Apply for a school place
Apply for S1
If you live in Midlothian and your child attends a state primary school in Midlothian, East Lothian or City of Edinburgh, we will write to you with information about moving to S1, you do not need to do anything else.
If you haven’t received a letter by the end of November 2024, contact the Pupil Placement Team.
If your child attends a Midlothian primary school but you do not live in Midlothian the local authority where you live and pay council tax will write to you about S1.
Catchment areas
- If your child attends a non-denominational primary school, you will be registered at your catchment non-denominational secondary school.
- If your child attends a Roman Catholic primary school your child will be registered at St. David’s Roman Catholic High School.
If your child attends a non-catchment primary school, your catchment secondary school may not be the one associated with their primary school.
If a child has more than one address
If parents of a child do not live together and live in different areas we will work out the catchment school the child will go to as follows:
- If the parents can provide proof that they share the care 50/50, such as a legal agreement, they can choose which catchment area to register their child.
- If the parents do not share care 50/50 the address of the parent in receipt of Child Benefit will be used.
- If the parents do not share care 50/50 and neither parent is receiving child benefit the primary contact on education records will be used.
Applying for a school outwith your catchment area
You can apply for a place at a school outwith your catchment area, this is called a placing request. We will try to accommodate your wishes but it may not be possible.
Your child will take part in transition activities based on their catchment high school until the end of April when school places are confirmed.
Moving house
If you are moving house before your child starts S1 please provide proof of your new address. We can accept this up to 4 weeks before you move.
We will need proof of your new address by the 15 March 2025. If you provide proof of your new address after this we will try to accommodate your request but all places in your catchment school may have already been allocated. If your catchment school does not have places available a place will be allocated at the nearest school with places.
We can accept the following documents as proof of residency:
- Council Tax letter – Current tax year
- Government benefit letter
- Gas, electric or telephone landline bill – the last 3 months
- Full valid UK driving licence
- Tenancy agreement
- For military families we accept MOD assignment order and march in date letter.
We cannot accept solicitor’s letters as proof of residency.
If you are moving into temporary accommodation, please contact the Pupil Placement Team.