School appeals

Overview about making a school admission appeal

Your right to appeal

If we have not been able to offer your child a place at one of the schools listed on your application form, you have the right of appeal to an independent appeal panel.

Alternative arrangements for admission appeals during the Coronavirus pandemic

Face-to-face appeal hearings cannot take place until the government guidelines on social distancing indicate it is safe to do so.

Appeals arranged by Barnet Council will be held via Microsoft Teams and telephone dial-in options during this time.

Further details on how virtual school appeal meetings will be conducted will be provided in your school appeal invitation letter, once your appeal has been submitted to the School Admissions Team.

The School Admissions (England) (Coronavirus) (Appeals Arrangements) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 provides Admissions Authorities with the option to conduct appeals more flexibly during Covid-19. 

If you have any queries about virtual school appeal meetings please contact the governanceservice@barnet.gov.uk or contact 020 8359 2000 and request the Governance Service.

How many appeals you can make

You can only make one appeal per school in a single academic year unless there is a change in circumstances.

How appeals are considered by the panel

Although each appeal is decided on individual merit, only exceptional circumstances are likely to lead to a successful appeal. An appeal is unlikely to be allowed on the grounds of a school’s academic performance or Ofsted report, home-to-school distance or personal preference.

The outcome of an appeal will not be influenced by the acceptance of a place an alternative school.

How the appeals process works

• how to prepare for your appeal
• what happens at the appeal hearing
• how the appeal panel will make its decision

Which school or council to make your appeal to

Schools in Barnet

We will arrange and hear appeals for:

• Barnet community primary schools (check our list of community schools in the booklet) and
• Friern Barnet School 

We don't arrange and hear appeals for:

• academies
• faith schools
• foundation schools and free schools
• Information on how to appeal to these schools is available on the individual school websites

Schools outside Barnet

Contact the local council where the school is located to make an appeal.

Make an appeal with us for:

Appeal submission deadlines

• Reception deadline 21 May 2021
• In-year appeals for years 1 to 6 heard throughout the year

If you submit an appeal after the deadline, it will still be scheduled but it is likely to be heard at a later date than appeals that were submitted on time.

Appeals for an infant class place - (Reception, Year 1 and Year 2)

The law states that infant classes (Reception, Year 1 and Year 2) must not contain more 30 children with a single teacher. This is why infant class appeals are rarely successful. 

Your personal reasons for wanting a place at the school, however strongly you feel, cannot be taken into account unless points 1, 2 or 3 apply.

If your child has been refused admission to an infant class an appeal panel can only allow your appeal where it is satisfied that either the:

1. admissions arrangements did not comply with admissions law, or
2. admissions arrangements were not correctly and impartially applied, or
3. decision to refuse admission was unreasonable

Understandably many parents think the decision not to offer their child a place was unreasonable and will present a case to support this argument.

However, the legal definition of an ‘unreasonable decision’ is a:

• ‘decision which was beyond the range of responses open to a reasonable decision maker’ or a
• ‘decision which is so outrageous in its defiance of logic or of accepted moral standards that no sensible person who applied their mind to the question could have arrived at it’.

Appeal hearing dates for Barnet community schools

These appeal hearing dates are subject to change