Appeals Advice
School Admissions Appeals: notes for parents
The Governing Body is the Admissions Authority for *** school, and the Local Authority administers the application process on our behalf. We must follow legal admissions guidelines, and we can only refuse your request for a place at our school if
If you are not happy with our decision not to admit your child to our school, you have the right to appeal against the decision. (The only exception to this is if your child has been permanently excluded from two or more schools).
How to appeal
You can appeal to an independent panel after you have received written confirmation that your child has been refused a place at our school. This should be done within 30 days if the appeal is for first admission to a reception class or year 7. All other appeals should be made within 10 school days of receiving the decision letter.
Your appeal must be in writing, and you should send it to the Chair of Governors at the school address. Please include the reasons for your appeal, and any information that may support your case, such as a letter from a doctor, confirmation of a new address if you are moving house. If you need an interpreter, signer or other provision to be made because of a disability, please tell us about that so we can make suitable arrangements for the appeal hearing.
What happens next?
An independent appeal panel will decide whether we have followed the admissions procedure correctly and made the correct decision about your application. The whole appeal will be administered by an independent clerk.
The Clerk will acknowledge receipt of your appeal letter.
The Clerk will arrange a date for an appeal hearing. This will take place within 30 school days of the closing date for appeals to reception or Year 7, or 30 days of your appeal being lodged in other cases. Wherever possible the hearing will be held somewhere other than the school. You will receive at least 10 school days notice of the date (unless you agree a shorter period with the Clerk).
The Clerk will ask you:
You should reply to this letter as soon as possible so that all the arrangements can be made. The Clerk will send you our written statement setting out the reasons for the decision not to admit your child to our school at least 7 working days before the hearing.
You can submit additional information at any time up to the date of the hearing, but if you provide anything that the panel thinks may be significant too close to the hearing date, the panel may need to adjourn to allow everyone to consider it.
You do not have to attend the hearing, and your appeal can be considered from the written reasons you have given. However, we strongly recommend that you attend so that you can give the panel a detailed explanation of the reasons for your appeal. The panel members will usually ask questions about what you have written and it can be difficult for them to make the best decision without all the information.
Who will be on the panel?
The panel will consist of three or five members who are independent from the school and had no involvement in the decision that was made. They are chosen from a list provided by the Diocese and approved by us, and all the members of the panel will have received training for their role.
On the panel there will be:
The Clerk will tell you who the panel members are, and if you are concerned about their ability to act impartially, you should contact the clerk immediately.
What will happen at the hearing?
The Chair of the appeal panel is responsible for putting everyone at their ease and making sure the hearing is conducted in an informal but structured manner, controlling the meeting fairly but firmly. The Chair will introduce everyone, and explain what will happen. Then:
When everyone has said all that they wish to say, the school’s representative and you will be asked to leave, and the panel will make their decision.
How will we know the decision?
The Clerk will write to you and the school as soon as possible, and within five working days of the appeal hearing. The letter will tell you whether your appeal has been successful, and if it has, what you should do next. It will summarise the reasons for the decision
What happens if my appeal is refused?
The appeal panel’s decision is binding on the Governing Body, and can only be overturned by a court. There is no right of further appeal. If you feel the appeal panel has not followed the procedures correctly, you can contact the Local Government Ombusdman at Beverly House, 17 Shipton Road, York, YO30 5FZ (tel: 01904 663200).
You do not normally have the right to a second appeal for admission to the same school and the same academic year. If your circumstances change significantly, you may be allowed to re-apply and submit another appeal, which will be heard by a completely separate panel.
Infant class size prejudice
Infant classes, where the majority of children will reach the age of 5, 6 or 7 by the end of the academic year, must not contain more than 30 pupils with a single school teacher. There are very limited circumstances, set down in regulations, when children may be admitted as exceptions to the infant class size limit.
Where a child has been refused admission to a school on ‘infant class size prejudice’, an appeal panel can only offer a place to a child where it is satisfied that either:
The panel must also consider whether the admission of an additional child would cause future infant class size prejudice.
The Governing Body is the Admissions Authority for *** school, and the Local Authority administers the application process on our behalf. We must follow legal admissions guidelines, and we can only refuse your request for a place at our school if
- The year group your child would be admitted to is full or
- There have been more applications than there are places available and we feel that to admit any more pupils would affect the education of those already attending our school
- The infant classes have already reached the legal limit of 30 pupils and if any more pupils were admitted we would have to add extra rooms or take on extra teachers so that classes do not have more that 30 pupils with a single qualified teacher
If you are not happy with our decision not to admit your child to our school, you have the right to appeal against the decision. (The only exception to this is if your child has been permanently excluded from two or more schools).
How to appeal
You can appeal to an independent panel after you have received written confirmation that your child has been refused a place at our school. This should be done within 30 days if the appeal is for first admission to a reception class or year 7. All other appeals should be made within 10 school days of receiving the decision letter.
