The Admission Appeals Minefield

Unfortunately at this time of year many parents are finding out that their first choice school preference has been refused. A recent alarming article estimates that 100,000 parents have just missed out on their first choice secondary school. These are extraordinary figures.  What most parents don't realise is that admission appeals are often successful.

The law in essence states that the parental preference is absolute and the relevant Local Authority must have proper regard to it. Infant class size appeals can be much more difficult due to the limit of no more than 30 pupils in a class, but secondary school appeals rely on the Local Authority being able to establish that prejudice would exist if a further pupil would be admitted.

In the experience of our specialist education law solicitors what tends to happen is that the LEA assume prejudice exists in every single case after allocating their set number of places.  By way of example, if the admission number fixed by the Local Authority is 240 per year group, why would the 241st pupil suddenly prejudice the education of every other pupil? If the school is rated highly by Ofsted, it is very unlikely that 1 more pupil is going to make any difference. Furthermore, closer examination of the figures may reveal that other year groups already have 245 pupils in them and those year groups function well. It really depends on the specifics of every case.

Our specialist admission appeal solicitors have years of experience assisting parents through this process. Parents often fail without proper advice because they don't know how to argue the case. We can either provide initial tailored advice or we can represent parents through the entire process including attending the hearing. Please call us today for an initial no obligation discussion on 02920 291704.