Enrolling your child for Primary One (P1) starting in August 2025

Arrangements are now in place to enrol pupils to primary one (P1) for August 2025 across East Lothian schools.

Any child whose fifth birthday falls between 1 March 2025 (born 1 March 2020) and the last day of February 2026 (born 28 February 2021) is eligible to start school in August 2025.

You should enrol your child online. The online P1 enrolment period will be live on our website from 4 November 2024 to 25 November 2024.

P1 enrolment arrangements for starting P1 in August 2025

If your child is age-eligible to start school in August 2025 and you live in the East Lothian Council area you should enrol your child for P1 in your catchment primary school using our online P1 enrolment form.

If you previously deferred your child’s entry to P1 from August 2024 to August 2025, you should also enrol your child for P1 now.

The online P1 enrolment period is from 4 November 2024 to 25 November 2024.

if your child attends a nursery class in an East Lothian primary school you must still submit an online P1 enrolment form for the catchment primary school
every home address is located in a school catchment area and for some areas there is also a local Roman Catholic school - check the catchment maps on our website
if you can't check your address on the catchment maps - email schoolplacements@eastlothian.gov.uk for clarification on your catchment school
you must be resident in East Lothian to enrol for a place in Primary 1 and be living at the address entered on the P1 online enrolment form (proof of address is required). If you are moving address in the coming months - email schoolplacements@eastlothian.gov.uk for advice on the process to follow
if you are applying for a Roman Catholic school, please note we often receive more applications than places available, for that reason we have asked you for some additional information in the form - places will be confirmed by the end of April 2025
if you are applying for a catchment place in all other schools, a catchment place is automatically allocated after you submit the online P1 enrolment form and no further action is required. Parents/carers do not receive any further confirmation of the catchment P1 place - in the unlikely situation of there being more applications than places available in a school, we will contact parents before the end of February 2025

Non-catchment placing requests

Although most children attend their catchment school, parents may make an application for any other school under the management of East Lothian Council. This is called a non-catchment placing request.

If you intend to make a placing request, you should still submit an online P1 enrolment form for the catchment primary school - read about making a non-catchment placing request

Deferring

If you want to defer your child's entry to P1 for a year, you should still submit an online P1 enrolment form for the catchment primary school at this point so that a place can be held for your child.

The process to defer entry to P1 takes place between December 2024 and March 2025. Application information will be distributed to early years’ settings in December 2024

Completing the online enrolment form

The form takes around 10 minutes to complete. Applications must be completed in one session. On successful completion of the form, you will receive a confirmation email.

Make sure you have these documents ready before you start, so you can upload them:

an image file or electronic copy of a utility bill dated within the last 6 months
an image file or electronic copy of your child’s birth certificate - not required if your child already attends an East Lothian Council nursery or a funded provider/childminder that is in partnership with East Lothian Council
an image file or electronic copy of your child’s Roman Catholic baptism certificate - only for Roman Catholic school applications, if applicable

We accept photographs or screenshots if we can see the whole document clearly.

The parental details and address provided on the P1 online enrolment form will be checked against the Council Tax record to verify residence within the primary school catchment area.

Enrol your child to start P1 in August 2025

Advice and more information

If you have any questions email schoolplacements@eastlothian.gov.uk for advice.

Read more information on school enrolment and non-catchment placing requests in the School Enrolment booklet

Next page Making a placement request