The Act
3.This Act has two separate but related purposes, in that they both deal with aspects of school education.  Section 1 amends section 28A of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 (“the 1980 Act”) so as to ensure that parents have a statutory right to make placing requests for all children who have either started school, or are eligible to start school at the next intake.  When section 44(2) of the Standards in Scotland’s Schools etc. Act 2000 (“the 2000 Act”) came into force, it restricted the making of placing requests to children of school age, even though some children are eligible to start school before they are of school age.  This had the effect that placing requests could not be made for children who were under school age, whether they were about to start school or whether they were already at school.  It was competent before section 44(2) of the 2000 Act came into force, to make placing requests for all such children.
4.Section 2 amends the School Boards (Scotland) Act 1988 in connection with the abolition of the post of assistant headteacher.  To enable existing assistant headteachers to be regraded as deputy headteachers without following the advertisement and appointment procedures required by that Act, the provisions in that Act requiring posts to be advertised and an appointment committee to be set up are disapplied.  The section also removes references to assistant headteachers from that Act.  These changes complement the introduction of a new career structure for the teaching profession from April 2002 and the abolition of the post of assistant headteacher.