Refused a place at your preferred school? Find out about grounds for appeal, what happens at a hearing, and how to prepare.
By law, if your child is refused a place at your preferred school, you have the right to appeal against that decision to an independent panel. School admission appeal panels are independent of the school and the local authority. At the hearing, you can present your reasons for preferring that particular school and the panel will decide whether your reasons are strong enough to overturn the admission authority’s decision.
You can use the appeal form (docx / 42 KB) to submit an appeal.
There is an address on the form that tells you where to send it. Make sure that you read all the accompanying guidance notes and that you check the deadline, which varies but is usually in late March for secondary and late May for primary if you are applying for your child to start in Year 7 or Reception in September.
If you submit an appeal, you will receive a reply from the clerk telling you when and where your appeal will be heard. About a week before the hearing, you will be sent a summary of the reasons why your child was refused a place at the school.
School places are refused for various reasons, such as the school being oversubscribed or, in the case of a selective grammar school, because your child did not achieve the standard required in the selection tests. At an appeal hearing you can mention anything that you believe helps explain why the school you are appealing for is more suitable for your child, or why the school your child has been allocated would, in your view, be unsuitable.
If you require these documents in another format, please contact us.
School admission appeals are heard remotely by video conference. Your appeal hearing will be held in private and it is recommended you attend your hearing in person if at all possible. You can be accompanied by a family member or friend if you tell the clerk in advance. You must not, however, bring the child to the hearing.
At the hearing there will be:
The hearing goes as follows:
You and the admission authority’s representative will then be asked to leave so that the panel can make their decision. The panel’s decision is based around balancing the needs of the child against the effect of admitting another child into the school. You can read more details on how the decision is reached in the downloadable notes in the key documents box.
All admission appeal panels act independently, their decisions are binding on all parties.
The clerk to the panel will write to tell you the decision. You may also be given a telephone number to ring to find out the result before you receive the letter.
There is no further right of appeal for a place at the same school in the same school year group unless there is a significant change in circumstances. The local government and social care Ombudsman can investigate complaints of maladministration in relation to maintained schools. For academy schools this would be the department for education.
If you are applying for a place in an infant class (reception, Year 1 or Year 2), you may have a more limited right of appeal because the law states that infant classes must be restricted to 30 children. In such cases the appeal panel may only uphold your appeal if the admission rules were not administered correctly and your child should have been offered a place, or the decision to refuse a place was not one which a reasonable admission authority would make under the circumstances. You can find more detailed guidance in the “key documents” box above.
If your child has an Education, Health and Care Plan, please contact us.
You can find further information about the school admission appeal process on the school admissions GOV page.