Apply for P1
If your child's date of birth is between 1 March 2019 and 29 February 2020 they are due to start primary school in August 2024. You must register your child for P1 between 30 October and 17 November 2023.
If you live outside the catchment area of your preferred school you need to make a placing request. You will only receive a place if one is available.
You can apply to defer your child's entry to P1 for a year. Read about deferring entry to P1.
If your child was born after 29 February 2020 you can request they start a year early. Read about early admission to P1.
Section two of the Placing in Schools guide tells you more about applying for P1.
Register for P1
Registration for P1 opens on 30 October 2023 for children starting school in August 2024. You should register by 17 November 2023 to enable the schools to start planning their classes for next year.
We cannot guarantee a place will be available in one of your catchment schools but we'll do our best to find a place for your child.
You will be asked to choose your preferred catchment school of three. Your
- non-denominational catchment school
- Roman Catholic (RC) catchment school
- Edinburgh's Gaelic primary school, Bun-sgoil Taobh na Pàirce.
No knowledge of the language is needed for entry to the Gaelic school. If you live outside the City of Edinburgh area, you cannot register but you may instead submit a placing request for Taobh na Pàirce.
Places at RC schools are not guaranteed, and we give priority to children who are baptised in the Roman Catholic faith. Where we cannot offer a place, most children are given a place in their non-denominational catchment school.
Section five of the Placing in Schools guide tells you more about how we allocate places in RC schools.
Primary schools open day
Primary schools will hold an open day on Thursday 2 November 2023. This is a great chance for you to visit and find out what your catchment school is like. Contact the school directly for opening times.
Request a school outside your catchment area
If your preferrence is a school in a different catchment area, you can make a placing request for that school.
You can only apply for one school initially. If your request is turned down you can apply for an alternative school at that time.
Placing request applications open in November 2023 for children starting school in August 2024.
Section four of the Placing in Schools guide outlines the procedures for placing requests.
Further reading
Download the Placing in Schools guide - PDF
Read Choosing a School: A Guide for Parents on the Scottish Government website.
Download the P1 school places FAQ for parents - PDF
Download our admissions policy - PDF
Download our admissions procedure - PDF
Download the school placements privacy notice - PDF
Contact us
Please use our contact form for any enquiries you have.
We receive a high volume of enquiries and we will get back to you as soon as we can.