Admissions and Appeals for Primary School Places
If your child has been refused a place at a primary school, through the use of a case example, we explain the law and procedure for appealing the decision.
If you need more specialist advice, you should contact Yvonne Spencer for further advice.
Q. I have been unable to obtain a place for my five year old in the local primary school. His name has been put onto a waiting list, is there anything else I can do?
A. Yes, you have a right to appeal to an admission appeal panel. You do not lose this right even if your child’s name is on the school’s waiting list, or you have been offered a place at the second school of your choice. Parents also have the right to appeal if an offer of a place is made and later withdrawn.
Q. I have heard that infant schools cannot take more than thirty pupils in each class, but I know there were thirty two pupils in a class last year. What does the law say about this?
A. Since September 2001, infant school class sizes should not normally exceed 30 when pupils turn five, six or seven during the course of a school year. There are a few exceptions which allow the restriction to be lifted. These include the admission of pupils with statements of special educational needs where the school is named in the statement; and pupils whose parents have successfully appealed to an admission appeal panel.
Q. Is it worth appealing if the number of pupils in the class is already up to thirty?
A. Providing you can make out a case to show that the admission arrangements were applied incorrectly, or that allowing your child entry to the school would not cause any prejudice to the efficient use of the school’s resources, you should appeal. Statistics from the Department for Education and Skills show that around one third of parents’ admission appeals are successful.
Q. What is the procedure for appealing?
A. You should receive a letter from the admissions authority explaining the full reasons why your application for a school place was unsuccessful. You should note any time limits for informing the admission authority of your decision to appeal. Once your appeal has been registered, you should think about the documents you might want to send to the appeal panel. These might include things like medical certificates or calculations of distances from home to school.
The appeal hearing takes place in a neutral setting away from the school. The appeal panel will consist of three people one of whom acts as the chair-person. Appeal panels must be impartial and independent.
The admission authority will present its case first, after which you may ask questions. Next, you will be invited to put your case. When you have finished speaking the admission authority may ask you some questions. Parents are entitled to be accompanied by a friend or a legal representative. The panel’s decision will be sent to you in writing within seven days of the date of the panel’s decision.
Q. How should I present my case to the appeal panel?
A. You should base your appeal on two grounds. The first, known as ‘ground B’, requires you to show that the school’s published admission arrangements were applied incorrectly. For example, the admission authority may have overlooked the fact that your child had a sibling already at the school, where criteria such as sibling links would have given your child greater priority under the school’s published admission arrangements. You will only succeed on this ground
if you can show that if the criteria had been properly applied, your child would have been offered a place. So if all the places had been allocated by the time your application was considered, you will not succeed.
The second ground is referred to as ‘ground A’. This can be put by itself or in addition to ground B. Here you must show that the admission authority’s decision was unreasonable. A good example would be where your child was refused a place on the ground that all places had been allocated, but another pupil was subsequently given a place.
When addressing your questions to the admission authority, you should bear in mind that it is not enough for the admission authority to simply show that the admission number has already been reached. So, if in the previous three years the admission authority has admitted 32 pupils to a particular year, it should be able to admit this number again without prejudicing the school’s resources.