Schools - Transactions

Pupils starting P1 and S1 in August 2026

We have agreed the timetable and procedures for children starting P1 and S1 in August 2026 and you can download the new timetable for 2026-27.

P1 registration and placing requests will open on 31 October 2025.

P7 pupils will be allocated a high school based on the address held on their SEEMiS record, so please ensure these are up to date.

We will be sending emails about the procedures to all parents of N5 and P7 pupils living in the City of Edinburgh area, if they attend a City primary, nursery or early years setting.

You can read more by visiting the Primary and Secondary 1 Orb page.

Remember to check your pupil data

In the last blog post we asked you to do some data checks before we extract the pupil data for the P1 and S1 information letters. If you haven't already done so, please check your N5 and P7 pupil addresses on SEEMiS are verified with a UPRN (unique property reference number). The UPRN is important as we use this to determine the catchment schools.

You can run the Custom Report 'No UPRN' to view all current pupils in your school who don't have a UPRN. Its good practice to run this regularly.

If you have any, simply go to Records > Edit and in the address tab, click on the 'Verify Address' button and choose the pupil's address. This will populate the UPRN automatically.

We will be issuing these letters to parents after Friday 10 October to confirm their catchment schools for children starting P1 and S1, so the records need to be up to date by then.

Please note:
•    some addresses will have a different format (i.e. 22 (3f1) may appear as 22/7) so you may need to check this with the parent first.
•    if the address does not show when you click on verify address, check you have the right postcode - check it here: www.royalmail.com/find-a-postcode
•    properties in new build developments may not yet be uploaded to SEEMiS, in this case you cannot verify the address and the UPRN will remain blank.

Our colleagues in SEEMiS Support are emailing nurseries about children with the wrong year group recorded. All nursery children born between 1 March 2021 and 28 February 2022 will be eligible for P1 in August 2026. If they attend a nursery, they should be year group N5 - we often find children are wrongly recorded on SEEMiS. Please check you have all children in this date of birth range recorded as N5.

Annual data checks

If any addresses have been changed, please ensure you update both the pupil’s address AND the parent’s – in the past we’ve found several P7 records where only the parent details are updated, whilst the pupil address remains the old address. The pupil is therefore allocated the wrong high school.

Blue badge checks

Occasionally our Transactions Officers may call a school with a 'blue badge check'. We wanted to give you some background so you know why we are doing this.

Blue Badges help people with disabilities or health conditions park closer to their destination. Parents may receive a Blue Badge for their child if they have severe mobility problems or certain medical conditions, but it should only be used and when the child is a passenger. This means it should not be used to park in a designated bay if the child is in school.

The Council is obliged under social protection law to ensure that a blue badge is being used correctly and, our obligations under education law ensuring that the child is in school when they should be. When a Blue Badge is found to be used incorrectly there is a £50 fine and a warning, and if abused again then the badge will  be removed.

Our Fraud Officers regularly check blue badges and if they find the badge was issued for a child, they will ask a Transactions Officer to check which school they attend, and then call the school to check if that child is in school on that day. We ask for your continued cooperation if you we call you asking if a child is in school for this purpose.

Next update

Our next update will follow after the October break in advance of P1 registration opening.

If you have any enquiries in the meantime, please continue to use our contact form.