The school stands on the banks of the Water of Leith, and serves children from the areas of Balerno, Kirknewton and Ratho, and also hosts pupils from a variety of areas outside the catchment area such as Currie, East Calder, Mid Calder and Edinburgh.
Marjoribanks was descended from James Marjoribanks, a younger son of Thomas Marjoribanks of Ratho head of the lowland Clan Marjoribanks, both of whom lived in the 16th Century in Edinburgh.
Born at Haltoun House near Ratho, the eldest son and heir of James Maitland, 7th Earl of Lauderdale, whom he succeeded in 1789, he became a controversial Scottish politician and writer.
On 17 May 1753 he was appointed, under the patronage of the Earl of Lauderdale, assistant to John Guthrie, parish minister of Ratho, Midlothian, on whose death in 1756 he became sole incumbent.