General guidance for families moving to Scotland from anywhere in the world. It is not a formal conversion of grades or an admissions decision – schools, councils and universities make those.
Primary school (P1–P7)
Primary school has seven years, Primary 1 to Primary 7.
Children usually start P1 in August when they are between about 4½ and 5½. The intake for a school year is based on birthdays from March to the following February.
Parents of the youngest children in an intake can ask to defer the start by a year – check the rules with your council.
Children are placed in the year group for their age; they are not usually held back or moved up a year.
Secondary school (S1–S6)
Secondary school runs from S1 to S6. Pupils can leave after S4 once they reach school-leaving age (16), and many stay for S5 and S6.
National qualifications are mainly taken from S4: National 4 and National 5, then Highers and Advanced Highers in S5–S6.
Qualifications Scotland is the national awarding body for these qualifications.
The school year and getting a place
The school year usually runs from mid-August to late June or early July. Each council sets its own term dates.
For council (state) schools, you apply to the council for the area you will live in. Each address has a catchment school; you can also make a placing request for another school.
Independent schools run their own admissions and charge fees.
College and further education
Colleges offer courses from introductory levels up to HNC and HND, and some degree-level study, all placed on the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF). The SCQF has 12 levels: National 5 is level 5, Higher is level 6 and Advanced Higher is level 7.
University
A Scottish undergraduate honours degree usually takes four years. Most applications go through UCAS, and each university sets its own entry requirements, often expressed in Highers.
Bringing qualifications from another country
There is no automatic grade conversion. For an official statement of how an overseas qualification compares to UK levels, families and institutions use UK ENIC. Schools, colleges and universities make the final decision.
Being built – not live yet
We only publish guidance once each source has been checked. Planned for this section:
Country-by-country guides, starting with the most common countries families move from
School year, age cut-off and stage mapping for each country, with the evidence for each