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Information for schools on school admission appeals timescales and when we will request information from you.

The school admission appeals code places a legal duty on all admission authorities to inform parents of their right to an appeal to an independent admission appeal panel when they inform a parent of a decision to refuse their child at a place at a school for which they have applied.

Appeals timescales:

Parents lodging an appeal

The appeals code requires that appellants are allowed at least 20 school days from the date of notification that their application was unsuccessful to prepare and lodge their written appeal.

Deadlines for appeals to be heard

For intake decisions notified on National Offer Day, appeals must be heard within 40 school days of the deadline set for appeals to be lodged, this is shown on our timescales displayed elsewhere on SchoolsNet.
All other appeals must be heard within 30 school days of the appeal being lodged.

Information Requests

When we receive appeals for your school, we will contact you to provide us with information about numbers on roll, school organisation and the school’s individual circumstances to help us write the admission authority’s statement to explain why the application was refused. 

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