The appeals hearing
You’ll be invited to attend the hearing via a Microsoft Teams video-conference. A link will be sent to you a few days ahead of the hearing date. Contact the team if you have not received it 48 hours ahead of your hearing.
When you click / tap the link, you will be held in a waiting room. You'll be invited in when the panel is ready. Your hearing time is approximate and you may need to wait for up to half an hour to be admitted if a previous case has run late. If you have technical issues on the day, you can use the 'dial-in' code on the invitation link to call in by phone.
Appeals hearings last 30-45 minutes.
The panel will ensure that you have had your say. You should ensure all evidence has been submitted ahead of the hearing. You don't need to read it out to the panel.
You decide how to organise your presentation to the appeal panel.
If you don't want to attend the hearing, the panel will consider your appeal based on the written evidence you provided with your appeal form. This also happens if you don't arrive on time. Once an appeal has started, it can't be rescheduled, so please be prompt.
Bringing other people to the hearing
You can ask a friend or solicitor to speak on your behalf, or they can attend the virtual appeal in your absence. You can also call witnesses.
Whatever you decide, let us know.
Information:
You can’t ask a representative of the school you’re appealing for to come with you. Equally, the panel can't accept letters of support from representatives of the school.
Interpreters
If you struggle communicating in English verbally, contact the team. We can arrange interpreters for appeals, free of charge.
Bringing your child
Your child is allowed to attend the hearing as a witness, but this can be a difficult experience. The panel may decide to allow the child to speak initially, then ask them to leave the hearing once they have given their evidence. You will therefore need to make arrangements for them to be looked after if required.
The 2 types of appeal
All panels check to make sure admission arrangements have been correctly and legally applied. Beyond that they can follow one of two processes:
1. Infant class size appeals
This applies to Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 where class sizes are limited to a maximum of 30 pupils.
Infant class size appeals – read more
Infant class size appeals differ from other school admission appeals because the panel is limited on the circumstances in which an appeal can be upheld.
The panel can only review the decision to refuse admission. Therefore it can only consider information that was available to the admission authority at the time the decision was made.
The panel can't consider personal circumstances for a place in your preferred school.
When considering the decision to refuse admission, the panel must take into account:
- whether the admission of an additional child would breach the infant class size limit of 30 in the current year or future years
- whether the admission arrangements comply with admissions law
- whether the admission arrangements were correctly and impartially applied in your child’s case
- whether the decision to refuse admission was one which a reasonable admission authority would have made in the circumstances of the case.
To uphold an appeal, a panel must establish that the decision to refuse admission was as a result of an error and / or was unreasonable.
1. Error – where the admissions authority has made an error in applying its admissions criteria (for example, where your home to school distance has not been calculated correctly), which has resulted in your child being wrongly denied a place. It's not enough to simply identify an error .
2. Unreasonable – the panel would need to be satisfied that the decision to refuse to admit the child was so illogical in light of admission rules that no sensible person could have arrived at it.
2. Two-stage process appeals
This applies to all other year groups, not subject to infant class size legislation.
Two-stage process appeals – read more
Stage 1 – Establishing the facts
The appeal panel must establish:
- whether the admission arrangements have been correctly applied and comply with admissions law
- whether the admission arrangements were correctly and impartially applied in your child’s case
- whether to admit additional children would cause "prejudice to efficient education or the efficient use of resources".
The panel will uphold an appeal at this stage where:
a) it's clear that your child would have been offered a place if the admission arrangements had been properly applied or had complied with the mandatory requirements
or
b) it finds that the admission of additional children would not prejudice the provision of efficient education or efficient use of resources.
However, when hearing multiple appeals for the same school and year group and:
- there are a number of children who would have been offered a place
- to admit that number would seriously prejudice the provision of efficient education or efficient use of resources
the panel must proceed to the second stage of the appeal.
The panel can't reassess the organisation or capacity of the school but should consider the impact of admitting additional children in terms of:
- organisation and size of classes
- availability of teaching staff
- the effect it would have on a school in the current and following academic years.
If the panel is satisfied that the admission authority representative has made its case, the panel will move to stage 2 of the appeal.
Stage 2 – balancing the arguments
The appeal panel must consider whether the grounds for your child to be admitted to your preferred school outweigh any ‘prejudice’ that would be caused to the school by a further admission.
The panel will balance:
- the consequences for the school and other children by a further admission
versus
- the weight of the parent's case.
At this stage the panel will take into account your specific circumstances and your reasons for expressing a preference for the particular school. Each appeal is considered on its own merits.
The panel can't take into account the position of your child on any continuing interest list.
When dealing with multiple appeals, if the panel finds that there are more cases that outweigh prejudice than the school can admit, it must compare cases and uphold those with the strongest case for admission.
Panels make sure decisions comply with the School Admissions Appeals Code and the School Standards and Framework Act 1998.