Rural schools in Scotland

The Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010 makes special provision for rural schools and sets a series of additional requirements which local authorities must take account of when consulting on the proposals to close a designated rural school.

We maintain a rural school list, setting out every school in Scotland that is designated as a rural school for the purposes of the above Act. This list is periodically updated. 

We use the Scottish Government Urban Rural Classification to determine which schools in Scotland should be designated as a rural school. This is a methodology which classifies Scotland into eight different urban and rural categories.  Every school can be allocated to one of these categories based on their spatial location. Some schools that are situated in a rural area are excluded from the list, e.g. those schools that are situated in a rural area but serve communities in an urban area close by.

Read a definition of rural schools in Scotland.

Rural schools list: October 2021

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