School Boards were set up by the Education (Scotland) Act 1872 which gave them a statutory duty to provide education for all children between the ages of 5 and 13 (increased to age 14 in 1901). The boards had an elected membership made up of owners and occupiers of property of the value of £4 or over. They were responsible for the building and maintenance of schools, staffing and attendance of pupils. They were overseen by the Scottish Board of Education. School boards were abolished under the Education (Scotland) Act, 1918 and replaced with school management committees. From 1873 to 1919 schools were managed by Parish School Boards . From 1919 to 1930 these were replaced by School Management Committees and overseen by the Education Authority for the area. In 1930 County Councils were required to set up Education Committees which replaced the Education Authorities.

Larbert Parish School was in existence by 1631. The school was the responsibility of the heritors and was supervised by the parish minister. A new schoolroom was built in 1814 but this was soon considered insufficient and was replaced by another building c 1826 ( later John McNicol's confectionery factory). The school became known as Larbert Public School in 1873 when Larbert School Board took over responsibility.
941.3186 The History of Larbert High School 1886-1986, G Russell MacGillivray pp.10-13