Some sources like Aelfic’s colloquy seem to describe a monastery style school where students learn from a master, while in Precepts it seems some were taught by their parents.
How much would a high school aged child in this period actually learn in an academic sense? Would this learning still focus mainly on the religious aspects and what careers would be available for a studious child?
If they were taught by their parents, would this be enough to get them an apprenticeship at a later age or was official schooling required for that?
Aelfic’s colloquy and Precepts also describe some forms of corporeal punishment like beatings. How poorly could a child expect to be treated while being educated?
Are there any sources on the education a girl might recieve in this period, assuming her parents allowed it?
The modern concept of a ‘middle-class family’ doesn’t really apply to Anglo-Saxon England. At the time, you very much had the ‘elite’ - the nobility and the clergy - and the ‘peasantry’ - freemen and slaves. Towards the end of the period, a merchant class was developing, but only as a very small minority.
The peasantry would of course not receive an education, and were largely illiterate, as was par for the course for the medieval world.
However, the nobility weren’t guaranteed to receive much by way of education either. We know that when King Alfred ‘the Great’ of Wessex took the throne, he was illiterate - though he would later learn how to read. Many of his nobles were also illiterate, and so he would demand that they learn to read, or lose their positions.
It’s hard for us to know exactly how much of the nobility was literate. The tradition of issuing charters - signed and witnessed documents - would suggest that literacy was at least relatively common, though not necessarily. It is fairly safe, though, to assert that every noble’s court would have had access to literate scribes.
Literacy was primarily, though, the domain of the clergy. At the time, the clergy was very much centred around monasticism - groups of monks or nuns living a monastic lifestyle away from the rest of the world. These clergymen were highly educated, and would receive an education in Latin - and, in some cases, in the native language of their country. Alfred the Great would have many Latin works translated to English, for example, though this was a relatively novel concept - much of the continent used (almost) exclusively Latin.
As for how nobles would learn to read, they would likely be tutored by clergymen at their court. Alfred the Great would invite many clergymen from across Europe to his court, the most famous example being his biographer, Asser, who hailed from Wales.
There’s little evidence of a gender divide, in this regard. Monasticism was available for both men and women - indeed, one of Alfred’s own daughters would go on to be a nun. Female nobility have been recorded on charters and wills - Wynflaed’s Will is one such example that comes to mind - though of course, these documents only reliably indicate access to a scribe.
So in summary, you weren’t guaranteed an education, even as a noble. If you did receive one, it would likely be through tutoring from a clergyman at court. The only class who were consistently educated were the clergy, at monastic centres of learning.
Sources: Higham & Ryan’s ‘The Anglo-Saxon World’ is a fantastic overview of the time period. Asser’s biography of King Alfred is a fascinating contemporary account.