Information for parents and carers who want to appeal against a school admissions decision.
If you have been refused a place at your preferred school you can appeal against this decision to the Torbay Independent Appeals Panel. This guide will:
The relevant admission authority allocates places at schools. Depending on the type of school you are appealing for, the admission authority is either the Local Authority (referred to as ‘Children’s Services’ in this guide), the school’s Governing Body or the Academy Trust.
The admission authority decides what criteria will be used to allocate school places in the event that a school receives more applications than there are places available, which is known as an “Admissions Policy”. The admission authority will use this criteria when deciding whether a child will be offered a place.
If an admission authority has turned down your application in writing you have the right of appeal to an Independent Panel. The Department for Education has issued a School Admission Appeals Code and School Admissions Code which must be followed by Independent Panels.
The Panel hears appeals for most schools in Torbay.
Please complete the appeal form on the admissions appeals page and submit with any supporting information to governance.support@torbay.gov.uk. Please make sure all supporting information clearly shows the child’s name.
If you wish to submit your appeal in hard copy together with supporting information please send it to:
Torbay Independent Appeals Panel
c/o Governance Support
Torbay Council
Town Hall
Castle Circus
Torquay
TQ1 3DR
A letter of acknowledgement will be sent within five working days upon receipt of your appeal form.
There is a specific closing date to submit your appeal form if your child is due to start secondary or primary school in September/January and you have not been offered a place at your preferred school. These dates are on the admissions appeals page or you can contact the Clerk on 01803 207087.
The letter acknowledging receipt of your appeal gives an indication which month your appeal is likely to be heard. At least 10 school days before the appeal hearing you will be sent a letter advising you of the date and time of your appeal.
The letter will also include the following information:
Approximately seven working days before the appeal hearing the items listed below will be sent to you, the Panel and the admission authority:
Before the appeal hearing it is advised that you:
The Panel base their decision on the information supplied in writing and what is said during the appeal hearing. The Panel, you and the admission authority receive the same written evidence pack prior to the appeal. It is therefore important to provide relevant information in support of your case.
Please note that any information not submitted by the deadline might not be considered at the appeal. The Panel must decide whether or not to consider late information and will take into account its significance and whether the hearing should be adjourned to a later date.
Please be assured that all the information provided is treated in confidence and only shared with the Panel, the admission authority, the Clerk and the Panel’s Legal Advisor.
The Torbay Independent Appeals Panel is made up of volunteers who are independent from Torbay Council and the schools who they hear appeals for. The Governance Support Team provides administration support to the Panel and acts as the Clerk at the appeal hearing.
The Panel will be made up of three people and are either ‘lay’ or ‘experienced in education’. A ‘lay’ Panel Member is someone who has no experience in the education system other than having children attend school in the past. An ‘experienced in education’ Panel Member would be someone who is a current or past teacher/governor or a parent with a child currently at school. All Panel Members receive training in relation to school appeals.
The Panel can either turn down or allow your appeal.
The Clerk is not a member of the Panel. The Clerk will support the Panel to ensure all the relevant facts are established and that the hearing is carried out in line with the School Admission Appeals Code/ School Admissions Code and any other relevant legislation in place at the time. The Clerk will:
Occasionally a legal representative will assist the Clerk by providing independent advice to the Panel.
A representative from the admission authority will be present at the hearing to explain why a place has not been offered to your child. The representative will also answer any questions you or the Panel may have.
Yes, you can have a family member, a friend or a professional who is involved with your family e.g. social worker.
It is for you to decide if you wish to bring a solicitor or lawyer with you to the appeal hearing. You will be responsible for the cost of such a representative and please notify the Clerk if you intend to bring a legal representative to the hearing.
Sometimes the appeal can be stressful for some children and unless there are exceptional circumstances children should not be encouraged to be present.
The Independent Appeals Panel have very robust practices in place to ensure only those entitled to be present at the hearing can access the Zoom call. Prior to the hearing you will be asked to provide the email address you will be using on the day of the hearing and if anyone will accompany you. If your support companion will be at a separate location to you, and using a different device, you will need to provide their name and email address in advance to Governance Support.
Click on the link provided to you via email and follow the instructions on screen. If you are using a telephone, dial the Zoom number provided in advance and follow the instructions. (Note: if you are using a landline the call will cost up to 13p per minute and from a mobile between 3p and 55p if the number is not covered by your inclusive minutes.)
When you join the Zoom meeting you will enter a virtual ‘waiting room’. Stage 1 (if applicable) will be held with all the parents/guardians as this part does not look at your personal circumstances. The Panel and you will hear from the school about their admission arrangements, teaching space and other relevant matters. If the appeal proceeds to stage 2, the Panel will admit you to the hearing at your allocated time (or as close to) and the meeting will then be locked to ensure no-one else can access the meeting.
The Panel try to the keep the appeal hearings as informal as possible but they must follow a set procedure and rules for different types of appeals (e.g. infant class size, grammar school appeals), which is set out in the School Admission Appeals Code, School Admissions Code and any other relevant legislation in place at the time. On the day of the appeal:
Note: At no time will either you or the admission authority representative be left alone with the Panel on Zoom.
Yes, there are three different types of appeal depending on the age of your child.
To find out what type of appeal applies to your child please contact Student Services on 01803 208908. Please ensure you have completed the correct appeal form for your child.
If you are unable to attend the appeal hearing please tell the Clerk as soon as possible. If it is not possible to offer an alternative appointment your appeal will be considered and decided on the written information you and the admission authority have submitted.
