Secondary school admissions: how to appeal your child’s school offer

Has your child received their preferred school place?

In England, 1 March 2023 was National Offer Day - the day when year 6 children found out whether they had been offered a place at their preferred secondary school for September 2023. Whilst many families will be breathing a sigh of relief, some will be disappointed that their child was not offered a place at their first-choice school.

If you’re not happy with the decision, then you have the right to appeal this. In summary, this involves the parents submitting their grounds of appeal in writing and attending an appeal hearing, where a panel decides whether to allow your child a place at their preferred school. As their preferred school will already be full, each family that appeals is asking for their child to be admitted despite there being no spaces. The appeal panel must then decide how many more children the school should admit (if any) and which children have the strongest case for admittance and should therefore be allocated a place. For anyone interested in appealing against their offered school placement, we’ve put together our top tips on the appeals process.

Top Tips on the appeals process

• Don’t miss the deadline - check your decision letter and/or your local authority’s website for the deadline. You should have at least 20 school days from the date of your decision letter to lodge your appeal.

• Find out why your child was not offered a place - before you submit an appeal, it is helpful to understand how the school allocated their places and why your child did not get a place. This might be because other children who applied lived closer to the school. The school’s admission arrangements/policy can usually be found on the school’s or local authority’s website and it’s worth checking whether the admission authority followed this.

• Think about your grounds for appealing – you can appeal if you think that the admission authority did not apply their admission arrangements/policy properly and, if they had, your child would have been offered a place at their preferred school. You can also appeal if you have other reasons for wanting your child to attend their preferred school. To have the best chance of being allocated a place, you need to show that your preferred school is the only one that can meet your child’s needs, plus explain the impact on your child if they don’t go there. If distance from the allocated school is the issue, bear in mind that the appeal panel will generally consider that needing to travel for up to 45 minutes to school is acceptable. Many admissions appeals are unsuccessful, particularly if a large number of other children are also asking for a place at your preferred school.

• Submit your grounds of appeal and any supporting evidence - the admission decision letter should explain how to appeal and where to send your appeal to. In your written appeal you need to clearly set out the reasons why your child should have a place at your preferred school, focusing on what the school can offer (which others cannot) that meets your child’s needs and what the impact will be on your child in not attending the school. If you think that the admission authority did not apply their admission arrangements/policy properly then you can mention this too. Submit all the evidence that you can – this will depend on your grounds of appeal but might include medical evidence, letters/reports from your child’s current school/teachers or evidence of your circumstances.

• Note the date, time and format of the appeal hearings - once you have submitted your appeal the admission authority will let you know the time, date, format and the location of your appeal hearing (if you’re attending in person) or the joining instructions (if you’re attending remotely). You should be given at least 10 school days’ notice.

Understand what will happen at the appeal hearing – this is usually held in 2 stages.

The Appeal hearing

Stage 1 appeal hearing – the presenting officer from the school explains to the appeal panel (usually three people) how the school followed its admissions criteria and why the school refused to admit additional children. This is normally that the school has reached its published admission number and admitting more children would prejudice the provision of efficient education or the efficient use of resources. Everyone who wants their child to go to that school attends and is allowed to ask the presenting officer questions and challenge what they have said. The panel then decides whether to uphold the appeals. They can do this if:

• the school’s admission arrangements were unlawful or not applied properly to your child and your child would have been offered a place if they were lawful/properly applied; or
• admitting more children at the school would not prejudice the provision of efficient education or the efficient use of resources. Most appeals are unsuccessful at stage 1 and so appeals often proceed to a separate stage 2 hearing.
  

Most appeals are unsuccessful at stage 1 and so appeals often proceed to a separate stage 2 hearing

Stage 2 appeal hearing – this lasts around 10-20 minutes and only you attend this with the appeal panel and presenting officer. At this hearing, you have the chance to explain why you believe the school should admit your child. The panel and the presenting officer may ask you questions about your case. The panel must consider the impact on the school of having an extra pupil against the impact on your child if they are not admitted. So it’s really important to focus on why your preferred school is the only one that can meet your child’s needs and the impact on them if they are not given a place. The panel will then consider your case and the other appellants cases and send you the decision in writing.

For more information about how Doyle Clayton’s education team can support you with your admissions appeal contact Simon Henthorn at SHenthorn@doyleclayton.co.uk. Visit our school admission appeals page for more information