Choosing a school for your child

This advice applies to Scotland. See advice for See advice for England, See advice for Northern Ireland, See advice for Wales

The right to education

A local council has a duty to provide full-time education for children aged 5 to 16 years in their area. Parents are legally responsible for ensuring that their children are educated. They can do this by sending their child to school or arranging education at home.

Children normally start school in the August when they’re aged between 4 years 6 months and 5 years 6 months. They go to secondary school in the August when they’re aged between 11 years 6 months and 12 years 6 months. All children must complete at least 4 years of secondary education.

Choosing a school

You can find information about schools in an area by contacting the local council. Local councils must publish information about schools in their area. For example:

  • name, address and size

  • policies on school meals and transport

  • starting and finishing time for each school

  • term times and holiday dates

  • what additional support needs provision is available

  • how the school day is organised in each school

  • policies on enforcement of attendance and discipline

  • homework

  • wearing of school uniforms and cost of any required items

  • school exam results.

This information is normally available on the council’s website.

The local council must also publish a school handbook for every school in their area. The school handbook includes information about:

  • what the school teaches

  • it’s achievements

  • the results of tests and exams

  • term times, holiday dates and school hours

  • policies on charging for extracurricular activities

You can also find out about schools in your area by:

Local council schools

A local council has a duty to provide full-time education for children aged 5 to 16 years in their area. They must also provide school or college places for those who wish to continue education after age 16.

Local council schools are free to all children. There can be charges for subjects and activities outside the normal curriculum. For example, extra music lessons or outdoor activities.

The local council:

  • makes decisions on what is taught in its schools

  • ensures pupils have proper supervision and safe conditions at school

  • publishes information on each school in its area

  • provides information about how parents can choose which school their children attend.

The parents of pupils at each school can set up a parent council to support the school and represent parents’ views.

Find more information about choosing a school on the Scottish government website.

Choosing a primary school in the catchment area

A catchment area is an area around a school. Councils normally provide children living within a catchment area a place at the school in that area. You normally need to enroll your child by a certain date.

You can find out more about catchment areas and how to enroll your child on your local council’s website. You can find your local council on mygov.scot.

Choosing a primary school outside the catchment area

If you want your child to go to a school outside the catchment area that you live in, you need to make a placing request to your local council. Each local council sets its own priorities for dealing with placement requests. For example, it might give priority to placement requests where:

  • your workplace is near the school

  • your childcare is near the school

  • the child already has a sibling at the school

  • the child has attended the school's nursery

  • there is some other good reason for the child to attend that school rather than their catchment area school.

The local council does not have to agree to the placing request. If your child does not get a place, they’ll usually be put on a waiting list.

If you want your child to start at a school of your choice in August and you make the request before 15 March, the local council must reply by 30 April. If you make the request after 15 March, the local council must reply within 2 months. If you want your child to go to a different school in the middle of a school year, you should make the request to the local council. The local council has 2 months to make a decision.

If the local council does not reply within these times, the request is considered to have been refused, and you can appeal.

When allocating school places to children, it is unlawful for a local council to discriminate. Find out more about discrimination in education.

Secondary schools

In the year before your child moves to secondary school, the local council will normally tell you that your child has a place in your catchment area school. You can make a placing request if you want your child to go to a different school.

Schools for children with additional support needs

Children and young people can have additional support for different reasons. For example:

  • not being able to manage the lessons

  • problems with accessing the curriculum (for example, have a visual or hearing impairment)

  • problems with physical access

  • bullying

  • family circumstances

  • language problems.

In most cases, the local council where you live will have legal responsibility to make sure your child has the support they need. Education for pupils with additional support needs is usually provided in mainstream schools. There are special schools in Scotland for children who have very specific or severe additional support needs. The teachers and other staff are usually specially trained in appropriate methods of teaching and care. A small number of children in special schools attend on a residential basis so that they can receive full-time care. Some special schools are independently run, for example by charities. The education authority might pay for a child to attend one of these.

You can read more about additional support for learning on the Enquire website.

