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The Scottish Education Cheat Sheet
Year groups, qualifications, key dates, benefits, and university finance — everything a Scottish parent needs on one page. Enter your email and we’ll send it straight to your inbox.
Year groups & stages
- P1–P7 (ages 4–12) → Primary school
- S1–S3 (ages 12–15) → Broad General Education
- S4 (age 15–16) → National 5 exams
- S5 (age 16–17) → Highers
- S6 (age 17–18) → Advanced Highers / more Highers
Qualifications ladder
- National 4 → no external exam (pass/fail)
- National 5 → ≈ GCSE (graded A–D)
- Higher → ≈ A-Level (graded A–D)
- Advanced Higher → ≈ A-Level year 2 (graded A–D)
Key dates every year
- January → P1 registration week
- March 15 → Placing request deadline
- April–May → SQA exam diet
- June 30 → SAAS recommended deadline
- August → Results day + schools return
Benefits to claim
- Scottish Child Payment → £26.70/week per child under 16
- Best Start Grant → £319.80 at P1 & S1
- School clothing grant → £120–£185/child/year
- Free school meals → universal P1–P5, means-tested after
- EMA → £30/week for S5–S6 (income under £24.5k/£27k)
University finance
- Tuition: FREE for Scottish students at Scottish unis
- SAAS bursary: up to £2,000/year (non-repayable)
- SAAS loan: up to £7,400/year (repay after graduation)
- Repayment: 9% of income above £32,745 (Plan 4)
- Care-experienced: £9,000/year bursary (no repayment)
The full cheat sheet is formatted as a printable one-page PDF with colour coding, QR links to our calculators, and space for your own notes. Rates as of April 2026.
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