Appeals
You can appeal for a school place where you have applied and been refused admission.
If you plan to appeal, read the advice carefully. You can only appeal against the refusal of a place at a school that is currently one of your live preferences.
Appeals are heard and decided by panels that are independent of the council and the school(s) you may appeal for.
Infant class size legislation appeals
There are only a few reasons an appeal panel may uphold an infant class size appeal (reception class, year 1 or year 2 only).
For an appeal to be successful, an appeal panel must be satisfied that the:
- admission of additional children would not breach the infant class size limit (which requires that an infant class must not have more than 30 pupils with a single qualified teacher; if this is exceeded, the school will be required to take qualifying measures)
- child would have been offered a place if the published admission arrangements had been properly implemented
- child would have been offered a place if the arrangements had not been contrary to mandatory provisions in the School Admissions Code and the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, and/or
- decision to refuse admission was not one that a reasonable admission authority would have made in the circumstances of the case
You must recognise this before spending what can be a significant amount of time and effort on an infant class size appeal.
For full information on the infant class size legislation, read section 4 Infant Class Size Appeals.
Appeal success rates
Appeals are generally only successful if you or your child has exceptional reasons for needing admission to a particular school. There are no guarantees that any appeal will be successful.
The table below shows the number of appeals we have heard and successfully administered over the last 3 years.
| School year | Number of appeals heard | Percentage of successful appeals |
|---|---|---|
| Primary intake 2025 | 85 | 0% |
| Primary intake 2024 | 72 | 0% |
| Primary intake 2023 | 89 | 0.9% |
How to appeal
You will be able to access the online appeal form from 4:00pm on 16 April 2026.
The closing date for submitting your written appeal is Friday 15 May 2026.
If you submit an appeal after this date, it will be classed as a late appeal and will be heard after the on-time appeals. It may not be heard before the beginning of September 2026.
Page last updated: 16 April 2026
