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Scotland : Education Structure (ages 3-19)


Last updated: 07-Apr-2011

An educational phase is a stage in the child's education which is normally defined by legislation or regulation and is characterised by the age of students, school type, and curriculum and assessment arrangements. The curriculum and assessment framework in this Archive is related to these phases.

There are essentially four phases in the educational structure for 3- to 18-year-olds in Scotland:

Pre-school institutions catering for children aged 3 to 5 years of age.
Primary schools catering for children aged 5 to 12 years of age.
Secondary schools catering for young people aged 12 to 16, although many secondary schools also cater for students up to age 18.

Optional (for students) upper secondary education is provided in secondary schools and further education institutions for students aged from 16.

3.2.1 First phase: Pre-compulsory/early years education, ages 3 - 5

Early years education (pre-school education) is provided for children aged 3 to 5 years in a variety of settings.  There is a growing appreciation that education and care in the pre-school setting are interlinked.  As a result, services that had previously been thought of as providers of care are now recognised as playing a role in the education of young children. 2

Many local authorities provide pre-school education within primary schools through their education departments.  Pre-school education provision in a primary school will usually have places for up to 20 children at one time.  It is possible for a large primary school to have more than one pre-school education class.  2

A large number of private providers also contribute, in partnership with local authorities, towards securing free, part-time pre-school education for 3- and 4-year-olds.   Their curricula and approach are very similar to those in the public sector. 2

Many local authorities also encourage pre-school playgroups and provide support for them, often in conjunction with the Scottish Pre-school Play Association (SPPA) or Highland Pre-school Services (HPS). These playgroups are run by parents who will, in many cases, pay a trained play leader to take charge of the group, although sometimes groups are run by volunteers from the community. Playgroups belonging to the SPPA and HPS have an agreed code of practice, and training is provided by the organisation for those who work with pre-school children and wish to have it. Pre-school playgroups normally operate on the basis of a two-and-a-half hour session either daily or on certain days of the week.  It is very common for children to attend a pre-school playgroup for a year before attending a nursery school or class, and children who spend only part of a day or week in a nursery quite often continue to attend a playgroup when they are not at the nursery.2

The Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 10  requires local authorities to promote social welfare and enables them to provide, through their social work departments, accommodation, material resources and finance in the form of grants or loans for work with the under-5s.  By this Act, local authority social work departments are empowered to set up day nurseries.  These care for children across the whole pre-school age group and provide pre-school education for the older child.  Priority for admission may be given to the children of single parents, (especially if the parent is required to go to work), children who have been neglected or abused, and children from families whose difficulties may be eased by day nursery placements.  This is often all day provision. 2

3.2.1.1 Admissions criteria

All children aged 3 and 4 are entitled to free, part-time pre-school education.  Local authority education departments are required to secure pre-school provision for children from the start of the school term following their third birthday until the end of the school term before they are eligible to start primary school (see section 3.2.2.1.).  2

Occasionally, in special cases, children may attend local authority pre-school classes beyond statutory school age.  Whether younger children or those deferring entry to primary school are accepted in a pre-school establishment may depend on a number of factors, such as family circumstances, the aims of the establishment, and the availability of a place.  Priority may be given to children who are referred by the social work department, psychological services or the health service. 2

3.2.1.2 Length of school year (in days) and day (in hours)

Eligible children are entitled to 475 of funded pre-school education over the school year.  This equates to 12-and-a-half hours per week over the school year (38 weeks).  99

Nursery schools and classes usually operate on the basis of two-and-a-half hour sessions per day, starting at 9am and 1.00pm, usually with different children in each session.  In some areas children attend only on certain days of the week. 2

Playgroups normally have a two-hour session either every day or on a number of days each week.  Other daycare establishments tend to have longer hours, opening earlier in the morning and not closing until the early evening to suit parents' hours of work. 2

3.2.2 Second phase: Compulsory primary education, ages 5 to 12

Primary education, provided by the education departments of local authorities in Scotland is normally offered in seven-year primary schools or, in more remote areas, where numbers would not justify separate schools, in the primary department of a combined primary/secondary school.  In a very small number of cases, infant schools exist, which take children for the first two or three years of their primary education.  Thereafter, children transfer to a primary school for the rest of their primary education.  Primary schools providing the full seven years of primary education vary considerably in size, from schools in rural areas with fewer than 20 students and one teacher who is both teacher and headteacher, to schools of over 600 students, with several classes at each stage and several senior members of staff.  Just over one-third of primary schools in Scotland have fewer than 100 students, and less than one in ten have 400 or more students.  2

