Planning pack · A4 · 2027/28 edition

The Moving to Scotland Family Pack

The school system, decoded — before the removal van books itself.

Twenty A4 pages for families moving to Scotland with school-age children. The stages decoded, why choosing a street chooses a school, what the qualifications are worth, additional support needs, and the enrolment admin in the order it happens. Six-month timeline.

What's inside

• The stage map, P1 to S6 — what each year is called, the ages, and the English year it lines up with.
• Why in Scotland choosing an area and choosing a school are the same decision, and what to do if you get that order wrong.
• A school comparison worksheet, so three schools can be judged on the same things rather than on whichever open day you saw last.
• What National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher are actually worth, and where they sit on the SCQF.
• Additional support needs: why an English EHCP does not convert, which of the three plans is legally binding, and how to ask.
• The enrolment admin — documents, deadlines, placing requests — in the order it has to happen.
• A six-month timeline, from deciding the area to the first week at school.

What it does not contain

It contains no benefit rates, grant amounts or entitlement thresholds, deliberately. Those change annually and sometimes mid-year, and they stay free on the site. The pack organises the decisions; it does not sell you your own entitlements.

The rates themselves live on the moving-to-Scotland hub and the guides under it, free, and are swept every spring.