Do I have to re-apply for the school clothing grant after moving council?

Yes. The grant is paid by the council your child goes to school in, so a new council means a new application. The national minimum is the same everywhere; the actual amount and the application window are the council's.

Will our funded childcare hours transfer to the new council?

The entitlement travels with the child — 1,140 funded hours a year for every three- and four-year-old, with no residency period — but the place does not. Funded hours are delivered through each council's own nurseries and partner providers, so you apply to the new council and choose from its list.

Why are the school holidays different after we moved?

Each of Scotland's 32 councils sets its own calendar. The October week, the February break, in-service days and even whether there is a September weekend all vary between neighbours. Two children in different councils can be off on different weeks, and the compare tool shows exactly where yours differ.

Does the school transport rule change when we move?

The legal walking distance is the same everywhere — two miles for a child under eight, three miles otherwise — but each council writes its own transport policy on top of it, and eligibility is assessed against the new council's catchment school, not the old one.

Do my child's ASN records move with them?

They should, but it is not automatic. Ask the old school in writing to forward the file, and tell the new council's ASN team a child with support needs is arriving before the first day — a Coordinated Support Plan in particular needs to be picked up, not rediscovered.

Moving to Scotland

Moving Between Councils in Scotland with School-Age Children: What Resets

Crossing a Scottish council boundary resets more than catchment: holidays, clothing grant, EMA, funded childcare and transport all belong to the new council.

Written by the EduSCOT editor

Went through the Scottish college-to-university route himself — Stow College, then engineering at Glasgow Caledonian — and runs EduSCOT and MoneySCOT.

Updated 19 September 2026 12 min read Fact-checked 19 September 2026

Moving house within Scotland is a different job from moving within a council. Cross a council boundary and almost everything that shapes your child's school year — which school is yours, when the holidays fall, who pays the clothing grant, where the funded nursery hours are delivered, whether the bus is free — is decided by a different authority, and most of it does not follow you. This guide is the list of what resets, in the order you will meet it.

Quick answer: In Scotland your child's school place, holiday dates, clothing grant, EMA, funded childcare and school transport are all run by the council, not nationally. Moving to another council means the catchment school changes automatically, the calendar changes with it, and every council-paid entitlement has to be applied for again with the new authority. Keeping the old school is possible but becomes a placing request rather than a right.

Why a council boundary matters more than a postcode

England centralises a lot of this; Scotland does not. The Education (Scotland) Act 1980 puts the duty to provide a school place on the education authority — the council — for the children in its area, and each council draws its own catchments, sets its own calendar and administers its own grants. That is why the council pages on this site exist per council rather than per region, and why moving from, say, Glasgow to East Renfrewshire changes far more than the commute.

Three things stay national and do not need re-applying for: Child Benefit, the Scottish Child Payment and the Best Start payments (Social Security Scotland — update your address and nothing else changes), and the curriculum itself. Everything below is the council's.

Step 1: the catchment resets — and staying put becomes a request

Every Scottish address sits in the catchment of one primary and one secondary, and the new council is obliged to offer your child a place there. Run the new postcode through the Catchment Checker before you commit to the property; the council's own school-finder, which it links to, is the authority.

If your child is settled and you want them to stay at the old school, the position changes. Under section 28A of the 1980 Act a placing request is made to the authority that manages the school, so staying put is a request to the old council, decided on its capacity after its own catchment children — and it is discretionary rather than an entitlement. Councils do usually let an enrolled pupil finish the stage they are in, but two things go with it:

Transport help normally stops. Free transport is assessed against the catchment school for your address, and a school you have chosen to stay at is not that.
The right is not carried forward. A younger sibling starting P1 next year is a fresh placing request, with no sibling guarantee — the placing request guide explains why siblings are a strong preference, not a right.

Step 2: enrolling at the new school mid-year

There is no registration week for a mid-year move. Phone the school or the council's education department, expect to show proof of the new address and your child's birth certificate, and expect a start within a week or two of the paperwork. In-catchment children are almost always accommodated; the enrolment guide has the document list and what happens on the first day.

Two moves are worth timing if you have any choice. Moving into S4 means dropping into a National 5 subject set chosen by classmates a year earlier, with coursework already under way; and moving into S5 only works where the new school's Higher columns match the subjects your child was taking. The year-by-year guide covers the friction points stage by stage, and they apply to a move within Scotland just as much as one from England.

Step 3: the holiday calendar changes

This is the one nobody warns you about. Each council publishes its own calendar, and the differences between neighbours are real: the October week is not the same week everywhere, the February break is one day in some councils and a week in others, in-service days fall on different dates, and the September weekend exists in some councils and not at all in others.

If you have children at school in two councils — one still finishing a stage at the old school, one enrolled at the new — they can be off on different weeks. The holiday compare tool puts any two councils side by side and marks every row where they differ, and each council holiday page carries the dates the council itself has published, with a note where next year's are still the typical pattern rather than confirmed.

What moves with the child, and what belongs to the council

The right to a school place

Travels with the child

Yes — every address has a catchment school