Primary schools are normally organised into classes, by age, from Primary 1 (P1) to Primary 7 (P7).  Three broad stages are normally distinguished in primary schools: P1 to P3 (the infant or early education stage, 5- to 8-year-olds); P4 and P5 (the middle stage, 8- to 10-year-olds); and P6 and P7 (the upper primary stage, 10- to 12-year-olds).  All primary school classes contain both boys and girls and cover the full range of abilities.  There is no selection or streaming by ability and children are automatically promoted by age from one class to the next.  Each class is normally the responsibility of a class teacher who teaches all or most of the curriculum.  Education departments of local authorities frequently provide some support for the class teacher in art, drama, music and physical education by employing specialist teachers who normally teach in several different schools. 2

In smaller schools, children of different ages are often combined in one class with one teacher.  2

3.2.2.1 Admissions criteria

The law requires that all children between the ages of 5 and 16 years should receive education. Consequently, the age of admission to primary school is 5.  However, children normally only enter school at the beginning of the academic session in the month of August.  The law provides for a date to be set each year, normally taken to be 1 March, so that children born before that date will be admitted to school at age four in the August of the previous year and children who are born on or after that date will be admitted in August of that year. 2

Most local authorities allocate children to the schools in their area by defining 'catchment areas' for each school.  Parents may express a preference for the particular school they want their child to attend, even if they do not live within the catchment area for that school.  If parents express a preference for a particular school ('placing a request'), the education authority has a duty to grant the request where possible.  Parents have the right to appeal against an education authority's decision not to grant their placing request, first to the authority itself and then to a court.  However, the size of the school, the number of children who already live in the catchment area and other factors will affect the education authority's ability to grant a placing request and are taken into account in a court case. 2

Many children with additional support needs (ASN) enter mainstream schools. 2

3.2.2.2 Length of school year (in days) and day (in hours).

The length of the school year, for both primary and secondary schools, is nationally determined. It covers three terms and lasts a minimum of 190 days (38 weeks).  Teachers work one week more, devoting five days to in-service training as part of their contract. 2

The school year begins in mid-August and there are breaks of one or two weeks in October, December and April, the length of the break being a matter for decision by the local education authority.  Some authorities may also have a short break in mid-February. Schools also have a small number of single day holidays, usually on Mondays.  These are determined locally and reflect Scotland's system of local holidays.  The closure for the long summer holiday takes place around the end of June.  The actual dates of school terms vary according to local education authority. 2

There is no fixed daily or weekly timetable applying to all schools in Scotland.  The law does not define the length of the individual school day or week for students. Those are matters for the discretion of local authorities.  Authorities do, however, adhere to a widely accepted norm for the length of the school week in primary schools - 25 hours (with reduced hours for younger classes).  There are normally two school sessions each day - morning and afternoon - which are separated by a break for lunch.  The lengths of the morning and afternoon sessions are not fixed and the length of the lunch break can vary considerably from place to place.  In most cases, the school day is encompassed between the hours of 9.00 and 15.30.  There is no centrally set timetable, nor is there a fixed lesson length.  2

Since 1 April 2001, the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) has determined the number of hours teachers in local education authority schools are required to work each week.  This is currently set at 35 hours. 2

3.2.3 Third phase: Compulsory secondary education, age 12-16

Secondary schools provide a compulsory general lower secondary education for students aged 12 to 16, although some schools also cater for young people of post-compulsory age (16+) up to age 18+.  Compulsory secondary education lasts until the student is 16 years of age.  All young people are required to remain in full-time education until they reach the age of 16. In practice, this means that those whose sixteenth birthday falls before 1 September may leave school at the end of the previous May. Otherwise they must return to school for the first term of their fifth (secondary school) year and may only leave at the following Christmas. 2

The first four years of secondary education are divided into two broad stages, each of which has a different emphasis.  The first two years (S1 and S2) provide a general education as part of the 5-14 curriculum; the second two years (S3 and S4) have elements of specialism and of vocational education. 2

In the four years of compulsory secondary education, students in different years (S1, S2, S3 and S4) are normally taught separately.2

All publicly funded schools in Scotland are comprehensive in character and most offer six years of secondary education (four years' compulsory and two years' post-compulsory education).  In the more remote areas, in particular, Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles, there are two-year and four-year secondary schools which offer only compulsory lower secondary education. 2

3.2.3.1 Admissions criteria

Children are admitted to secondary education from primary schools when they have completed seven years of primary education.  There are no restrictions on entrance.  Many children with additional support needs (ASN) enter mainstream schools. 2

Most local authority education departments allocate children to the schools in their area by defining 'catchment areas' for each school.  Parents may express a preference for the particular school they want their child(ren) to attend, even if they do not live within the catchment area for that school.  If parents express a preference for a particular school ('placing a request'), the education authority has a duty to grant the request where possible.  Parents have the right to appeal against an education authority's decision not to grant their placing request, first to the authority itself and then to a court.  However, the size of the school, the number of children who already live in the catchment area, and other factors will affect the education authority's ability to grant a placing request and are taken into account in a court case.  2

3.2.3.2 Length of school year (in days) and day (in hours)

The length of the school year, for both primary and secondary schools, is nationally determined.  It covers three terms and lasts a minimum of 190 days (38 weeks).  Teachers work one week more, devoting five days to in-service training as part of their contract. 2

The school year begins in mid-August and there are breaks of one or two weeks in October, December and April, the length of the break being a matter for decision by the local education authority.  Some authorities also have a short break in mid-February. Schools also have a small number of single day holidays, usually on Mondays.  These are determined locally and reflect Scotland's system of local holidays.  The closure for the long summer holiday takes place around the end of June.  The actual dates of school terms vary according to education authority. 2

There is no fixed daily or weekly timetable applying to all schools in Scotland.  The law does not define the length of the individual school day or week for students. Those are matters for the discretion of local authority education departments.  Local authorities do, however, adhere to a widely accepted norm for the length of the school week in secondary schools - 27.5 hours.  There can be as much as an hour's difference in opening and closing times and considerable variation in the length and timing of the lunch break, according to locality. 2

For many years, most Scottish secondary schools operated a daily timetable with eight periods, usually of 40 minutes each, giving a 40-period week. In addition, teachers responsible for a group of students in a particular year checked attendance and dealt with various administrative matters for 10 to 15 minutes each day. Subjects involving practical work (such as home economics and technical subjects) were usually allocated blocks of double periods. Recently there has been a good deal of experimenting with period length and many schools now operate a six-period day (some, a five-period day) with periods lasting 55 minutes or an hour. 2

Since 1 April 2001, the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) has determined the number of hours teachers in education authority schools are required to teach each week.  This is currently set at 35 hours. 2

3.2.4 Fourth phase: Post-compulsory secondary education, ages 16 - 18+

Post-compulsory upper secondary education offers two years of schooling for students between the ages of 16 and 18 years and most, though not all, students remain at school for these two years.  2

Upper secondary education is usually organised on the basis of courses leading to certification, so that classes frequently consist of students from both years (S5 and S6).  2

3.2.4.1 Admissions criteria

There are no restrictions on students staying on in school beyond the age of 16 into upper secondary education, although schools may set entrance standards for certain courses and will advise students which level of the National Qualifications Framework (see section 6.4) is the most appropriate for them. 2

3.2.4.2 Length of school year (in days) and day (in hours)

The length of the school year, for both primary and secondary schools, is nationally determined. The academic year covers three terms and lasts a minimum of 190 days (38 weeks).  Teachers work one week more, devoting five days to in-service training as part of their contract.2

The school year begins in mid-August and there are breaks of one or two weeks in October, December and April, the length of the break being a matter for decision by the local education authority.  Some authorities also have a short break in mid-February. Schools also have a small number of single day holidays, usually on Mondays.  These are determined locally and reflect Scotland's system of local holidays.  The closure for the long summer holiday takes place around the end of June.  The actual dates of school terms vary according to education authority.2

There is no fixed daily or weekly timetable applying to all schools in Scotland.  The law does not define the length of the individual school day or week for students. Those are matters for the discretion of local authorities.  Authorities do, however, adhere to a widely accepted norm for the length of the school week in secondary schools - 27.5 hours.  There can be as much as an hour's difference in opening and closing times and considerable variation in the length and timing of the lunch break, according to locality.  2

For many years, most Scottish secondary schools operated a daily timetable with eight periods, usually of 40 minutes each, giving a 40-period week. In addition, teachers responsible for a group of students in a particular year checked attendance and dealt with various administrative matters for 10 to 15 minutes each day. Subjects involving practical work (such as home economics and technical subjects) were usually allocated blocks of double periods. Recently, there has been a good deal of experimenting with period length, and many schools now operate a six-period day (some, a five-period day), with periods lasting 55 minutes or an hour. 2

Since 1 April 2001, the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) has determined the number of hours teachers in education authority schools are required to teach each week.  This is currently set at 35 hours. 2

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