Grammar school appeals,
explained.

Which situation are you in?

A formal admission appeal follows an application to a named school and a refusal of a place. A disappointing 11+ score on its own is not that refusal. Begin with the result or decision letter and the school’s admission arrangements for your child’s entry year.

If the school was not on your CAF, ask the admission authority how to make an application before assuming there is a refusal to appeal. Keep any offered place while you consider the alternatives.

The appeal timetable

For the normal Year 7 admission round, appeals usually follow National Offer Day in March. The refusal letter should state why the school did not offer, where to send the appeal and the lodging deadline. Use the actual timetable for the school and entry year.

At least20 school days

To prepare and lodge the appealFrom notification that the application was unsuccessful. Submit your grounds in writing through the specified process and keep the acknowledgement.

Within40 school days

For an on-time appeal in the normal round to be heardCounted from the deadline for lodging appeals, not from the date you submitted yours. Late applications and in-year cases have different provisions.

At least10 school days

Notice of the hearingYou can agree to shorter notice. Check the date, format, joining instructions and separate deadline for any additional evidence.

School days exclude weekends and school holidays. The evidence deadline is set locally: it is not automatically the same as the date for lodging the appeal. Late evidence may be refused or delay the hearing. The School Admission Appeals Code, section 2, sets out the timetable rules.

If you think the authority made an error, raise it promptly, but do not assume that an informal enquiry pauses the appeal deadline. You need a separate appeal for each school whose refusal you want to challenge.

What the panel considers

An independent panel decides the appeal. The admission authority explains its refusal; you explain why your child should be admitted. For a qualified child refused because of oversubscription, the usual process has two stages.

Stage 1 · The school’s case

Admission rules and school capacity

The panel considers whether the arrangements were lawful and correctly applied, and whether admitting another child would prejudice efficient education or the use of resources. An error matters if the child would have been offered a place had the arrangements been lawful and properly applied.

A school saying that it is full does not end the hearing: it must present its case. You have the opportunity to ask relevant questions about that case and the application of the rules.

Stage 2 · Your child’s case

Why does your child need this school?

Where the appeal proceeds to the second stage, the panel weighs your case against the school’s case for refusing another pupil. Explain the particular provision your child needs, why it matters and what the effect would be of not attending.

A preference based only on reputation or headline results gives the panel little information about the individual child. Specific reasons, supported by relevant evidence, are more useful than a long statement praising the school.

If your child did not qualify

The selective-appeal rules also require consideration of academic suitability. Whether a local review has already taken place affects what the panel considers.

No local review has taken place

The panel must be satisfied by evidence that the child meets the required academic standard and, where applicable, that the case outweighs the school’s prejudice argument.

A local review has already taken place

The panel first considers whether that review was fair, consistent and objective. It does not simply repeat the review. Where there is no evidence that the review met those requirements, the panel follows the academic-evidence process in paragraph 3.13(a) of the Appeals Code.

Read the local procedure carefully. The Buckinghamshire review guide explains one such route; Kent, Bexley and Medway use their own arrangements.

Evidence to prepare

Build a short, organised case around the issues the panel will consider. Number the documents and explain what each one supports. The appeal pack should tell you how to submit them and whether witnesses need to be identified in advance.

1. The refusal and admission policyKeep the complete decision letter and the determined arrangements for the correct entry year. Identify the refusal reason and any rule you believe was applied incorrectly.
2. Your application and test recordSave the CAF receipt, result, correspondence and any selection-review decision. If you allege an address or administrative error, include the relevant dated evidence.
3. Academic evidence, where requiredSchool reports and a specific statement from the current school can help explain academic suitability. A narrow test-score gap or an explanation for a difficult test day is not, by itself, evidence of the required standard.
4. Reasons linked to this child and this schoolExplain the relevant curriculum, provision or circumstances. Where professional evidence is relevant, it should address the actual need and its connection to the school rather than merely confirm a diagnosis or preference.

The evidence and hearing guide provides more detail on organising the submission. Send relevant material by the deadline rather than arriving with a new bundle on the hearing day.

At the hearing

The clerk or chair explains the procedure. The school’s presenting officer sets out the admission authority’s case; you can ask questions and present your reasons. The panel and presenting officer may also ask you questions.

Some schools hear their general capacity case once with several families present, followed by each family’s individual case. Your own stage may be at a different time or on another day. The hearing can be in person, remote or hybrid; follow the specific invitation.

• Read the papers beforehand and note the page numbers for the points you want to raise.
• Prepare a short opening account, then answer the panel’s questions directly.
• Ask the clerk about support in advance: an interpreter, support person or accessibility adjustments.
• Check remote joining arrangements and tell the clerk promptly about connection or attendance problems.

The panel makes its decision in private. The clerk supports the procedure but does not decide the outcome. Neither the hearing nor the written case needs polished advocacy to explain clear, relevant facts.

After the decision

The decision and reasons must be sent in writing, normally within five school days unless there is good reason for a delay.

Concerned about how the appeal was handled? A complaint about the procedure is different from disagreeing with the panel’s decision. Use the official complaints guidance for the relevant school type. A complaint does not automatically reopen the merits of the case or produce a place.

Normally, you can appeal only once for the same school in the same academic year. If a significant change in circumstances leads the admission authority to accept a new application and refuse it, a further appeal may be possible.