How to appeal for a school place
(Reception, Junior, and Lower to Middle School 2022)
If you feel you would like lodge an appeal and have your case heard by an Appeal Panel that is independent of the school's admission authority please click on your preferred school/s in the drop down box below for further guidance on lodging an appeal.
The school selector will appear shortly. If it doesn't go to the backup page to check your options for appeal
Infant class size:
Part A of the Appeals Guide explains the reasons for an Infant Class Size refusal.
The way in which the classes are organised within this school means that your application has been refused because to offer a place would breach the legal limit of 30 children in an infant class. In some schools there are less than 30 children in the Reception class, but because of the way the school arranges their Year 1 and Year 2 classes, the infant class size limit will be reached in future years.
Infant Class Size Appeals can only be upheld in very exceptional circumstances.
The law states that an infant class (i.e. a child in Reception Year, Year 1 or Year 2) should not be educated in a class which has more than 30 children per qualified teacher. This applies even if other adults are always present, and/or some children are absent. Therefore most appeals for admission to Reception at a Primary or Infant school will be ‘Infant Class Size’ Appeals.
If you have been refused a place under the implementation of the Class Size Regulations, then the Appeal Panel can only decide in your favour on 2 grounds:
- If there was a mistake made in the Admissions process which affected the allocation of a place to your child
Or - If the County Council as the Local Education Authority has not acted in a “reasonable manner” in refusing to allocate a place at your preferred school.
The Code of Practice defines not acting in a reasonable manner as ‘perverse in the light of the admission arrangements’, i.e. 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 their mind to the question could have arrived at it.
Put more simply, as well as checking whether giving another child a place will break the law, panels need to look at whether the admission arrangements for that school were legal, whether they were applied properly and whether in the circumstances it was reasonable not to offer your child a place.
If the Appeal Panel agrees that you have made a case on any of those grounds then they will grant your child a place at the school. If you have not proved your case according to any of those criteria, then your appeal will be refused.
If you still wish to make an appeal please complete the Appeal Application Form or contact us for a paper copy of the Notice of Appeal Form
Completed appeals paperwork should be returned to democratic.services@gloucestershire.gov.uk
What happens next?
- Once your appeal form has been received it will be logged and your appeal panel and date will be arranged. A clerk to the Appeal Panel will send you a letter giving the date, time and place of the appeal hearing approximately two weeks before the hearing. Appeal Hearings are due to start in the second week of June.
- Before the appeal hearing, you will also receive a written statement from the Admission Authority for the school, which will give the reasons why your child was not allocated a place in the school you wanted.
Other Information
You should not wait for the outcome of an appeal about one school before deciding to appeal about another as appeals can be made for more than one school at the same time.
Parents who have appealed unsuccessfully for a particular school cannot appeal again for a place at the same school, in the same academic year, unless there have been significant and material changes in their circumstances.
Appeals for schools outside Gloucestershire should be made in accordance with the published admission arrangements of the local authority concerned.
Please complete and return your appeal form as soon as possible before 27 May 2022.
You may complete and return appeal paperwork before the outcome of the waiting list request as you can cancel your appeal request at any time by emailing democratic.services@gloucestershire.gov.uk
This school is its own Admission Authority
You have a legal right to appeal for a place at the school. If you wish to appeal, you need to write to the Governors of the school directly. Please use the school's contact details but address any correspondence to the Governing Body of the school.
Efficient use of resources
Part B of the Appeals Guide explains the reasons for an Appeal due to Efficient Use of Resources.
The school place has been refused on the basis that admitting your child would cause a ‘prejudice to the provision of efficient education or efficient use of resources’, the Appeal Panel has to make a decision using a different set of criteria.
Firstly the Panel must decide whether the Admission Authority has made a case that no more children can be admitted to school without this prejudice occurring. If the Panel decide that the Admission Authority has not made the case for a single appeal, then the Panel will uphold the appeal and agree that the child should have a place at the school.
If the Panel decide that the Admission Authority has made out its case and prejudice would occur then the decision making process continues to the ‘balancing stage’ where they examine the individual case to decide if the circumstances put forward for the child outweigh the degree of prejudice caused to the school.
If the Appeal Panel agrees that your case is sufficiently strong and outweighs the Admission Authority’s case, then they will uphold the appeal and agree that the child should have a place at the school. If the Appeal Panel believes that the case put forward by the Local Authority is stronger, then they will find in favour of the school.
If you still wish to make an appeal please complete the Appeal Application Form or contact us for a paper copy of the Notice of Appeal Form
Completed appeals paperwork should be returned to democratic.services@gloucestershire.gov.uk
What happens next?
- Once your appeal form has been received it will be logged and your appeal panel and date will be arranged. A clerk to the Appeal Panel will send you a letter giving the date, time and place of the appeal hearing approximately two weeks before the hearing. Appeal Hearings are due to start in the second week of June.
- Before the appeal hearing, you will also receive a written statement from the Admission Authority for the school, which will give the reasons why your child was not allocated a place in the school you wanted.
Other Information
You should not wait for the outcome of an appeal about one school before deciding to appeal about another as appeals can be made for more than one school at the same time.
Parents who have appealed unsuccessfully for a particular school cannot appeal again for a place at the same school, in the same academic year, unless there have been significant and material changes in their circumstances.
Appeals for schools outside Gloucestershire should be made in accordance with the published admission arrangements of the local authority concerned.
Please complete and return your appeal form as soon as possible before 27 May 2022.
You may complete and return appeal paperwork before the outcome of the waiting list request as you can cancel your appeal request at any time by emailing democratic.services@gloucestershire.gov.uk