Secondary school in Scotland

Mainstream secondary schools cater for children and young people of all abilities from the age of 4 to 16.

All children have a right to attend a mainstream school, including children and young people with any type of hearing loss or level of deafness. Schools in Scotland must make reasonable adjustments to support disabled children. 

Find out more about deaf children’s rights in education. 

It’s unlawful for a mainstream state school to refuse a place to a child or young person on the grounds that it’s unable to meet their additional learning needs (ASL).

However, a mainstream school may not always be the best fit for a child or young person. A parent may decide that a school isn't right for them. In some cases, a mainstream school may feel that they can’t meet a child or young person’s needs. The school would have to prove that it had considered all the reasonable adjustments which might have made it possible to include a child or young person.

Some state-funded mainstream schools have specialist bases for deaf children and young people. These are sometimes called resource provisions, or hearing impairment or deaf support bases.

Resource provisions support deaf children and young people to take part in mainstream classes, regardless of their communication approach and learning needs. They can also provide 1:1 or small group teaching from a Teacher of the Deaf (ToD), communication support worker (CSW), speech and language therapist, and deaf tutor.

Special schools teach children with additional support needs (ASN). These are children and young people who may not be able to access the mainstream curriculum because of their learning needs. Pupils will often be in a smaller class and have access to specialist teaching, equipment and staff.

Some special schools are for deaf children specifically. Special schools for deaf children and young people are usually private (not state-funded). However, if a private specialist school is considered the best school to meet your child’s needs, they may be able to attend with a Co-ordinated Support Plan (CSP). The local authority should pay for this.

Find out more about ASN, ASL and CSPs. 

There are 3 special schools for deaf children and young people in Scotland, based in Hamilton, Aberdeen and Falkirk. Depending on the school and your child’s age, there could be the option to attend either as a day student or to board.

If you think you would like your child to go to a special school for deaf children and young people, have a look at our list of special schools for deaf children.

These are schools where pupils can stay overnight and, in some schools, over the weekend as well. Some special schools are also residential schools.

If your child is due to start secondary school in August, your local authority will send you information on how to request a particular school the previous December, January or February.

You should submit your request by writing (usually through an application form provided by the local authority) by 15 March of that same year. They must give you a written answer by 30 April. If they do not write to you by then, your request will be treated as if the council had turned it down, and you can appeal.

If you miss the 15 March deadline, your request will still be considered, but the local authority will have 2 months to respond to your request. This can lead to it being decided later than other people’s requests, which can be a disadvantage as you may miss out on a school placement.

Find out more about appealing a rejected placing request. 

If your child is already attending secondary school, you can ask for a place at a different school at any time by writing to the local authority. You don’t have to wait until the beginning of the next school year.

The local authority has 2 months to give you a written answer. If they do not, your request is treated as though they turned it down and you can appeal the decision.

Find out more about appealing a rejected placing request. 

Download and print our checklist:

Take it with you when visiting a school to collect key information.

The checklist includes questions to ask while visiting different schools. You won’t need to ask all the questions on the checklist – just pick out the questions which are important to you. Make sure to ask the same set of questions at each education setting, to help you compare different schools.

Where possible, try to bring your child with you when visiting school. Ask them what they think about the building, teachers, and the general feeling the school gives them.

Whether or not you choose to apply for a school outside your catchment area, you may find it helpful to make an appointment to see the person at the school who is responsible for organising ASL.

Depending on the size of the school, this might be a deputy headteacher, a teacher with specific responsibilities, or just the headteacher themselves in a very small school. Make an appointment to discuss your child’s needs with them. Ask them about how the school will be able to meet those needs. Your child’s named person can support with this.

It’s vital to check that a school can meet your child’s needs or, if they don’t yet have the right equipment and support for your child, that they would be willing to put it in place.

Included below are some examples of ways that deaf children can be supported at school.

• Adapting to an individual child’s needs by adjusting the page and length of a learning session
• Using visual cues to support teaching
• Creating opportunities for one-to-one and small group work
• Checking a child’s level of understanding after a lesson
• Tutoring before or after a lesson
• Providing equipment and technology, such as radio aids or flashing fire alarms
• Providing a good listening environment in the classroom for learning
• Making sure staff and pupils at the school are deaf aware
• Writing down homework rather than giving it verbally
• Making adjustments to help deaf children access specific subjects, like learning a foreign language or music lessons
• Meeting their communication needs. If your child uses British Sign Language (BSL), they may require qualified BSL interpreters to access the curriculum

If your child has a CSP or other educational plan, the reasonable adjustments they’ll need should be set out in the plan. If they don’t have an educational plan, speak to whoever is responsible for additional support at the school about what your child will need. Your child’s named person should make sure their reasonable adjustments are in place.

Try to visit schools more than once and at different times of the day so you can see what the school is like in its normal setting.

• What is it like at break time or when students are moving between classrooms?
• What are the acoustics like?
• What adjustments might need to be made?