Hi. This is my first post and I'm hoping someone can help me. My daughter didn't pass the entrance exam for her first choice school (state grammar which is its own admission authority, as it is an academy). The school is in a different LEA to where we live. When we received the school allocation letter from our own LEA on March 1, it simply referred to first choice school as 'not allocated'. A generic paragraph in the letter suggested that parents had a right to appeal to the admission authority of any school to which their child was not given a place.

We have not had anything in writing from the first choice school, so I wasn't sure how to go about submitting the appeal. However, I found this in the Schools Appeal Code:
"Parents, and in some circumstances children, have the right to appeal against an admission authority’s decision to refuse admission. The admission authority must set out the reasons for the decision, that there is a right of appeal and the process for hearing such appeals."

Does this mean that the school should have written to us directly after March 1 with reasons for the decision not to grant a place, and telling us how to go about appealing?

I hope all that made sense! Many thanks.

Welcome,

You do not need anything in writing and schools that can’t offer you a place don’t usually get in contact. Your LA should have sent the information about appealing generally. Have a look on the school website they usually have specific details for lodging an appeal.

Thank you! Still trying to get my head around all this!

I think this means that if you do appeal for a particular school then LEA must say why you didn't get the school. They wouldn't do this ordinarily.

Thank you. It looks like I've got a lot of reading to do this weekend to get up to scratch!

Depending on where you are, the LEA may well have been appointed the admissions authority on behalf of the School, despite it being an academy. So, for example, in Warwickshire, the Stratford Grammar Schools are all Academies but the LEA performs the Admissions duties for them - so all offers/the waiting lists etc are held by the LEA - so here I wouldn't expect a rejection to come from an individual school at all.

I don't know ehat current applicants see when they look at their CAF responses now, but in our area, for DD in 2012, ours looked like this:

Name of school
Reason
School A (grammar)
Your child did not achieve a high enough mark in the selection test to qualify for a selective place

School B (partially selective)
Your child did not appear high enough under the schools admission criteria to be offered a place

...and so on, schools C, D, E...

Non-ranked allocation (partially selective school, nearest available place)
Your child has been allocated a place at this school


We certainly didn't receive any kind of communication from any of the schools which couldn't offer a place.

(NB, this was the last year that the CAF submission had to be made 'blind' i.e. in advance of entrance exams being taken and results known. But yes, we had named our catchment school, but as a non-sibling on the side of catchment furthest away from the school, it was no surprise that DD wasn't offered a place and tbf none of us was too unhappy- her 'failing' NRA turned out just fine, slthough she did - successfully - take the opportunity to try again later for School A).

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