule . Gorbals then was a country area.
1861 – Appointment of Thomas Menzies as Headteacher (his predecessor, John McArly (1829-1861) the first to be given this title). Menzies was not a graduate but trained in David Stow’s Normal Seminary and was a proponent of the new methodology of “simultaneous” (whole-class) teaching.
1872 – Hutchesons’ Hospital Act gave the Patrons the right to set up schools throughout the city, the right to provide secondary education, and the right to charge fees. Pupils then were “the children of respectable labouring people”, and the school aimed at “promoting the higher intelligence of our working classes.”
1876 - Crown Street rebuilt (from 1873) to enlarge the roll and educate girls.
1876 - The Gorbals Youth School in Elgin Stree offered to the school, and becomes the Hutchesons’ Girls’ School. James Lochead (1876-1885)appointed Headteacher.
1876 - Ingram Street redesigned, removing original first floor school in favour of a larger main Hall.
1878 – 1262 boys enrolled; 913 girls. Hutchesons’ is the only secondary school on the south side.
1885 – The re-organisation of educational endowments in Glasgow creates a new body to run the Hutchesons’ Schools, Hutchesons’ Educational Trust, with a Board of Governors. William Thomson appointed Head of the Girls’s School (1885-1914).
1886 – The Girls’ School renamed the Girls’ Grammar school.
1889 – The first National Leaving Certificate - Hutchesons’ pupils achieve 50% more passes than national average.
1891 – Fees abolished in all Scottish council-run schools for pupils between 5 and 14. Hutchesons’ rolls drop dramatically. By 1900, only 353 boys and 351 girls were enrolled, with free places too unfilled. The pupils are now coming to school “first-class in the railways”, “from fashionable suburbs such as Bothwell and Uddingston”......
1894 – The first appearance of the School magazine, “The Hutchesonian”
1897 – Elgin Street School rebuilt by order because of poor conditions well below the ordinary Board School.
1898 – Mired in crisis, the Board votes to transfer control of the Schools to the Glasgow School Board. The School Board declined.
1902 – Robert Philp (1902-1913) appointed Rector of the Boys’ School. (Five hours “home study” the rule)( He is the first head to devote himself – from 1904 – entirely to administrative matters.) Rebuilding at Crown Street necessary for gym , science, art and technical subjects developments. More partitioning. A football field found. Subject-teaching on departmental lines takes shape.
1903. The rolls begin to rise.
1910 – Thomson’s success at Elgin Street meant girls were no being turned away. The School , in poor condition, had to rebuild or the authorities would close it.
1912 – Opening of new Hutchesons’ Girls’ Grammar School in Kingarth Street, “lighted throughout with electricity” ( which would not happen in Crown Street until 1927).
1914 – The Kingarth Street roll nearly double the last Elgin Street roll (758 to 440). With funds back in the black ,the Trust pledges to build a new Boys’ School on the plot opposite the Girls’ School.
First Girls’ School Dux medallion. First Girls’ School magazine
1914 – Two new Heads – William McVicar (1914-1927) in Kingarth Street; W. King Gillies (1913-1919) in Crown Street. King Gilles, a classicist, would set the path for the next half-century of boys’ education, stressing academic excellence and introducing rugby and cricket. Under McVicar, the domestic side of the girls’ curriculum was downplayed and the School saw itself “as an important feeder of the University”.
1918 – Post-war, no money for rebuilding but a partnership relationship with the new local education authority covering now the County and the City of Glasgow. Authority representatives ad been on the Trust since 1908. Glasgow was now subsidising the schools, as a part of its educational provision.
1919 – Appointment of J.C Scott as Rector (1919-1932)
1920. First School Sports Day
1921 – Unveiling of war memorial by John Buchan (first President of the F.P.Club)
1924 – Return of an independent Girls’ School magazine, to begin unbroken sequence.
1927 – Appointment of Miss Margaret Kennedy , first Principal (1927-1948) Opening of Auldhouse as School’s own sports ground (managed by the School and Club Trust, successor to the F.P. Club)
1929 – Girls’ School Crest licensed
1932 – Appointment of W. Tod Ritchie as Rector (1932-1945)
1937 - A newly constituted Hutchesons’ Educational Trust allows for substantial sums to be put into a new building fund for a new Boys’ School
1938 – Crossmyloof identified as new school site. Come the war, Crossmyloof was turned over to allotments.
1942 – Distribution of Dux Medals stops. (until 1957). Both schools over-subscribed throughout the War.Girls’ Training Corps established. Milton Park in use as a boarding school for evacuated children.
1943 – Tod Ritchie begins the One Thousand Club to help with re-building – “a thousand genuine believers at no more than £100 a head”. The idea did not work.
1945 - James Watson (1945-1955) appointed as Rector, to make the Boys’ School “the leading Classics School in Scotland”. The highest ever number of Leaving Certificates recorded in each school.
1948 – Miss Isabella McIver (1948-1973) appointed as Principal.
1950 – Tercentenary Celebrations (date based on Robert Bain’s lyric in the School Song)
1954 – Grandstand erected at Auldhouse.
1955 – Appointment of John Hutchison as Rector (1955-1966). Made the record in Science the rival of Classics, and widened extra-curricular activity. A strong believer in the wishesof George and Thomas that “none were to be excluded through lack of means”.
1956 – Girls’ School roll over 1000, Boys’ 600 (pupils not admitted until Primary V). Fee levels lower than all but one comparable Scottish school (Robert Gordon’s)
1957 – The “Junior Block” at Crossmyloof ready for occupation. Foundation of the 57 Group, indispensable fund-raisers.
1960 – New Boys’ Grammar School opens at Crossmyloof (fees of £45p.a)
1961 – First Founders’ Day
1966- Peter Whyte appointed Rector (1966-79). Oversaw amalgamation of the Girls’ and Boys’ School; prepared for independence and widened the curriculum in line with mainstream developments.
1969 – Crown Street demolished
1971 – Whyte and McIver propose a plan for amalgamation
1974 – Payment for Crown Street received
1976 – Amagamation. The Centenary of the Girls’ School. The decision to go independent forced on Governors, “in despair” by withdrawal of the block grant, to be replaced first by a grant in aid, then by the Assisted Places Scheme in 81-82 on a declining curve to disappear in 1986.
1979 – Appointment of Dr. Gilmour Isaac as Rector (1979-1984) who implemented major organisational changes.
1984 – Appointment Paul Brian as Rector; his resignation accepted by Governors “with great reluctance and sadness”.
!985 – Appointment of Miss J. C. Murray as Rector, the first woman to head a co-educational H.M.C.School
1986 - Appointment of David Ward as Rector. Made vital improvements to the building, in planning, funding and over-seeing the construction of a new Science block and a new Physical Education block.
1991- Opening of new Science Block
1991-Tercentary Year; Presentation of Dux Medals 1942-1957 (stopped during the War and not resumed until many years later)
1994 - Opening of New Infant Department, Kingarth Street
1995 - Opening of new Computer Laboratories and Network
1997 - Opening of new Sports Hall
1999 - Opening of new Library in Beaton Road (formerly the gym)
2002 - Opening of new Dining Room
2004 - Opening of Fotheringay Centre
2008 - Opening of new Library, Kingarth Street