Right of appeal

You can appeal for a school if you have applied and have been refused a place. 

You cannot appeal for a school if:

• you have not applied for a place at that school
• the school is a lower preference than the school offered
• you have been offered a place at the school but not the site you wanted.

There is also no right of appeal against the decision to admit your child to a particular year group. For example, this may happen is a school declines your request to be educated outside of the chronological year group.

If you have been offered a place at a school you do not want, we suggest you arrange to visit the school. You may change your opinion of the school once you have spoken to staff, seen what the school does and addressed any specific concerns you may have.

Before you appeal you should:

• accept the place that you have been offered in case your appeal is not successful
• consider why you want to appeal and how strong your case is
• read the GOV.UK advice for parents and guardians on school admission appeals

If you decide to appeal, your child’s name will automatically be added to the schools waiting list. Submitting an appeal does not affect your child’s place on a waiting list.

We are responsible for arranging appeals for community and voluntary controlled schools.

Own admissions authority schools, such as Academies, are responsible for arranging the appeal. 

In most cases, schools in North Somerset will request that we arrange this service on their behalf.