Glasgow School Catchment & Placing Requests 2026

Quick answer: Every address in Glasgow sits inside a catchment for a non-denominational primary, a non-denominational secondary, a Catholic primary and a Catholic secondary. You’re entitled to a place at your catchment school. To go to a different one you make a placing request. For an August start you register at your catchment school first, then submit the placing request by 15 March, and the council must reply by 30 April. Check your catchment on the council’s online lookup before you do anything else.

If you’re working out where to buy or rent with kids in mind, the school question usually shapes the whole decision. This guide walks through how catchment works, how to find your school, how placing requests and appeals actually run, and how Catholic schools fit in. It’s worth reading alongside our best areas to live in Glasgow guide and the moving to Glasgow guide if you’re new to the city.

How Glasgow school catchment works

Glasgow City Council runs roughly 140 primary schools and 30 secondaries. Your home address is the thing that decides your catchment, not where you’d like to go. Each property falls into four separate catchments at once:

• Primary non-denominational (PN), your local council primary.
• Secondary non-denominational (SN), the secondary most local primary kids feed into.
• Primary denominational (PD), your local Catholic primary.
• Secondary denominational (SD), your local Catholic secondary.

If you live inside the Glasgow City boundary you have a right to a place at your catchment school. That’s the key thing to understand. Catchment is not a waiting list or a lottery. Live in the zone, you get a seat. The competition only starts when you ask for a school you’re not zoned for.

How to find your catchment school

Don’t trust word of mouth or what the previous owners said. Catchment lines have been redrawn before and they don’t follow obvious boundaries like main roads. Use the official tools:

• Council catchment lookup. Glasgow’s “Which School Catchment?” map lets you type in your address and see all four catchment schools for that property. It’s hosted on the council’s GIS and Open Data Hub via glasgow.gov.uk.
• Phone the school or the council. If your street sits on a boundary or you can’t find it on the map, ring Education Services or the school office and confirm in writing.

One warning. Catchments for Catholic schools aren’t always neatly mapped the same way as non-denominational ones, so if you’re after a denominational place it’s worth confirming directly with the council.

Registering for primary and secondary

Whether you want your catchment school or a different one, the first step is always the same. You register your child at your catchment school.

Primary 1. For an August 2026 start, P1 registration ran the week commencing Monday 3 to Friday 7 November 2025. Families are told their confirmed P1 place no later than February 2026. The dates shift slightly each year, so always check the current window on the council site.

Secondary 1. Most P7 pupils at a Glasgow council primary transfer automatically and parents get an email in the November before the August move, with a link to register at the catchment secondary. For 2026/27 entry the S1 date of birth range is 1 March 2014 to 28 February 2015.

Even if your heart is set on another school, you still register at the catchment one first. The placing request goes in on top of that, not instead of it.

Making a placing request to another school

A placing request is your formal application to send your child to a school outside your catchment. You have a legal right to make one, and the council has to consider it properly. What you don’t have is a guarantee of getting it.

How it works:

• Register at your catchment school first. The placing request option sits at the end of the enrolment form, or you submit a separate placing request form.
• Get the timing right. For an August start, submit your request at registration time (November) or by 15 March at the latest.
• Priority goes to catchment kids. The school fills catchment pupils first. Placing requests are only granted from whatever capacity is left over, ranked by the council’s priority criteria.

Popular schools fill up fast on catchment alone, which is exactly why some streets carry a price premium. If a school you want is consistently oversubscribed, a placing request is a punt, not a plan. Have a realistic backup.

Placing request deadlines at a glance

The headline rule worth memorising: in by 15 March, answer by 30 April. If you apply on time and hear nothing by 30 April, the request counts as refused, which then triggers your right to appeal. Dates can change year to year, so confirm against the official guidance on glasgow.gov.uk before relying on them.

If your placing request is refused

The council can only refuse on specific legal grounds set out in Scottish law. The common ones are:

• Granting it would push pupil numbers past the school’s agreed capacity.
• The council would have to employ an extra teacher to cope.
• The school would need building alterations or significant spending to take more children.

A refusal letter has to state which ground applies and tell you how to appeal. “Too many applicants” usually comes down to that first capacity reason.

Appealing the decision

You can appeal a refusal to an Education Appeal Committee set up by the council. The steps:

• Lodge within 28 days of the date you receive the refusal letter.
• The committee acknowledges your appeal and notifies the council within a few working days, then tells you the hearing date, time and place, usually within two weeks.
• The hearing normally takes place within 28 days of the committee receiving your appeal, though it can be delayed if lots of appeals for the same school are heard together.
• If the committee turns you down, you have a further 28 days to appeal to the Sheriff Court. If you’ve had no hearing within two months of lodging, that also counts as a refusal you can take to the sheriff.

You can represent yourself at the committee. Some parents use a solicitor for the Sheriff Court stage, but plenty handle the committee hearing themselves. The national rules are summarised on mygov.scot and the charity Enquire has plain-English guidance.

Denominational (Catholic) schools

Glasgow runs a full network of Catholic primary and secondary schools alongside the non-denominational ones, and every address has a denominational catchment too. A few practical points:

• You can register at your catchment Catholic school the same way as any other, and you have a right to that place if you live in its catchment.
• You don’t have to be Catholic to attend, though denominational schools may ask for a baptismal certificate or a priest’s reference as part of admissions, especially when a school is oversubscribed and places are prioritised.
• Catholic catchment boundaries can differ from the non-denominational ones for the same street, so check both on the council lookup rather than assuming they match.

If you want a Catholic school outside your catchment, it’s the same placing request process and the same deadlines.

How catchment shapes where people live

School catchment is one of the biggest hidden drivers of Glasgow house prices. Streets feeding a well-regarded primary or secondary hold their value and shift quickly. It’s a real factor to weigh against everything else, the commute, the Low Emission Zone, your council tax band and the general cost of living.

If schools are top of your list, sort the catchment before you commit to an area. Areas like Shawlands on the south side and family-heavy pockets across the city trade partly on their schools. Our areas guide goes into the trade-offs area by area.

FAQ

Am I guaranteed a place at my catchment school?
Yes, as long as you live within the Glasgow City boundary and register on time. Catchment pupils are placed before any placing requests are considered.

What’s the deadline for a placing request?
For an August start, submit by 15 March and the council must reply by 30 April. After 15 March, or for a mid-year move, the council has two months to decide.

Can I apply to more than one school?
You can make placing requests to more than one school, but you still have to register at your catchment school first as your guaranteed fallback.

How do I find my catchment school?
Use the council’s “Which School Catchment?” online lookup on glasgow.gov.uk. Type your address and it returns your non-denominational and Catholic primary and secondary schools.

Do I have to be Catholic to attend a Catholic school?
No. Denominational schools take pupils of any faith or none, though they may ask for a baptismal certificate or reference when prioritising oversubscribed places.

What if my child needs to move school during the year?
You can make an in-term placing request at any point. The council has two months to decide, which includes school holidays.

Can I appeal if I’m refused?
Yes. You have 28 days from the refusal letter to appeal to the Education Appeal Committee, and a further 28 days to take it to the Sheriff Court if the committee says no.

For the current forms, exact dates and the catchment lookup, always go to the source at glasgow.gov.uk, since deadlines and criteria can change year to year.

Last updated June 2026.