School admission appeals

Submit an appeal

All school admission appeals need to be set out in writing. To submit an appeal you must complete our online School admission appeal form.

If you are unable to complete the online form you can also download, print and return the School admissions appeal form (Word, 68KB) by post. Contact us by telephone on 01472 324149 or email at [email protected] if you need to request a copy.

Some of the schools in North East Lincolnshire manage their own appeals. You should contact the school directly if you wish to appeal for any of the following schools:

• Cleethorpes Academy
• Healing School – A Science Academy
• Pilgrim Academy
• Reynolds Academy
• St Joseph’s Catholic Primary Voluntary Academy
• St Mary’s Catholic Primary Voluntary Academy
• Tollbar Academy

The address you detail on the form will be the address we use to send all correspondence to, so please make sure the address is correct.

If you move address during the appeals process, please make sure that you contact us as soon as possible on 01472 324149 or [email protected] to provide your new address.

If you are appealing for more than one school, you will need to complete a separate appeal form for each school.

What information should I include in my appeal form?

You should clearly set out your reasons for why you think your child should have a place at your preferred school. This should include all relevant personal circumstances such as medical, educational, social or welfare reasons.

You can appeal for any reason but the stronger your reasons are, the better chance you have of your appeal being successful.

You can appeal if you think that the admission authority did not apply their arrangements correctly and if they had been applied correctly your child would have been offered a place at the school.

When giving your reasons, try to think about what your preferred school can offer your child that others can’t and the impact on your child if they do not attend your preferred school. 

Supporting evidence

If you have evidence which you feel supports your appeal, such as letters from professionals (doctors, social workers, medical reports etc), please submit these with your appeal form.

If you want to submit further supporting evidence after lodging your appeal, you will need to submit this to us at least 3 clear working days before your hearing. Please note, any evidence submitted after this deadline may not be considered.

Please note, the Appeals Panel cannot accept letters of support from schools, as this could create conflicts of interest and unfairness to other appellants.

Can I ask the clerk/Appeals Panel to contact anyone, such as a doctor or social worker to provide further information or to confirm what I have said on my appeal form?

It is your responsibility to provide any supporting evidence that you would like the Appeals Panel to consider. The clerk/Appeals Panel will not contact any third parties to obtain information and the Appeals Panel will only consider information submitted to them.

Additional needs

If you have any additional needs that we need to take account of, for example you require disabled access or an interpreter, so you can participate in the hearing, please detail this on your appeal form.

What happens before the appeal hearing?

At least 10 school days before your appeal hearing, we will send you a letter confirming the date, time and place of your hearing, unless you have told us that you don’t need this much notice. We will also include an attendance form so you can let us know whether you will be able to attend.

If you are unable to attend the hearing, please contact the clerk to the Appeals Panel as soon as possible. In limited circumstances, requests for alternative dates will be considered but cannot be guaranteed.

Approximately 7 days before the hearing we will send you a set of appeal papers. This will include details of the parties attending, the admission authority’s statement and a copy of your notice of appeal form and any additional information submitted with it.

What will happen at the appeal hearing?

The appeals hearing is not set up like a Court. The appeals hearing will be conducted in private, usually in a room in Grimsby Town Hall.

The appeals hearing must follow a formal process, but the Appeals Panel and clerk will try to make it as informal as possible and to put you at ease.

At the start of the hearing, the clerk or chair of the panel will make introductions and deal with any preliminary issues, such as consideration of any new information, whether an adjournment is necessary, etc.

For standard appeal hearings, the appeal will be heard in 2 stages:

Stage 1 – the admission authority’s (school’s) case

The presenting offer will explain to the Appeals Panel why your application was refused and why the school can’t take any more pupils.

After the Presenting Officer has presented the school’s case, both you and the Appeals Panel will have the opportunity to asks questions.

Once stage 1 is finished, you and the presenting officer will briefly leave the room so that the Appeals Panel can decide whether to uphold your appeal at this stage or proceed to stage 2.

Stage 2 – parent’s case

This is your opportunity to put forward your case and to explain why you would like your child to go to your preferred school.

There is no right or wrong way to present your case. You may find it helpful to write a statement or bring written notes with you to remind yourself of all the points you would like the Appeals Panel to consider.

After you have finished presenting your case, both the presenting officer and Appeals Panel may ask you questions.

Please note, the Appeals Panel may not be able to consider any new evidence or information you present at the appeal hearing if you have not already submitted it in writing before the appeal hearing.

At the end of the hearing both parties (you and the presenting officer) will have the opportunity to summarise the main points of your cases.

Decision making

Once the Appeals Panel has heard both cases, it will make a decision in private whether to uphold or dismiss your appeal. In reaching its decision, the Appeals Panel will weigh up your case for wanting your child to attend the school against the school’s reasons for not being able to admit any more pupils.

Please note, the decisions of Appeals Panels are legally binding on all parties.

Infant class size appeals

These appeals are heard slightly differently to standard appeals, as Appeals Panels can only uphold Infant Class Size appeals in certain, limited, circumstances.

This is because the law limits the size of infant classes (usually reception, year 1 and year 2) to a maximum of 30 pupils per teacher. In an infant class size appeal, the school will have refused your application because admitting your child would breach this limit, either now or in the future (known as future prejudice).

An Appeals Panel can only uphold an Infant Class Size appeal if:

• It finds that the admission of an additional child would not breach the infant class size limit
• It finds that the school’s admission arrangements were unlawful, or were not properly applied, and the child would have been offered a place at the school if the arrangements had been lawful or had been properly applied
• It decides that the decision to refuse admission was not one that a reasonable admission authority would have made in the circumstances of the case

The threshold for finding that an admission authority’s decision to refuse admission was unreasonable is high. This means that the Appeals Panel would need to believe that no reasonable admission authority considering the case could have come to the same decision.

As the threshold is high, it’s unlikely the Appeals Panel will be able to uphold an appeal for this reason. It’s important for you to be aware of this so you can be realistic about the likely result.