School admissions

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Appealing a school's decision

You’ll be sent a letter with the decision about your child’s school. If your child is refused a place, you can appeal against the decision. The letter will tell you how.

You must appeal against each rejection separately. You can only appeal once against each rejection.

Preparing your appeal

The admission authority for the school must allow you at least 20 school days to appeal from when they send the decision letter.

The admission authority will set a deadline for submitting information and evidence to support your appeal. If you submit anything after the deadline, it might not be considered and may result in delays to your hearing.

Child Law Advice may be able to give you advice about appeals.

When the hearing will be

The admission authority must give you at least 10 school days’ notice of the hearing.

Appeals must be heard within 40 school days of the deadline for making an appeal.

What happens at the appeal hearing

There’s a panel of 3 or more people at the appeal hearing. The panel must be independent and must follow the school admission appeals code.

  1. The admission authority will explain why they turned down your application.

  2. You’ll be able to give your own reasons why your child should be admitted.

  3. The appeals panel must decide if the school’s admission criteria were properly followed and comply with the school admissions code.

  4. If the criteria were not properly followed or do not comply with the school admissions code your appeal must be upheld.

  5. If your reasons for your child to be admitted outweigh the school’s reasons for not admitting any more children at all, your appeal will be upheld.

  6. You will usually be sent the decision within 5 school days.

You can read more about school admission appeals.

Appeals for infant classes

You need to go through the same process if you’re appealing a decision about an infant class. In reception, year 1 and year 2, the class size is limited to 30. Your application can be turned down if all the classes already have 30 children.

Your appeal could be successful if:

  • giving your child a place will not increase the class size above the limit
  • the admission arrangements have not been properly followed
  • the admission criteria do not comply with the school admissions code
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