Appeals for school admissions

• To appeal for a foundation or voluntary aided Catholic school:
  
  • Write to the governing body.
• To appeal for a voluntary aided Church of England school write to The Admissions Appeal Clerk:
  
  • Address: PO Box 1694, Huddersfield. HD1 9DL.
  • Email: churchschoolappeals@gmail.com.
• To appeal for a primary or secondary academy:
  
  • Write to the academy trust;
  • or indicate that you intend to appeal on the re-allocation form (normal round of admissions only).
• To appeal for Trinity Academy Grammar or Trinity Academy Halifax:
  
  • Write to Mr John Halshaw, Governor Support Ltd, PO Box 1065, Nelson. Lancashire. BB9 4DA. Note: Appeal requests received by the Council for this school will not be accepted.

Appeals are heard by an Independent panel and follow the School Admissions Appeals Code.

Appeal hearings will be held remotely by video conference. You will be sent a video link from the clerk to the appeal panel or you can choose not to attend and have your appeal heard based on the written information you have provided on your appeal form.

The Appeal Panel will consist of a Chair person and two other panel members. There will also be an officer to provide the Panel with legal advice and who will act as a facilitator and note taker to the Appeals Panel.

An Admissions Officer and / or school representative will be there to present the case on behalf of the school.

It is important to note that the Panel members are independent of the Local Authority and the school.

The officers in attendance do not form part of the panel and will not participate in any decision making.

The order of the hearing is based on guidance in the School Admissions Appeals Code and will be:

1. Case for the admission authority.
2. Questions from appellant and panel.
3. Case for the appellant.
4. Questions from the admission authority and panel.
5. Sum up by the admission authority.
6. Sum up by the appellant.

The atmosphere of the Appeal Hearing is informal.

The Council on Tribunals, which oversees the way Appeal Panels operate has advised that legal representation is hardly ever necessary or appropriate.

Appeals will be heard in private but members of the Council may attend as observers.

There is no need for the child or witnesses to attend, although the panel may allow witnesses to give evidence provided it is relevant and not repetitive, however a letter may be more appropriate. If you intend to rely on written evidence, you should enclose it with your appeal form.

Panels must follow the two stage decision making process below for all appeals except for infant class size appeals.

First stage – examining the decision to refuse admission

The panel must consider the following matters in relation to each child that is the subject of an appeal

• Whether the admission arrangements complied with the mandatory requirements of the School Admissions Code and Part 3 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 and
• Whether the admission arrangements were correctly and impartially applied in the case in question.

The panel must then decide whether the admission of additional children would prejudice the provision of efficient education or the efficient use of resources.

The panel must uphold the appeal at the first stage where it finds:

• the admission arrangements did not comply with admissions law or had not been correctly and impartially applied. Also, the child would have been offered a place if the arrangements had complied or had been correctly and impartially applied;
• or the admission of additional children would not prejudice the provision of efficient education or efficient use of resources.

The panel must proceed to the second stage:

• in multiple appeals where a number of children would have been offered a place;
• and to admit that number would seriously prejudice the provision of efficient education or efficient use of resources.

Second stage – balancing the arguments

The panel must balance the prejudice to the school against the appellant's case for the child to be admitted to the school. If the panel considers that the appellant's case outweighs the prejudice to the school it must uphold the appeal.

Infant class size appeals

Infant classes (those where the children are in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2) differ from other school admission appeals. This is because the panel is limited on the circumstances in which an appeal can be upheld.

An infant class must not contain more than 30 pupils with a single school teacher. Only in very limited circumstances can admission over the limit be permitted.

Appeals for these places are less likely to be successful as the appeal panel can only allow an appeal where:

• It finds that the admission of additional children would not breach the infant class size limit;
• or the admission arrangements did not comply with admissions law or were not correctly and impartially applied and the child would have been offered a place if the arrangements had complied or had been correctly and impartially applied;
• or it decides that the decision to refuse admission was not one which a reasonable admission authority would have made in the circumstances of the appeal.

The threshold for finding that an admission authority's decision to refuse admission was not one that a reasonable authority would have made is high. The panel will need to be satisfied that the decision to refuse to admit the child was:

• perverse in the light of the admission arrangements.

What this means is that it was:

• beyond the range of responses open to a reasonable decision maker;
• or a decision which is so outrageous in its defiance of logic or of accepted moral standards that no sensible person who had applied his mind to the question could have arrived at it.

For more about this, please see: Advice for parents and guardians on school admission appeals (GOV.UK).

The Clerk to the appeals panel will notify you of the decision of the appeal, including the reasons for that decision in writing within five school days.

If your appeal is upheld the school must admit your child without unnecessary delay.

You can only have one appeal per school in the same school year unless the admission authority believe there have been a significant and material change in the circumstances of the parent, child or school.

The decision of the panel is final and subject to review only in exceptional circumstances.

If you believe the panel did not follow the law or followed an incorrect procedure you may submit a complaint to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman: Make a complaint.

The Ombudsman is not a further right of appeal on the merits of the case but they can ask us to hear your appeal again if the law and correct procedures have not been followed.

If your appeal was for a place at an Academy you can complain to: Academy appeal panel complaint form (education.gov.uk).