Ark Network Appeals Timetable

Main Round:

Appeals for children refused admission at a preferred school for entry into Reception, Year 7 or Year 12 in September 2023 will be heard according to the regulations in the School Admission Appeals Code (October 2022).

Appeal panel hearings will take place within 40 school days of the deadline date for submitting an appeal.

The independent appeal panel clerk will notify parents/carers of the date of their appeal; appeal hearings will take place during May/June/July 2023.

In Year:

Appeals for children refused admission to year groups other than Reception, Year 7 and Year 12 will be heard within 30 school days of receipt of the appeal. Parents/carers will be notified of their appeal hearing date by an independent appeal panel clerk.

For all year groups, please click here for the appeal form.

Before submitting a Primary appeal, please make sure you read this: Guidance on Infant class size appeals.docx 

Infant class size appeals

The law states infant classes of 5, 6 and 7 year olds may not normally contain more than 30 pupils with a single teacher. As such, there are limited grounds in which an appeal for an infant class will be successful. There are only three grounds on which infant class size appeals can be upheld.

1. If the panel finds that the admission of additional children would not breach the infant class size limit.
2. The panel finds that the admission arrangements for the school did not comply with admissions law or were not correctly and impartially applied and the child would have been offered a place if the arrangements had complied or had been correctly and impartially applied. Here, the panel must be satisfied not only did the arrangements not comply with admissions law or were not correctly and impartially applied but also the child would have been offered a place if the arrangements had complied or had been correctly and impartially applied.
3. The panel decides that the decision to refuse admission was not one which a reasonable admission authority would make in the circumstances of the case. Please note that the law defines ‟unreasonable‟ very narrowly in these cases and it means a decision which was “perverse in the light of the admission arrangements”, i.e. it 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 had applied his mind could have arrived at it.”. The panel must use the legal definition of „unreasonable‟, and not their own personal definitions.

If the panel decides that the answer to any of the above categories is yes then your appeal may be allowed. Otherwise your appeal will be refused. Please note that the panel may also take into account the practical consequences for the school and the children in relevant infant classes if any or all the appeals were to be successful.

Please contact the academy if you need a paper form.