Start primary school

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.

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. This is called Early Admission to Primary and is assessed by the Education Resource Group. Learn more about early entry to Primary 1

Section two of the Placing in Schools guide tells you more about applying for P1.

Decisions on school places

Decisions on non-catchment placing requests and requests for Roman Catholic schools were made on 8 March 2024.

Read about the decisions.

Register for P1

All children starting school in August 2024 should now be registered for P1. If you haven't registered yet, you can still do so but we cannot guarantee a place will be available in one of your chosen catchment school.

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, please use the contact form to 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.

Download the Placing in Schools guide - PDF

Register your child for P1

Moving to a new address

If you are moving to a new address before 31 July 2024 you need to tell us.

Complete the Change of Address form as soon as you know your new address. You can fill in the form in advance of your move, provided you will be settled in your new address before 31 July 2024.

Please note that we cannot guarantee a place at one of your catchment schools if you apply after 24 December 2023. In these cases we we may offer you the nearest school which has a place available.

Section nine of the Placing in Schools guide tells you more about moving address.

Download the Placing in Schools guide - PDF

Tell us your new address

Request a school outside your catchment area

If your preference is a school in a different catchment area, you can make a placing request for that school at the same time you register for P1.

If you live outside the City of Edinburgh area and you want to make a placing request for a school within the City, please use our contact form to do this. Remember to include the name of the school you are requesting, details of any older siblings already attending and/or any exceptional reasons you have.

You can only apply for one school initially, but if your request is turned down you can apply for an alternative school at that time.

Section four of the Placing in Schools guide outlines the procedures for placing requests.

Download the Placing in Schools guide - PDF

Further reading

Read Choosing a School: A Guide for Parents on the Scottish Government website.

Download

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.

Contact us

School transactions

Address: The City of Edinburgh Council,
Transactions - Assessment & Finance,
PO Box 12331,
Edinburgh,
EH7 9DN