Coordinated support plan

If you think that your child might have additional support needs, you can ask your local council to assess their educational needs. A young person aged 16 or over can ask for an assessment themselves and in some cases, the local council can then make a coordinated support plan. The plan will state the nature of your child's additional support needs and the type of support they require.

You can then decide which school would be most suitable for your child based on their needs. You can use the coordinated support plan to ask the school to provide what your child needs for their education.

Find out more about coordinated support plans on the Enquire website.

Schools for disabled children

If you’re choosing a school for your disabled child, you can ask to see the school's accessibility strategy. The accessibility strategy should cover how the school intends to improve access to the curriculum, physical access and communication with disabled pupils.

Pupils should not be treated less favourably because they are disabled. Schools are expected to make reasonable adjustments for disabled pupils. Find out more about discrimination in education.

Denominational schools

Some schools in Scotland are associated with a religious denomination. These schools are provided by the local council. If you want your child to attend one of these schools, you can make a placing request. The schools are run in the same way as other local council schools. The main differences are:

  • time might be set aside for religious services

  • an unpaid religious supervisor, for example the local priest, will report to the education authority on the religious teaching in the school.

Gaelic education

If you want your child to learn Gaelic or be taught in Gaelic, you should contact your local council to find out if there's any Gaelic education in the area. There are 2 types of Gaelic education:

  • Gaelic learner education - Gaelic is taught as a modern language through English

  • Gaelic medium education - subjects are taught mainly in Gaelic.

If Gaelic is not taught in any schools in your area, you might be able to get your local council to assess the demand for Gaelic education in your area. If the assessment finds there's a high enough demand for Gaelic education, it might have to start providing this. To apply for an assessment, you need to:

  • have a child of under school age who you want to learn Gaelic

  • gather evidence of other children of the same age in your area whose parents also want them to learn Gaelic.

You can find the Gaelic education assessment request application form on the Scottish government website.

Independent schools

Independent schools are not funded by government. They get their funding from fees or charitable donations. Some schools may have scholarship schemes to help with the cost of fees. You can find out more about independent schools from the Scottish Council of Independent Schools website.

Independent schools must be approved by the Scottish government. This means they must meet certain standards on:

  • premises

  • numbers

  • ages and sex of pupils

  • teaching staff

  • safety.

Once approved the school will be placed on the Register of Independent Schools maintained by the Scottish Education Department. You can find the register of independent schools on the Scottish government website.

Education at home

If you decide to educate your child at home you’re expected to provide an education that’s suitable to the child's age, ability and aptitude. Scottish government guidelines state that the local council should contact you at least once a year to check how you’re getting on. If it has some evidence that your child is not being properly educated it can issue an attendance order.

If your child already attends a state school, you can choose to start providing an education from home. You must get the consent of the local council to withdraw the child from school. If your child has not attended a state school, you do not have to get consent to educate your child at home.

If you have a child with additional support needs, you can ask the local council to do an assessment of needs to find out if extra services might be available for home schooling. The local council does not have to do the assessment.

There is help available from organisations who specialise in providing support and advice for educating your child at home. You can get more information about learning at home on mygov.scot website.

Decisions about subject choices

You can find parent information about school courses and making decisions about what to do after leaving school on the Skills Development Scotland My World of Work website.

If your choice of school is refused

A school or local council can refuse to accept your placing request. If this happens, you can first contact the local council to talk informally about changing the decision. You should check that they're aware of all the reasons for your request.

If speaking to your local council does not help, you can make a formal appeal. The appeal must be made within 28 days of being informed of the decision. Councils have their own rules for appeals. Check with your local council to find out how you should appeal the decision. You can only appeal once each year for each of your children. If you have a second choice of school, you should decide whether to apply for your second choice of school rather than appealing. If your appeal confirms the original decision to refuse the request, you can refer the case to the sheriff for your area.

You can find more information on appealing a council’s refusal to accept your placing request on the Scottish government website.

If you want to appeal against a decision by a school or local council you should get advice.