Appeal a school place

Appeals are conducted virtually with participation by computer, tablet or smart phone.

If this is not possible, it will be necessary for your appeal to be considered and determined based on your written submission and evidence provided. Additional information or evidence can be emailed to [email protected].

You will receive advance notice of the date and time of the hearing by email. Then a few days later, you will receive a second email with your appeal papers attached and joining instructions for the virtual hearing.

​If you have been refused a place at one or more of your preferred schools, you are entitled to appeal against that decision.

Appealing

Your appeal should be lodged as soon as possible after receiving a refusal letter but please see the timescales table further down this page.

You may also wish to consider whether there are any other suitable schools you can apply for or visit the school you have been allocated to assess its suitability. Applying for an alternative school will not affect your right to appeal for the schools you have been refused.

Who can appeal?

If you have been refused a place at one or more of your preferred schools, you are entitled to appeal against that decision. If you have not applied for a particular school or have not received a letter refusing admission, you are not entitled to appeal.

You cannot appeal for a lower preference school if you have been offered a higher preference school.

If your circumstances have changed and you now prefer a lower preference school, you should contact us to explain your changed circumstances and find out whether you need to make a new application.

Infant class appeals (reception to year 2)

There are very limited exceptional circumstances which allows a school to go above 30 children with a single teacher in infant classes. A successful appeal, under one of the following circumstances, is one of them.

An infant class prejudice appeal can only succeed if the Independent Appeal Panel finds one of the below:

1. The admission of additional children would not breach the infant class size limit of 30 children to 1 class teacher.
2. The child would have been offered a place if the admission arrangements had complied with admissions law or were correctly and impartially applied.
3. The admission authority’s decision to refuse a place was not one which a reasonable admission authority (see below) would have made in the circumstances of the case.

The threshold of reasonableness is high. The panel must consider whether the decision was: ‘perverse in the light of the admission arrangements’ or ‘beyond the range of responses open to a reasonable decision maker’ or ‘so outrageous in its defiance of logic or of accepted moral standards that no sensible person who had applied his mind to the question could have arrived at it’.

How do I appeal?

You can make an appeal by completing the online form. Please ensure you have:

• read the information relevant to you below
• prepared any documents you may wish to upload as supporting evidence for your appeal
• prepared a statement outlining your grounds for appeal and reasons you wish your child to attend your preferred school; you may upload continuation pages if necessary

How many appeals are successful?

Due to the very limited circumstances for a successful infant class appeal, only a small number succeed. In the last 3 academic years the success rate was as follows:

• 2019 to 2020: 93 infant class appeals were heard, of which none was successful
• 2018 to 2019: 92 infant class appeals were heard, of which 2 were successful
• 2017 to 2018: 120 infant class appeals were heard, of which 3 were successful

School appeal timelines

What happens next?

• Find out what happens after you've submitted an appeal

Last updated 20 February 2024