were enrolled. By the following year, just nine children were not attending, and the school board instructed an officer to call and warn their parents that proceedings would be taken if their absences continued. A report in 1875 highlighted deficiencies in the girls' school: In response, the school board set about merging the two schools, a new teacher for the girls was appointed, to be under the supervision of the boys' teacher, and the girls' school building was refitted as a home for the female teacher. The new arrangement did not work well, and following professional disagreements between the two teachers, it was decided to operate two separate schools in the same building. Auchterhouse Primary School continues to provide primary education, and had 55 pupils in 2010, including nine in the nursery class. The school holds an Eco-Schools Green Flag award. It was last inspected by Education Scotland in 2010. At the age of 11, pupils transfer to Monifieth High School, located at Monifieth, south east of Auchterhouse. The school was last inspected in 2006, when it had 1,071 pupils. Religion The parish church, dedicated to Saint Mary, had been founded by 1238. The original building was replaced by a Gothic structure in 1426, and was in turn replaced in 1630. It has been described as "the last specimen of early church architecture in Scotland". Due to a structural defect, it was partially rebuilt in 1775. It now consists of a rectangular chancel at the east end, a large rectangular nave, and a western tower. Two Norman fonts dating from the original 13th-century church remain, and a stone marked "Ave Maria" is incorporated into the east gable of the present building. A clock at the rear of the church was made by the Dundee clockmaker Thomas Ivory. Underneath the present church is an old burial vault containing remains of the Buchan, Lyon and Ogilvy families, but there are no memorial tablets. Despite the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland forbidding the practice in 1643, burials continued to take place under the rush-strewn dirt floor. John Glas, the founder of the Glasite sect in the First Great Awakening, a Christian revitalisation movement that swept Protestant Europe in the 18th century, preached at Auchterhouse in 1721. He was the minister at nearby Tealing, where his preaching drew a large congregation. In The Testimony of the King of Martyrs Concerning His Kingdom,