Appeal Process

After the initial allocation of Reception places in April, any child who has not been offered a place may request to be added to the school’s waiting list. The waiting list is maintained in accordance with the school’s published admissions criteria and is re-ranked whenever applications are added or removed. A child’s position on the list may therefore change over time.

Parents and carers have the right to appeal against the decision not to offer their child a place. Appeals are heard by an independent appeal panel in accordance with the statutory School Admissions Appeals Code.

Before submitting an appeal, parents are strongly advised to read the school’s published admissions guidance carefully. Appeals are only upheld where the panel is satisfied either that:

• the admissions arrangements were not correctly applied and this affected the outcome for the child; or
• the decision to refuse a place was not reasonable in the circumstances of the case.

For example, an appeal is unlikely to be successful where a place was not allocated because higher-ranked applicants met the admissions criteria more fully (such as distance or oversubscription criteria). Similarly, failure to complete required elements of the application process (such as submitting a Supplementary Information Form, where applicable) would not normally be considered grounds for a successful appeal.

Please note that places are allocated strictly in line with the admissions criteria and submitting an appeal does not guarantee that a place will become available.

Further details of the appeals process and timetable are provided below.