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Online maps maintenance: 20th November 2024

school registration

Apply for a school outside your catchment

Your child would normally attend a school within the school zone (catchment area) close to where you live. However, you can request that your child attends a school in another zone:

Before you apply

Find your catchment school by visiting the school catchments page. Alternatively you can email education@aberdeenshire.gov.uk for advice.

Please be aware that you are responsible for any transport arrangements and associated costs if your child attends an out of zone school.

View the out of zone placing request policy (PDF 318KB) for more information.

How to apply

To apply for an out of zone school please follow these steps.

1. If the placing request is for a P1 admission

If your child has already started primary, please skip this step.

If your child is starting P1, there is an additional step you need to take before making an out of zone placing request. You will need to apply for a primary school place for your in-zone school. This is to make sure your child has a school place if the out of zone placing request is declined.

You should indicate on the form that you are also applying for an out of zone place.  Both schools (in zone and out of zone) will be aware of your application.

Apply for a place for your in-zone school

2. Complete an out of zone placing request

To request that your child attends a school outside your zone please complete the online form.

Make an out of zone placing request

Alternatively, you can complete the paper form (available in two formats) and email it to our Learning Estates team:

We have two months to make a decision on all placing request applications. We will normally accept your request if there is a place available at the school. Find out what happens when there are more requests than there are places.

If your placing request is approved, please follow the instructions in your approval letter from the Learning Estates team to enrol at the out of zone school.

3. Placing request approved - enrol your child to the out of zone school

If your placing request is approved, please follow the instructions in your approval letter from the Learning Estates team to enrol at the out of zone school.

Appeals

If we refuse your application you can appeal no later than 28 days after you receive the letter of refusal. The appeals committee is made up of 3 or 5 people including councillors.

You should keep in mind that you:

  • can't appeal against the refusal of a place in a nursery school or nursery class
  • can appeal only once a year for each of your children

Find out more about how to appeal. 

Contact

As we continue to work from home, if you are applying in paper please email your application to us rather than posting it.

For general enquiries you can contact our Learning Estate team:

Learning Estates Team
Aberdeenshire Council
Gordon House
Blackhall Road
Inverurie
AB51 3WA
Email: placingrequest@aberdeenshire.gov.uk

For appeals you can contact: 

Director of Business Services
Woodhill House
Westburn Road
Aberdeen
AB16 5GB
Email: educationappeals@aberdeenshire.gov.uk