Appeal a decision on your school admission

What happens

If you are not offered a place at your preferred school or schools, the relevant admissions authority will send you a letter that will give you further information. It will also explain what to do next, including the deadline for appealing (if you want your appeal to be heard along with all of the other appeals for that school) and who to contact.

Who is responsible for setting up appeals

Individual admission authorities are responsible for making arrangements for admission appeals. 

For community and voluntary controlled schools, this is the local authority. For foundation and voluntary aided schools, free schools and academies, it is the responsibility of the governing body or academy trust. Appeals must be arranged in line with statutory requirements.

When appeal are heard

Admission authorities must give anyone who wants to appeal at least 20 school days from the date of the notification that their application was unsuccessful to submit their appeal. 

Appeals against decisions made in the 'normal admissions round' must then be heard within 40 school days of the deadline for submitting appeals. 

For in year applications, appeals must be heard within 30 school days of the deadline for submitting appeals.

For applications that were made by the closing date, admission authorities will usually try to ensure that appeals are heard before the end of the summer term, but there are sometimes exceptions to this.

Appeals schedule for community and voluntary controlled schools

Who sits on an appeal panel

Independent admission appeal panel members are trained volunteers who are completely independent of the admission authority. At least one of the three panel members will have a background in education. They have the services of a clerk, who provides legal advice and takes notes at the hearing. 

Parents can choose to attend the hearing, or have the hearing heard in their absence if for any reason they are unable to attend.

What happens at an appeal

At the appeal hearing, the panel will hear information from the admission authority about why the application was refused - and then need to make a decision as to whether or not the admissions arrangements were legal and correctly applied and whether or not the school would be 'prejudiced' (for example - disadvantaged) by the admission of another child.

If the panel does decide that the arrangements were legal and applied correctly, and that the school would be prejudiced by the admission of another child, they then hear the case of the parents. They will ask questions of the parents to try to get all the information they need to make a decision as to who would suffer the greater prejudice - the school if the child were admitted, or the child and family if they were not. This is a balancing exercise - the panels look at a wide range of factors when making their decision.

If they find that the disadvantage to the child and family would be greater than that of the school, then the appeal will be successful and the child will be admitted.

More information can be found on the GOV.UK website