Your appeal must be in writing, and you should send it to the Chair of Governors at the school address. Please include the reasons for your appeal, and any information that may support your case, such as a letter from a doctor, confirmation of a new address if you are moving house. If you need an interpreter, signer or other provision to be made because of a disability, please tell us about that so we can make suitable arrangements for the appeal hearing.
What happens next?
An independent appeal panel will decide whether we have followed the admissions procedure correctly and made the correct decision about your application. The whole appeal will be administered by an independent clerk.
The Clerk will acknowledge receipt of your appeal letter.
The Clerk will arrange a date for an appeal hearing. This will take place within 30 school days of the closing date for appeals to reception or Year 7, or 30 days of your appeal being lodged in other cases. Wherever possible the hearing will be held somewhere other than the school. You will receive at least 10 school days notice of the date (unless you agree a shorter period with the Clerk).
The Clerk will ask you:
- if you wish to provide any other documents, information or evidence to the panel
- if you would like to be accompanied by a friend or adviser who may speak on your behalf at the hearing. Your friend or adviser cannot be a member of the local authority or someone from our school, or a local elected politician.
- if you would like an interpreter or signer to speak on your behalf at the hearing.
You should reply to this letter as soon as possible so that all the arrangements can be made. The Clerk will send you our written statement setting out the reasons for the decision not to admit your child to our school at least 7 working days before the hearing.
You can submit additional information at any time up to the date of the hearing, but if you provide anything that the panel thinks may be significant too close to the hearing date, the panel may need to adjourn to allow everyone to consider it.
You do not have to attend the hearing, and your appeal can be considered from the written reasons you have given. However, we strongly recommend that you attend so that you can give the panel a detailed explanation of the reasons for your appeal. The panel members will usually ask questions about what you have written and it can be difficult for them to make the best decision without all the information.
Who will be on the panel?
The panel will consist of three or five members who are independent from the school and had no involvement in the decision that was made. They are chosen from a list provided by the Diocese and approved by us, and all the members of the panel will have received training for their role.
On the panel there will be:
- At least one ‘lay’ member without personal experience in the management or provision of education in any school.
- At least one member with experience in education who is acquainted with educational conditions in the area or who is the parent of a registered pupil at another school.
The Clerk will tell you who the panel members are, and if you are concerned about their ability to act impartially, you should contact the clerk immediately.
What will happen at the hearing?
The Chair of the appeal panel is responsible for putting everyone at their ease and making sure the hearing is conducted in an informal but structured manner, controlling the meeting fairly but firmly. The Chair will introduce everyone, and explain what will happen. Then:
- the school’s case will be put by the headteacher or another representative
- you and the panel members will be able to ask questions of the school’s representative
- If there is more than one appeal, all the parents and representatives will be present, and everyone will be able to ask questions. When there are no more questions, the Chair will ask everyone (including the school’s representative) to leave, and the panel members will decide whether the school’s published admission arrangements were correctly applied, and whether the school has proved that the admission of additional children will prejudice the education of children already admitted to the school. At this stage, if the appeal is for admission to an infant class, the panel will consider whether infant class size prejudice has been proven (there is more information about this below)
- you will have the opportunity to put your case
- the school’s representative and the panel may ask you questions
- the Chair will ask the school’s representative to sum up their case
- the Chair will ask you to sum up your case.
When everyone has said all that they wish to say, the school’s representative and you will be asked to leave, and the panel will make their decision.
How will we know the decision?
The Clerk will write to you and the school as soon as possible, and within five working days of the appeal hearing. The letter will tell you whether your appeal has been successful, and if it has, what you should do next. It will summarise the reasons for the decision
What happens if my appeal is refused?
The appeal panel’s decision is binding on the Governing Body, and can only be overturned by a court. There is no right of further appeal. If you feel the appeal panel has not followed the procedures correctly, you can contact the Local Government Ombusdman at Beverly House, 17 Shipton Road, York, YO30 5FZ (tel: 01904 663200).
You do not normally have the right to a second appeal for admission to the same school and the same academic year. If your circumstances change significantly, you may be allowed to re-apply and submit another appeal, which will be heard by a completely separate panel.
Infant class size prejudice
Infant classes, where the majority of children will reach the age of 5, 6 or 7 by the end of the academic year, must not contain more than 30 pupils with a single school teacher. There are very limited circumstances, set down in regulations, when children may be admitted as exceptions to the infant class size limit.
Where a child has been refused admission to a school on ‘infant class size prejudice’, an appeal panel can only offer a place to a child where it is satisfied that either:
- the child would have been offered a place if the admission arrangements had been properly implemented; and/or
- the decision to refuse admission was not one which a reasonable admission authority would have made in the circumstances of the case.
The panel must also consider whether the admission of an additional child would cause future infant class size prejudice.
