The admission appeal process

The appeal will be heard by an independent appeal panel usually comprising of 3 or 5 members. The members are volunteers who are trained to undertake the role and usually comprise school governors, headteachers and lay persons. They will not be connected to the school which you are appealing for a place at or the school where you have been offered a place. The clerk to the panel is a representative from the Local Authority's Legal Department and they take no part in the decision making. You will be given the opportunity to present your case and a representative from the Education Department will present the reasons why you have been refused the place. Once the appeal has been heard the panel will make their decision which is final. There is no further right of appeal regarding this decision.

For Reception and Year 7, multiple appeals for the same school may be heard as grouped appeals. Appeals for late applications may be held after the appeals for on time applications have been held.

If your appeal is unsuccessful, you will not be able to appeal for a place at the same school during the same academic year unless there has been a significant change in circumstances. These circumstances would need to be discussed with the School and Governor Team. However, parents are entitled to a new appeal in respect of a different school year eg. if an appeal is lost for a place in Reception, parents can appeal the following year if their child is refused a place for Year 1. Similarly if an appeal is lost for a place in Year 7, parents can appeal the following year for a place in Year 8 and appeal if their child is refused a place for Year 8.

There are very few circumstances in which an independent panel can admit a pupil to an infant class if it has reached 30 pupils. The appeal can be upheld only if the appeal panel is satisfied that the decision was not one which a reasonable admission authority would make in the circumstances of the case, or that the child would have been offered a place if the admission arrangements had been properly implemented. This is because of the statutory class size limit of 30 pupils maximum in infant classes.

Parents who wish to appeal a decision to refuse a place can still accept a place at the alternative school offered. This will not impact on the appeal in any way and will ensure that their child has a school place confirmed in the event the appeal is not successful. If the place offered is refused it may then be offered to another pupil on that school's waiting list.

Information providing the number of appeals held and the number of appeals that were successful for Reception and Year 7 September 2023 can be found below:

Information providing the number of appeals and the number of appeals that were successful for the academic year 2023 / 2024 can be found below:

Waiting lists for pupils applying for Reception or Year 7 places

Waiting lists for all schools (with the exception of Voluntary Aided schools) are administered by the local authority. If you are unsuccessful in securing a place for Reception September 2025 or Year 7 September 2025 in your preferred school(s) as stated on the application form in the normal admission round then your child's name will automatically be placed on the waiting list for that school(s). Accepting a place at another school will not affect your position on the waiting list. If a place in the preferred school(s) becomes available it will be allocated by the local authority in accordance with the oversubscription criteria, not in the order of the date which pupils' names were placed on the list.

Pupils whose parents appeal do not have priority over other pupils on the waiting list. Pupils' names will remain on the waiting list for the whole academic year and will only be removed if they are successful at appeal or if a parent confirms in writing that they no longer wish their child's/children's name to remain on the waiting list. Parents wishing to be considered for a place for their child after this time will need to make a new application.

If your child is on the waiting list please remember their position may change as applications may be received at any time that have a higher degree of priority under the oversubscription criteria.