Primary School Appeal Process
Appeal for a School Place – September 2025
If your child is due to start Primary school in September 2025, you can appeal if you are refused a place at one of your preferred schools on National Offer Day (Wednesday, 16 April 2025). You needed to submit your appeal before Tuesday, 20th May 2025 for it to be considered by Friday, 18th July 2025. Any appeals received after this time will be heard within 40 school days from the deadline, or where reasonably possible in line with updated guidance from the Department for Education.
For late applications, appeals should be heard within 40 school days from the deadline for lodging appeals where possible, or within 30 school days of the appeal being lodged where reasonably possible in line with updated guidance from the Department for Education.
Appeals for infant classes
In reception, year 1 and year 2, the class size is limited by law to 30. This is known as 'infant class size legislation'.
We cannot offer a place if all the classes already have 30 children.
You can still appeal but to be successful you will need to prove that the:
- admission arrangements have not been properly followed
- admission arrangements are not legal according to the School Admissions Appeals Code
- decision to refuse your child a place was unreasonable.
Appeal panels can only consider infant class size appeals on these grounds.
After you have appealed
Your appeal will be heard by an independent panel with no connection to the school.
The panel will decide whether to grant your child a place or not.
You will be invited to the hearing to explain why your child should be given a place and the school will explain why a place cannot be offered.
There will be a clerk who will make sure correct procedure is followed and will keep a full record of the hearing.
You can bring a friend or family member to the hearing to support or represent you. This person cannot have a connection with the school you’re appealing for (such as a member of staff from the school).
At the appeal
- the panel will decide whether to grant your child a place or not
- you can give your own reasons why your child should be given a place
- the panel will decide if the school’s admission arrangements were properly followed and are legal according to the school admissions appeals code
- if the arrangements are legal, the panel will decide if they were followed
- if the arrangements were not properly followed or are illegal, the panel may uphold your appeal
- if your appeal has not already been upheld, the panel will decide if your reasons for your child getting a place outweigh the school’s reasons for not admitting another child.
The decision
The panel will make their decision in private after all appeals have been heard.
The panel will send you and the admission authority their decision within 5 working days.
The decision is final and can only be overturned by a court.