Mainstream Schools -Additional Information

West Lothian Council provides addresses, contact information and school website links for all their schools, select the type of school on the Find a School or Nursery page and then select the school name.

Parents/carers can explore the school website for useful information specific to that school like 'School Uniform', and anything that cannot be sourced here or if having difficulty accessing this information then the specific school should be contacted.

Parents are responsible for getting their children to and from school. The council will arrange suitable transport free of charge for:

Primary Applicants if

• a pupil at a catchment school does not have a suitable walking route from home to school or lives more than 1.5 miles away from the primary school by a suitable walking route; or
• the council asks a pupil to go to a non-catchment school and the pupil lives out-with the above distance. (This could happen if a place is not available for the pupil at a catchment primary school.)

Secondary Applicants if

• a pupil at a catchment school does not have a suitable walking route from home to school or lives more than 2.0 miles away from the secondary school by a suitable walking route; or
• the council asks a pupil to go to a non-catchment school and the pupil lives out-with the above distance. (This could happen if a place is not available for the pupil at a catchment secondary school.)

The council will not provide transport if parents choose to send their child to a non-catchment school.

More information can be found on the School Transport pages.

West Lothian Education Service is committed to meeting the needs of all learners through the careful planning and monitoring of learning progress. It is recognised that the needs of the majority of West Lothian's children and young people will be met as a result of the delivery of high quality teaching and learning through the Curriculum for Excellence.

For those children and young people who require additional support in order to fulfil their learning potential, a Continuum of Support framework is in place in West Lothian to ensure that their needs are understood and supported effectively.

As detailed in the 'Presumption to provide education in a mainstream setting' guidance from the Scottish Government, the educational needs of the majority of pupils with additional support needs can be met within a mainstream setting.  All West Lothian parents are asked to engage in the first instance with their catchment mainstream school. Should additional planning or consideration of special placement be required the school will facilitate a child's planning meeting to support the completion of an Assessment of Wellbeing.  This meeting will be attended by appropriate professionals (e.g. Educational Psychologist, and/or health professionals) to ensure assessment can be undertaken if the child reaches the threshold for consideration of specialist placement as per the continuum of support.

If you intend to make a placing request for specialist provision, please do so in writing to the Education Placement Group.

In line with legislation, the Council has additional responsibilities for children who are 'looked after'. A child is 'looked after' if the child is cared for, either at home or away from home, as a result of the decision of a court or a children's hearing, or as a result of a voluntary agreement between the parent and the Council's Social Work Department.

The Council welcomes and values the views of parents on the service received. If parents have any views on the service they should contact Pupil Placement. Each school year, Pupil Placement may also ask a few parents to fill in a short questionnaire on their service.