Appealing for a Place
If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your application for a school place, you may wish to appeal to an independent appeal panel. You will have the option to appeal if you have applied but this school has been unable to offer your child a place.
Admission Policies for the relevant year of entry can be found here.
For Years 7-11
An appeal must be made by a parent or person with parental responsibility.
For Sixth Form
In the case of appeals for a sixth form place a young person may make and represent themselves at an appeal or they may attend with a parent.
Circumstances when this appeal process does not apply
- If your child has been permanently excluded from two or more schools then the right of appeal is suspended for two years.
- If your child has a Education Health Care Plan there is a separate appeal process, please phone the Local Authority Team on 01522 553332.
APPEAL DOCUMENTATION
If you have made an application for your son to be considered for a place but this has been refused, and you consider that you have grounds, you may appeal against this decision to an independent panel after the formal refusal through your Home Local Authority has been received. To lodge an appeal please complete the online form.
Advice on appeals can be found at Appeal a school place decision – Before you appeal - Lincolnshire County Council.
Appeals are heard in office hours during school term time. Where there are several appeals we will always try to group them together. In planning appeals, we will try to hear them, avoiding times when parents tell us they are unavailable, but this is not always possible where there are several appeals.
It is important to submit your appeal as soon as possible so that it can be heard at the first available opportunity. It is also in your best interest to do this as decisions are made after each set of appeals and no account will be taken of any appeals not yet heard. It is therefore possible that if your appeal is not heard until a later date, decisions will already have been made by the Appeal Panel which could have resulted in an increase in the number of pupils attending the school, for example.
The block appeals for entry into Year 7 each year are co-ordinated by the School Admissions Appeal team at Lincolnshire County Council and administered by the Legal Services Department. The timetable for block appeals will be published on this website by 28 February each year.
Please note that due to the pandemic, the government made changes on 24 April 2020 to the way admission authorities (school governing bodies, local authorities and academy trusts, depending on the type of school) carried out admission appeals. The new regulations temporarily amended the 2012 appeals regulations and gave admission authorities, local authorities and admission appeal panels more flexibility when dealing with appeals during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, which included the option to hold hearings virtually.
The provisions detailed in the guidance remain in place and it is likely that appeals will continue to be held remotely until further notice; by video call, by telephone or by written submission.
Links to both the original code and the changes are available in the links below:
School Admission Appeals Code – 2011 Revised Code (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Changes to school admission appeals due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
