Apply for an additional year of free nursery or childcare

Who can get an additional year at nursery or childcare, deferring your child's place at primary school, applying for early entry to primary school.

Who can get an additional year at nursery or childcare

Children are automatically entitled to an additional year of funded early learning and childcare if:

they are still 4 years old on the date they are eligible to start school and
their fifth birthday is on or between the day after school starts in August and the end of February 2026.

Defer your child's place at primary school

If you would like to defer your child starting school for a year, you'll need to:

Contact your child's nursery or childcare centre directly and let them know that you would like an additional year of free early learning and childcare.
Register your child for a place at primary school between Friday 1 November and Friday 8 November 2024, but select on this form that you want to defer their start at primary school for a year. If you miss the registration period, contact your local catchment school to arrange registration.
Apply for deferred entry to primary school online to defer your child's place in Primary 1 (P1) class. The online form will be available on this page from Friday 1 November 2024.

You can ask your child's current nursery or childcare centre to assist you if you have any problems completing the forms.

If you are deferring your child's place at school you can ask for your child to continue at their current nursery or childcare provider, or we can provide them with a place at one of our council-run nurseries or council-funded nurseries or childminders.

If you want your child to go to a private nursery or childminder not funded by us, you will have to pay for this cost.

Early entry to school

If you would like your child to start school before their fifth birthday, you can find out what to consider and how to apply for early entry to school.

More information

You can contact Children's Services for more information or advice by email at cssupport@renfrewshire.gov.uk, by phone on 0300 300 0170 or write to us at:

Children's Services
Council Headquarters
Renfrewshire House
Cotton Street
Paisley PA1 1TZ

Renfrewshire Council