Forces Children's Education

Moray Council

Kinloss Barracks and Service Family Accommodation fall within the jurisdiction of Moray Council.

Due to the long-standing association of the Armed Forces in Moray our schools have significant experience of military children moving into and out of the area and are well versed in handling the associated issues of transferring between the English and Scottish education systems.

Process for registering a child from an Armed Forces family

When you move to Moray from another area, you should register your school-age children immediately at their local school.  When you register, you will be expected to state whether you wish to:

• enrol your child at your local school
• make a placing request (i.e. ask to attend another school)
• or for primary 1 entry, if you wish to defer entry to school for a year.

In most cases, you will simply choose to enrol your children at their local school. When you register Primary 7 children in Moray, they will automatically be registered at the secondary school they are zoned to according to their address.

On the school registration forms, there is a section where you can indicate that your child is part of an Armed Forces family. Please provide this information.

If you require nursery school provision, all three and four-year-olds in Scotland are eligible for 600 hours per year (the equivalent of around 16 hours per week during term-time) early learning and childcare starting from around the first term after their third birthday. Some two-year-olds are also eligible: for more information please click here.

Each of the primary schools listed above has a nursery attached, requests for nursery places should be made following the above enrollment procedure. Please contact other providers individually to discuss their enrolment requirements.

Additional support needs

Many children with additional support needs (ASN) in Moray receive support for provision within their mainstream school. If your child has been diagnosed with ASN or currently attends a special school, please contact the school which your child will be attending in Moray to discuss arrangements for supporting their education.

Applegrove Primary School within the Forres ASG, Hythehill Primary School within the Lossiemouth ASG, and Seafield Primary School within the Elgin Academy ASG have enhanced provision for ASN.

Elgin Academy has a specialist unit focusing on autism and is the first in Scotland to receive autism accreditation.

You may wish to consider submitting a placing request to one of these schools if your child has specific ASN requirements.

More information on Additional Support for Learning can be found on the Council website.

There is specialist early year provision at Ladybird Development Group in Lossiemouth for children who require additional support and Noah’s Ark Playgroup in Forres is a daycare centre for children aged 0-3 with additional support needs.

School holidays and term dates

For information on the current term dates for schools within the Moray area, click here

 Contact details

For more information, please contact: Education and Social Care, Moray Council Offices, High Street, Elgin, IV30 1BX.

Tel: 01343 563 374

Email:  Educationandsocialcare@moray.gov.uk