Pre-school nursery education

Allocation of places

Placement in a primary school is based on home address and pupils who attend the local nursery school or class are not guaranteed a place if they do not live within the school's catchment area.

Find out more about school catchment areas and applying for school places.

Delaying entry

Traditionally in Scotland almost all children aged between 4½ and 5 enrol in primary school at the start of the autumn term.

Children with birthdays in January and February have the right to delay entry into primary school and a free part time nursery place for an additional year.

Children with birthdays that fall between the first day of the autumn term and 31 December also have the right to delay their start to school but a free nursery place is not automatic and is at the discretion of the child's local authority.

Decisions about whether or not a child would benefit from an additional year of pre-school education will in all cases seek to promote the best interests of the child. The views of parents and carers will contribute to the decision. Parents may also be interested in reading guidelines on delaying your child's entry to primary school and a summary of research into delaying school entry.

If you decide to make application for an additional year of nursery education, you can get an application form from your nursery.

Early admission

Traditionally in Scotland almost all children aged between four and a half and five enrol in primary school at the start of the autumn term.

If your child is not of school age, you may make an application for early admission.

To get an application form, please contact 0131 529 2412.