If your child has been refused a place at a school by the Admission Authority (or via a Fair Access Panel decision), you have the right to submit an appeal against this decision, to an Independent Appeal Panel. You can find the relevant information on how to submit an appeal below:
Further details will also be provided to you in the decision letter sent out by the Local Authority, when your application has been processed (for In Year Admissions) or on the National Offer Days (for Primary & Secondary School Admissions). In respect of appeals that are administered by the Local Authority, you will also be sent an appeal request form with the decision letter. Some Appeals for Faith Schools and Academies are administered by other Admission Authorities and separate arrangements apply. To find out which Admission Authority you should appeal to, please refer to the Appeals Factsheet above.
Coronavirus Update - July 2020
Due to the outbreak of Coronavirus and to adhere to social distancing measures, the Government introduced new temporary legislation for Admission Appeals on 24 April 2020. You can read the revised legislation here
Please read the Appeals Timetable and the Appeals Factsheet for further information.
The Local Authority will, where possible, aim to hear appeals within the timescales that previously applied before the introduction of the temporary legislation. These are:
- For allocation of reception places for Reception (starting primary school for the first time) and the allocation of places for children transferring from primary to secondary school (Year 7 entry), appeals will be heard within 40 school days* from the Sefton deadline for lodging appeals where possible. For late applications these will be heard within 30 school days* of the individual appeal being lodged, where possible.
- Applications for In-Year admissions, where an appeal is submitted during the academic year, appeals will be heard within 30 school days* of the appeal being lodged, where possible.
*School days refers to Sefton’s standard school term dates. Therefore, Appeals are not heard during School Holiday periods.
Statistics for successful and unsuccessful appeals (Primary & Secondary Admissions only) for previous academic years are available below:
