Sending your child to school

Home > Services > Education and learning > Information for parents

We provide information for parents of children starting primary school, and for families moving in to the area, in our pack for parents and carers:

Sending your child to school - Information for Parents (pdf-450KB)

You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document. Download Acrobat Reader here. Warning - this file may take some time to download due to the large file size.

Entry to primary schools in the Renfrewshire Council area occurs once a year, at the start of the new session in August. Only children whose fifth birthday falls between March 1 of that year and the last day of February of the following year will be automatically admitted to school.

Parents may make a request for early entry to school for a child whose fifth birthday falls after the appropriate latest date.

Parents may also make a placing request for their child to attend a primary school other than their catchment school.

Important information for parents making a placing request for their child into Primary 1 - with effect from August 2011

Regulations were laid in the Scottish Parliament, on 16 September 2010, to introduce a statutory maximum of 25 pupils in all primary 1 classes.

These regulations, The Education (Lower Primary Class Sizes) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2010, came into force on 11 October 2010, with the statutory class size maximum of 25 pupils in primary 1 applying from August 2011.

The introduction of this legal maximum class size of 25 at primary 1 may well impact on the number of spaces available for placing requests at primary 1. If you wish to discuss this futher please contact us on 0141 842 5637.

Starting a new school year or moving schools
This can be both an exciting and an anxious time for children. By knowing as much as you can about the school's arrangements, you can help your child to move on smoothly to the next stage in their education:

• All schools have a handbook which is updated every year. It is a good source of information about the school and can be picked up from the school office.
• Many of our schools have their own websites and you can find links to these in the 'Schools' section.
• You can find guidance about starting a new school year and other useful information on the parentzone scotland website.
• You can make a placing request for your child to attend a school other than their catchment school.
• Due to the Scottish Government's decision to discontinue printing the 'Choosing a School' booklet in hard copy format you can now access this directly by visiting the Scottish Government website. The booklet will be reviewed annually by the Scottish Government.

If you want to enquire about school catchment areas, please call 0141 842 5583. For more information, please call 0141 842 5663.

Your feedback is really useful to us. We want to make sure we are doing everything we can to help you to help your children, if there is anything you feel you need to know which we don’t already cover, please tell us by contacting us:

• email: schools.els@renfrewshire.gov.uk
• phone: 0141 842 5663
• fax: 0141 842 5699
• write to:

Renfrewshire Council
Education and Leisure Services
Cotton Street
Paisley
PA1 1LE

We try to provide the best possible service, but things do go wrong. It helps us to improve our services if you let us know about your concerns or complaints. We have provided a leaflet to guide you. 'Notes for parents on our complaints process' can be downloaded below:

notes for parents on our complaints process (pdf 160kb)