Background:

Devon was raised on the Orkneys in a village called Quoyloo (Orkney mainland), and still has family there. But he got in a few scrapes as a youngling, and his mother decided that he should attend a school in Elgin. 

He'd been attending that school for a good 6 or so years before he was invited to XI. He'd not been an exceptional student, but was not a complete disaster either ... just a middle-of-the-road average student. (He'd learned by this point not to go around using his powers.)