Schools - Transactions

P1 and S1 school allocations for August 2026

The school intake limits were decided and Head Teachers were informed in January & February. These are decided based on several factors, including pupil-teacher ratios and number of available classrooms available. For Roman Catholic schools we ensure we can accommodate all children we know of who are baptised in the Roman Catholic faith.

We have completed the first round of allocations for the new P1 & S1 intakes. Decisions have been made on placing requests and requests for Roman Catholic schools received up to 28 February 2026. Parents will be notified of the outcome by email on 13 March.

Waiting lists are now live - as always, any pupils remaining on the waiting list by the start of term will be passed to you in August.

Those turned down RC catchment schools were allocated a place in their non-denominational catchment school, and the allocations for the children we've turned down have been transferred accordingly on Gateway EPR Manager (P1) or on SEEMiS provisional allocations (S1).

As always we have updated the website with information on the allocations, including next steps and listing schools with available places - www.edinburgh.gov.uk/schoolplaces2026

Parents turned down may request a second choice by choosing one of the schools listed on page 2.

Enrolment remains open and the Transactions team will continue to deal with these as well as any applications from families moving to or within the Edinburgh area.

Allocations are very fluid between now and summer, and your intake numbers can change frequently. The placing in schools appeals take place in May and June, and this will result in further changes.

You may notice that there are more children allocated places than the agreed intake limit for your school. This is because we guarantee places for all children at their non-denominational catchment school if they applied by 24 December 2025. We always start with higher numbers and experience from past years shows these numbers do drop. The figures will be carefully monitored, and appropriate action taken if necessary.

Viewing Primary 1 allocations

All pupils can be viewed on Gateway EPR Manager in Reports > Intake Registration Report. This includes any placing requests we've granted.

All enrolments for deferred children approved by 28 February have already been deleted.

Some schools may see some new enrolments not yet registered (i.e. at 'Verified' or 'Pending'). Transactions will register if and when place is available.

Viewing Secondary 1 allocations

Your allocated pupils appear in Admissions & Leavers > Allocations > Provisional Allocations Report 

• Primary schools - change Report Type to ‘Allocated From Report’
• Secondary schools - change this to 'Allocated To Report'
• click 'Get report Data'. This will generate a list of pupils.

Under the heading 'Allocation Type' the categories are as follows: 

Accepted by Parent - these are non-catchment requests we have granted, or children granted specialist provision within your school (i.e. performance schools at Balerno and Broughton)
Allocated by Authority - these are catchment pupils.
Withdrawn - these are pupils previously allocated places but are now withdrawn and should not be counted in your figures.

Note - children who are attending a non-CEC primary school appear as current school ‘Unknown’ on the report. Please contact us if you'd like to know where these children are coming from.

What if a place is no longer required?

If parents contact you advising they no longer require a place, please use the contact form to let us know. However, you don't need to tell us about:

• Places in special schools and classes - these are allocated by the Parent & Pupil Support Manager (Additional Support for Learning). We withdraw these places as and when the ASL team confirm these to us. If you believe a pupil has been allocated a place in a special school or class and they still show on your provisional intake, contact us and we'll check.
• Nursery deferrals - these are notified to us by Early Years. We’ve already deleted enrolments for all known approved deferrals.

If a family is moving to a new address within Edinburgh, please advise the parent to complete the change of address form.

Next steps

A second allocation will take place in early April. Until then we will be keeping a log of any changes, i.e., families moving address, late requests etc.

A third allocation will take place in May. At this time, we'll ask you to contact parents to confirm their acceptance of the places allocated, and you can then mark your leavers on SEEMiS.

Free school meals

On 26 January Social Security Scotland shared their latest data on families in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment. This has resulted in another 66 automatic awards for P6 and P7 children, and parents will be informed shortly. Awards have been backdated to the date we received the data.

The Easter holiday FSM payment will be made on Monday 30 March to all families in receipt of an income-based award.

Applications for estranged or vulnerable young people

We have received some enquries about applying for young people who are estranged from their family or otherwise living independently. Young people over school leaving age can apply for free school meals and an Education Maintenance Allowance. They will qualify if they receive Universal Credit but we appreciate that this might not always be in place. We can consider discretionary awards in these cases. School staff can submit applications on behalf of applicants if necessary.

Education Maintenance Allowance

Applications closing 31 March 2025

As always, applications for EMA will close on 31 March and will reopen for the 2026-27 session in June. We are still receiving applications, and we expect awards will continue to be made well into April.