What to put in your school appeal

It is important that you describe in your appeal why you consider that an unreasonable decision has been made in not offering your preferred school. If you wish, you can appeal for more than one school.

Supporting information

You should provide any extra information in support of your appeal which you feel is relevant. You should upload this when you submit your appeal online.

This should include all relevant personal circumstances, (medical, social or welfare reasons), which would make it difficult for your child to attend the allocated school. You may if you wish provide a doctor's letter or other independent written information to support your case.

Please note that if you refer to such written information but do not produce it beforehand it may not be considered by the Independent Appeal Panel.

Presenting additional information later

If you present additional information at your hearing (which has not previously been seen by any of the other parties) then this may not be accepted. For example confirmation of address change or medical and other supportive letters.

If the new information is substantial then the panel may request a short break or even a deferral of your hearing, to allow time to properly consider your case. The panel are not bound to accept new information or evidence on the day of your hearing so it is strongly recommended that you provide all relevant information in advance with your appeal.

If you request substantial information from the presenting officer at the hearing (without adequate prior notice) then a short break or deferral may be necessary.

What you cannot include

Appeal panels are prohibited by the School Admission Appeals Code from allowing Headteachers and representatives of the school being appealed for providing supporting information (written or verbal) in advance of or at your appeal hearing.

Addresses

You must indicate your current address on the online appeal form.

Please note that we will always check the admission address supplied with the details you have supplied within your appeal form, where this differs the Authority will need to investigate and seek further clarification from yourselves.  Therefore it is important that if you are submitting an alternative address on appeal that you support this with the appropriate evidence at the time of submitting your appeal form to mitigate any delay in arranging your appeal hearing.

Change of address

If you change address at any time between submitting the appeal and the actual appeal hearing it is your responsibility to confirm that this has happened.

Correspondence may be issued to an incorrect address if you have changed address and failed to confirm your relocation.

You will always be required to provide firm written evidence of any change of address. This should ideally be done prior to your appeal hearing. If you bring evidence to the hearing the independent panel will decide whether or not this is sufficient to accept the new address for the purpose of hearing your appeal.

Evidence of a house move requires a written solicitor's confirmation of any exchange of contracts. Rental and lease agreements may be submitted although temporary addresses are not always accepted for school admission purposes.

You are therefore strongly advised to confirm any change in address as soon as it occurs and to seek advice about providing evidence of your relocation.

If you are appealing based on an address which you will imminently move to, then you must provide written evidence before or at the appeal hearing. If you cannot, then your hearing may be deferred or, if it proceeds, will be based on your existing address.

Procedural issues

You must in your written appeal case refer to procedural issues which you feel may have prejudiced the fair allocation of a place at your preferred school (for example a misplaced or late application). This is significant information and if it is raised at your appeal without any prior notification then the hearing may be delayed or deferred pending an investigation about the allocation process.

You should raise any procedural issues about the allocation process and your application with the Local Authority and / or admission authority as far in advance of your appeal as is possible.

Appeals for siblings

If you have submitted appeals for siblings for places at the same school then you should highlight this in your online appeal form and efforts will be made to arrange appeal hearings on the same day.

Please note that for each child you will be allocated a separate appeal hearing. If you wish to present a joint case for all of the siblings then this is an option which is available. The decision about whether to present an individual case per child or a single case for all siblings is yours.

The case presented for any school may however vary between year groups. This will be explained in the appeal information and prior to and/or at the hearing.

Independent appeal panels will, therefore, make individual decisions for each appeal even where siblings are appealing for the same school. This means that it is possible for decisions for each child to vary.