Placing requests

You've the right to make a placing request for your child to be educated in a school other than your local catchment school.

You need to submit a placing request if:

• you wish your child to attend a school other than your local catchment school
• you don't live in South Ayrshire and want your child to attend a South Ayrshire school
• your child already attends a South Ayrshire school and you want them to transfer to another school within South Ayrshire and you have not moved address to within that catchment area

A parent or carer is entitled to submit a placing request at any time and the Education (Placing in Schools Etc-Deemed Decisions) (Scotland) Regulations 1982/ 1733 and the Additional Support for Learning (Placing Requests and Deemed Decisions) (Scotland) Regulations 2005/515 provide that:-

• For those making a P1/S1 placing request on or before 15th March the authority shall be deemed to have refused the placing request if they have not made a decision by 30th April.
• For all other placing requests, the authority has 2 months to deal with them.
• The deemed decision regulations provide that a failure to comply with these timescales results in a deemed decision by the education authority being a refusal of the placing request.

The responsibility for decisions on placing request lies with Educational Services and not with individual schools.

Before you begin

• You need to fill out a separate application form for each child
• You can only apply for one school at a time
• You can apply for a place in the current session at any time
• Inform the head teacher of the school that your child attends of your intention to make a placing request
• If your placing request is granted, any place your child currently holds in a South Ayrshire school is released and may be allocated to another child immediately

Apply

  Apply online

Processing your application

We'll receive your application and you will be notified by email. You can track your case via the link in the email.

When a placing request is received during a child or young person's primary or secondary education Educational Services will contact the requested school and the current school for further information.

If the child/young person has an additional support need this should be made clear on the form as this will determine the legislation under which the placing request is handled.

If following a successful placing request you wish your child to return to their catchment school you will require to complete a new placing request.

We do not provide transport for those pupils who attend a school other than their catchment school as the result of a successful placing request.

Why placing requests are sometimes not granted

There are a number of reasons why our Educational Services may not grant a placing request. These are summarised below, where granting the request would:

• make it necessary for us to take additional teaching staff into employment
• give rise to significant expenditure in extending or altering the school's accommodation or facilities
• be seriously detrimental to the continuity of the child's education
• be likely to be seriously detrimental to order and discipline in the school
• be likely to be seriously detrimental to the educational well-being of pupils attending the school
• require the formation of an additional class or appointment of an additional teacher at a future stage of the child's education at primary school
• have the consequence that the capacity of the school would be exceeded in terms of pupil numbers
• mean that the education normally provided at the specified school is not suited to the age, ability or aptitude of the child or would result in unreasonable public expenditure being incurred which would not ordinarily be incurred
• mean we had already decided that the child should no longer attend the school
• in the case of special schools, mean the child does not have additional support needs requiring the education or facilities available
• prevent us from reserving places for pupils moving into the catchment area
• in the case of mainstream schools, the education provided would not be suited to the child or would cause unreasonable expenditure

What to do if your placing request is not granted

You may lodge an appeal and your appeal will be heard by the Education Appeal Committee. The Committee will decide if one of the statutory grounds of refusal exist, and consider all of the circumstances of the case to decide if the placing request should be granted. If you are not provided with a decision on your placing request within two months of making your placing request, you may also appeal. However, if you decide to appeal you will not be able to make another placing request until the appeal is heard or you withdraw your appeal.

Download further Appeal_Information_for_Parents (PDF, 40 KB).