Appealing a school place decision

You'll be sent a letter with the decision about your child's school. If your child is refused a place, you can appeal against the decision.

Before you can appeal, you must have already received a decision letter explaining that your child has been refused a place – please wait until you have received a refusal letter or email before you submit your appeal.

Before making an appeal

Please check who organises your appeal, as this is not always Leicestershire County Council – you can check the school’s website to find out who to lodge your appeal with.

What you should know before appealing for a school place

You cannot appeal against a school you have been given a place at, only one of the preferences you weren't given.

You should keep the school place you have been offered in case your appeal isn’t successful, otherwise you risk having no school place for your child.

The appeals process is run by the Legal Services Team who are a separate department and independent of the Admissions Team.

When we have received your appeal we will arrange your appeal hearing as soon as we can. It may be a while before we contact you as it takes time to set up a hearing. Deadlines and the school appeal timetable is shown further down this page.

The appeal panel

Your appeal will be heard by a panel of three or five members (the appeal panel). They will look at how the places at the school were given and why you could not be offered a place, including any relevant law (the admission authority’s case). The appeal panel will also consider your individual circumstances (your case).

Decision

The decision of the appeal panel is binding on both parties which means that this is your only appeal against the original decision. The decision of the appeal panel will be final.

Appealing for more than one school

You may want to appeal for more than one school. Please submit an appeal form for each school you are appealing for. You will get a different appeal hearing for each appeal which may be on different days sometimes a few weeks apart.

Making an appeal

When making an online appeal on our system, if the school you want to appeal for isn’t on the drop down list it means we don’t run the appeals for them and you should contact the school directly.

Download and read our full guidance on how to appeal:

Supporting information

Have ready all the information you need and any files for uploading before starting the form, as you can’t save it.

We encourage you to provide all supporting information in your original appeal application, however if you have further evidence which was not included with your initial appeal form you must make sure that it is received at least 5 clear school days before your appeal hearing date.

This can be submitted to school.appeals@leics.gov.uk Any additional evidence or information received after this date might not be considered at the appeal hearing.

Submit the appeal online

When ready, complete the school admissions appeal form online:

We expect all appeals to be submitted online. If you’re finding this hard, please ask a relative or friend to help you (your local school may also be able to help).

If you need access to a computer or scanner, you can book a library computer.

If you’re not already a member you’ll need to join the library which you can do online or by visiting the library.

What happens next

Please note: Repeat appeals in the same academic year will not be allowed unless there has been a significant change in your circumstances, eg a house move.

The panel can only allow an appeal for a place in an infant class that already has 30 children if :

School admission appeals timetable 2024/2025

September 2024 entry

Appeals for first time primary admissions (Reception) or transferring to secondary school (Year 7) applications for admission in September 2024 will be heard according to the following timetable where the appeal is submitted on time:

Tuesday 16 April 2024

*You will receive notification of your hearing date during this time. If there's any changes we'll let you know before your hearing.

Late applications and appeals received after the deadlines

For first time admission to primary school or transferring to secondary school

Applications for a school place received after the closing dates are classed as late.

If your application was late, and you want to appeal the decision, you should appeal within 20 school days of being refused the place. Your appeal will be heard within 40 school days of the submission deadline or within 30 school days of the deadline for submitting appeals (whichever is later).

Appeals when moving school mid-term

If you have applied for a school place outside the normal round, such as mid-term, and been refused, then you should lodge an appeal within 20 school days of being notified that your application was unsuccessful.

Your appeal will be heard within 30 school days of the appeal being lodged.

Schools that have their own appeals process

Leicestershire County Council does not manage the appeals process for the following schools:

Schools to be contacted directly

Primary schools

Secondary schools