Moving from primary to secondary school
Children in P7 are allocated a place at a secondary school. This place is based on their catchment area if your child is
- at a City of Edinburgh Council primary school
- living in the City of Edinburgh Council area.
We will send a letter in November 2024 to parents of children living in Edinburgh, and who are in P7, confirming the allocated high school based on the address held on the school record.
About your child's high school place
The school we allocate is the same denomination as your child's primary school, so if your child attends
- a non-denominational primary school we allocate your catchment non-denominational high school
- an RC primary school we allocate your catchment Roman Catholic (RC) high school.
You can ask us to change the allocated catchment school if the other is your first preference.
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.
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.
Section three of the Placing in Schools guide tells you more about the procedure for S1 places.
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
Change your allocated catchment school or request a school outside your catchment area
Placing requests will open for August 2025 in November 2024.
You can ask us to change your allocated catchment school or you can make a request for a school in a different catchment area.
You can only make one placing request initially. If your request is turned down you can apply for an alternative school at that time.
A placing request is always treated as your first preference.
Section four of the Placing in Schools guide tells you more about the procedures for placing requests.
Download the Placing in Schools guide - PDF
Further reading
Read on the Scottish Government website.
Download the S1 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.