If you do not tell the Clerk that you are unable to attend, and you do not arrive for your appeal, your appeal will be considered and decided on the written information you have submitted.
You can telephone the Governance Support Team after the appeal for the result. You will be asked your child’s name, the school you are appealing for and be given a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. No details of the appeal hearing will be discussed on the phone.
A letter notifying you of the Panel’s decision will be sent to you within five school days of the appeal wherever possible.
The decision of the Panel is binding on the admission authority. To make arrangements for your child to start school you should contact the school directly.
If your appeal is unsuccessful you should contact Student Services to discuss any alternative options for your child’s education.
You do not have the right to a second appeal for the same school and same academic year unless the admission authority has accepted a second application from you and you have been refused a place.
The Local Government Ombudsman can investigate complaints about the way in which the Appeal Panel conducted your appeal. The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. However the Ombudsman cannot question whether an Appeals Panel decision was right or wrong simply because you disagree with the decision. You can complain about the way the appeal was carried out, but you cannot complain about the decision itself. If you wish to complain about how your appeal was conducted, please contact the Ombudsman on 0300 061 0614, visit the website www.lgo.org.uk, or write to Local Government Ombudsman, PO Box 4771, Coventry, CV4 0EH.
You can complain to the Department for Education (DfE) in respect of the Appeals Panel. The DfE can only investigate complaints about panels that did not follow the procedure set out in the School Admissions Appeals Code. The DfE is unable to consider an appeal complaint if the appeal was held more than 12 months ago unless there is a good reason for the complaint being delayed. The DfE cannot overturn the Panel’s decision. A Panel is independent, and decisions can only be challenged in court through a judicial review. A complaint can be submitted in writing by sending it to Department for Education, School complaints compliance unit, Piccadilly Gate, Store Street, Manchester, M1 2WD. Visit How DfE handles complaints about academies for further information.
You can contact the Clerk to the Panel by telephone 01803 207087 or email governance.support@torbay.gov.uk.
The Department for Education website offers advice to parents on a wide range of school-related issues and has links to both the Admissions and Appeals Codes of Practice.
Alternatively, the Advisory Centre for Education, an independent centre for parents, can also provide you with information by phone on 0300 0115 142.
The School Standards and Framework Act 1998 limit the number of children in a single reception, year 1 and year 2 class to a maximum of 30 pupils per school teacher (Classroom Assistants, dedicated support workers etc are not classed as school teachers) – this is known as infant class size limit.
Some schools admit more than 30 children into their reception year e.g. 45 which when divided would create classes of less than 30. Therefore the infant class size limit is not reached in the academic year you’re applying for. However, infant class size limit still applies if the admission authority can demonstrate that by admitting an additional pupil into the reception year you are applying for, the infant class size limit would be reached in future years. This may be due to the school combining different year groups to form a class of 30 in future years e.g. when your child moves into year 1. Please contact the admission authority to find out if your appeal falls under the infant class size regulations.
To allow an appeal the Panel must determine:
If you can demonstrate the above have not been complied with, and the Panel are satisfied you have sufficiently demonstrated non-compliance with the above, your appeal could be allowed.
If a number of children would have been offered a place under (a) to (d) above, and to admit that number would seriously prejudice the provision of efficient education or efficient use of resources, the Panel must then compare cases.
The Panel compares each appellant’s case and decides which of them, if any, to uphold. Where the school can admit more children without breaching infant class size limit the Panel must uphold the appeals of at least that number of children.
The Panel have to determine if the decision to refuse admission to your preferred school is one which a reasonable admission authority would have made in the circumstances of the case. The use of ‘reasonable’ is not the usual meaning in this situation. It is the legal meaning and has a much higher threshold i.e. a decision which is so outrageous in its defiance of logic or of accepted moral standards.
It is unlikely the Panel will consider the following as being unreasonable:
However, the Panel may consider the following circumstances as being reasonable and uphold the appeal:
This section applies to you if you are appealing for a place in:
To allow an appeal the Panel must determine:
If you can demonstrate the above have not been complied with, and the Panel are satisfied you have sufficiently proven non-compliance with the above, your appeal could be allowed.
If you have been unable to demonstrate the above the Panel must then decide whether:
The Panel must balance the reasons given by the admission authority for not offering a place against the reasons for you expressing a preference for the school, including what that school can offer your child that the allocated school or other schools cannot. If the Panel considers your case outweighs the prejudice to the school it must uphold the appeal.
If a number of children would have been offered a place under (a) to (c) above, and to admit that number would seriously prejudice the provision of efficient education or efficient use of resources, the Panel must then compare cases.
The Panel hears each appellant’s reasons for appeal and compares the cases and will uphold those with the strongest case for admission. Where a certain number of children could be admitted without causing additional prejudice, the Panel must uphold the appeals of at least that number of children.
The Panel must not reassess the capacity of the school but must consider the impact on the school of admitting more children. In reaching a decision as to whether or not there would be prejudice the Panel may consider the following factors:
Designated grammar schools are permitted to select students for admission based upon academic ability and may leave places unfilled if there are insufficient eligible applicants.
The scores attained by your child in their 11+ exams will determine if they meet the required academic standard for a place at a selective school. If your child was not offered a place you are able to appeal this decision.
To allow an appeal the Panel must determine:
The Panel must not reassess the capacity of the school but must consider the impact on the school of admitting more children. In reaching a decision as to whether or not there would be prejudice the Panel may consider the following factors:
*Locally the local review process is sometimes referred to as the Border Zone Panel.
You can find out more about how we process your data in our privacy notice.