Appeals

Year 7 – September 2023

Year 7 places will be offered, via the local authorities, on 1 March 2023. Children who cannot be offered a place, due to there being more applications than there are places, will automatically remain on the waiting list until 31 December 2023.

The timeline for appeals:

• Deadline for submitting an appeal form: Wednesday 29 March 2023.
• Appeal received by the deadline: The requirement for appeals to be heard is 40 school days. This means that appeals will be heard by 19 June 2023 wherever possible.
• Appeals received after the deadline: You can appeal after the deadline but your appeal may not be heard before school starts in September.
• In all cases, parents will be given at least 10 school days’ notice of an appeal hearing.

Reception appeals – September 2023

Infant class size rule

The Government has set a limit on the size of infant classes (Reception, Year 1 and Year 2), as described below.

2.15 Infant class size – Infant classes (those where the majority of children will reach the age of 5, 6 or 7 during the school year) must not contain more than 30 pupils with a single school teacher. Additional children may be admitted under limited exceptional circumstances. These children will remain an ‘excepted pupil’ for the time they are in an infant class or until the class numbers fall back to the current infant class size limit. The excepted children are:

a) children admitted outside the normal admissions round with statements of special educational needs or Education, Health and Care Plans specifying a school;

b) looked after children and previously looked after children admitted outside the normal admissions round;

c) children admitted, after initial allocation of places, because of a procedural error made by the admission authority or local authority in the original application process;

d) children admitted after an independent appeals panel upholds an appeal;

e) children who move into the area outside the normal admissions round for whom there is no other available school within reasonable distance;

f) children of UK service personnel admitted outside the normal admissions round;

g) children whose twin or sibling from a multiple birth is admitted otherwise than as an excepted pupil;

h) children with special educational needs who are normally taught in a special educational needs unit attached to the school, or registered at a special school, who attend some infant classes within the mainstream school.

Reception appeals – September 2023

Reception places will be offered, via the local authorities, on 17 April 2023. Children who cannot be offered a place, due to there being more applications than there are places, will automatically remain on a waiting list until 31 December 2023.

The Government has set a limit on the size of infant classes (Reception, Year 1 and Year 2), as described above. Appeals are very rarely upheld for infant classes because of this.

Timeline for appeals:

• Deadline for submitting an appeal form: 15 May 2023

• Appeals received by the deadline. The requirement for appeals to be heard is 40 school days. This means that appeals will be heard by 18 July 2023 wherever possible.

• Appeals received after the deadline. You can appeal after the deadline but your appeal may not be heard before school starts in September.

• In all cases parents will be given at least 10 school days’ notice of an appeal hearing.

In-Year appeals

These appeals are for children transferring between schools mid-year. You can make a formal appeal to an independent appeal panel, for any school that you have applied for where admission has been refused. This is a legal process and places are not ‘reserved’ for appeal panels to offer.

In-year appeals will be heard by the local authority as soon as it is possible to do so.

Appeal forms and information

The local authority (Council) process the appeals for this Academy.

Details of the appeals process can be found on their website. You will need to complete the online form to make an appeal.

If you need to ask a question about the appeals process, you can contact the local authority via:

Telephone: 0113 222 4414

Email: education.appeals@leeds.gov.uk