How do I appeal if my child does not get a school place?

Every parent refused a place at a state school in England can appeal to an independent appeal panel — a right under the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 and the School Admission Appeals Code 2022. It covers community schools, academies, free schools, grammar schools and faith schools, and in-year refusals as well as the main round. Appeal within 20 school days of the refusal letter. A late appeal is still heard, but only after the on-time ones.

How the panel decides

For secondary places and Year 3 upwards the panel applies a two-stage test:

• Stage 1 — were the admissions criteria lawfully applied? If the admissions authority made an error that affected the outcome, the panel must uphold your appeal without going further.
• Stage 2 — balancing prejudice. The panel weighs the harm to the school of admitting one more child against the harm to your family of refusal — distance, medical needs, siblings, the alternative on offer. If your side outweighs the school's, the appeal succeeds and the school must admit your child.

Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 are different. Infant class size law caps classes at 30 pupils per qualified teacher, so the panel can only uphold your appeal if admitting your child would not breach that limit, if the criteria were unlawfully applied, or if the refusal was so perverse no reasonable authority would have made it. An administrative error is the strongest ground available in these cases.

Building the case

• Write a statement tying your child's specific needs to this school. Letters from a GP, consultant, SENCO or social worker carry far more weight than preference or inconvenience.
• Compare the school's published admissions policy with its admissions statistics. Distance measured the wrong way, a sibling criterion misapplied, or unlawful criteria such as a parental interview are all Stage 1 arguments.
• Read the school's case for refusal, which you receive before the hearing, and answer the prejudice it claims.
• Appeal for every school that refused you, accept the best offer you already have — it does not affect the appeal — and stay on the waiting lists.

Main-round appeals must be heard within 40 school days of the appeal deadline and in-year appeals within 30, with at least 10 school days' notice of the hearing. Citizens Advice can help you prepare. If you lose you cannot appeal again for the same school that year unless your circumstances change materially, but you can ask the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman to examine procedural failures in how the appeal was run.