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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 → SCQF Level 7, a step beyond Higher (graded A–D)
Key dates every year
- January → P1 registration week
- March 15 → Placing request deadline
- Late April–early June → exam diet (Qualifications Scotland, formerly SQA)
- June 30 → SAAS recommended deadline
- August → Results day + schools return
Benefits to claim
- Scottish Child Payment → £28.20/week per child under 16
- Best Start Grant School Age Payment → £331.95 when starting P1
- School clothing grant → £120–£225/child/year (varies by council)
- Free school meals → universal P1–P5, means-tested after
- EMA → £30/week for S5–S6 (household income £24,421 or less with one child, £26,884 with two or more)
University finance
- Tuition: FREE for Scottish students at Scottish unis
- SAAS bursary: up to £2,000/year (non-repayable)
- SAAS loan: up to £9,400/year for young students below £34,000 household income, £8,400 above (repay after graduation)
- Repayment: 9% of income above £33,795 (Plan 4)
- Care-experienced: £9,000/year bursary (no repayment)
Funded childcare
- 1,140 funded hours/year for all 3–4 year olds
- Some 2 year olds qualify (on a qualifying benefit)
- Universal — no work-hours test on parents
- Apply via your council — check its application window
- Best Start Foods → up to £44.80 every 4 weeks (under 1)
The full cheat sheet is a printable one-pager — print it or save it as a PDF from your browser. Rates are the 2026/27 figures.
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