School admission appeals
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Before you appeal
If you've been offered a school place that isn't your preferred choice and you want to appeal for a different school, it's important to accept the place you've been given
Accepting the offer won’t affect your appeal in any way, and it ensures your child still has a school place if your appeal is unsuccessful.
When to appeal
You can appeal if your child has been refused a place at any state-funded school, even if you’ve been offered a place at an alternative school. Appeals are heard by an independent panel and are generally held online using Microsoft Teams.
You cannot lodge an appeal if
- you already appealed in the same academic year (unless there is a significant change in your circumstances);
- your child has been permanently excluded twice;
- your child has an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP); in this case you should contact your SEND caseworker if you wish to change your child's school placement;
- you have been offered a school place but it’s not in the year group you would like
How schools allocate places
Places are offered to those who most closely meet the school’s admissions criteria.
Where possible, parents are offered a place at a school of their choice. However, this is not always possible because some schools receive more applications than they have places available.
To ensure fairness and transparency, admission authorities must allocate all places at their schools according to their published admissions criteria. These criteria are set and applied by the individual school’s admission authority.
| School type | Admission authority |
|---|---|
| Community schools | Local authority |
| Foundation schools | Governing body |
| Voluntary aided schools | Governing body |
| Academies | Academy trust |
Reasons why your child may not have been offered a school place
We know the appeals process can be stressful for families, so please understand that schools do not make the decision to refuse a place lightly.
In most cases your child will not have been offered a place because:
- there were other children who more closely met the school’s over-subscription criteria
- the school you applied for is full.
Your decision letter will explain why your child was not offered a place at your preferred school. You can use the contact details included in the letter for more information.
How appeals are arranged
Barnet Council arranges and hears appeals for the following schools:
- Barnet community primary schools;
- Friern Barnet community secondary school.
Barnet Council does not arrange and hear appeals for the following types of schools in the borough:
- academies and free schools;
- voluntary aided school;
- foundation schools.
You will need to contact the school directly for their appeals process.
If the school is located outside Barnet, you’ll need to contact the local authority where the school is based to find out how to appeal.
Find out who you should appeal to
Make an appeal for a Barnet community primary school place
Make an appeal for a reception, year 1 and year 2 place
Make an appeal for a years 3 to year 6 place
What happens next
A school admissions appeal hearing is a formal, independent and legal process where parents appeal a decision to refuse their child a place at a preferred school.
We arrange and hear appeals for:
- Barnet community primary schools
- Friern Barnet community secondary school.
We do not arrange and hear appeals for the following types of schools in the borough:
- academies and free schools
- voluntary aided school
- foundation schools.