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  5. Making an admissions appeal
  6. Types of appeal

Types of appeal

There are two different types of appeal hearing. Your refusal letter will explain on which grounds your child has been refused a place.

Infant class size appeals

This is where an application is refused because the child's admission would breach the infant class size (ICS) limit. Appeals heard under infant class size legislation have a very low success rate. This is because appeal panels are limited in the circumstances in which they can uphold an appeal.

An ICS appeal can only be upheld if it finds that the:

  • Admission of additional children would not breach the infant class size limit
  • Admission arrangements did not comply with admissions law and that the child would have otherwise been offered a place
  • Admission arrangements were not correctly and impartially applied, and that the child would have otherwise been offered a place
  • Decision to refuse admission was not one which a reasonable admission authority would have made

The threshold for finding that the Admission Authority’s decision was not reasonable is very high. The panel will need to be satisfied that the decision to refuse to admit the child was "perverse in the light of the admission arrangements".

This means that 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 to the question could have arrived at it".

View the guidance notes for infant class size appeals.

Standard prejudice appeals

This is where an application is refused because the child's admission would prejudice the provision of efficient education or the efficient use of resources.

View the guidance notes for standard prejudice appeals.

Appeal outcomes

The following table shows the outcomes of all appeals lodged for September 2019 entry:

Year group Appeals lodged Appeals heard Unsuccessful appeals Successful appeals Success rate %
Year R 29 19 18 1 5.3%
Year 3, 7 152 121 106 15 12.4%

Next steps

Find out more about appeal hearings.