Leadership by example {ADMISSION APPEALS}
What were the statistics for admission appeals in England in 2020/21? These statistics provide information about appeals made following the refusal of a school place application
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ost appeals are made when an applicant has not received an offer, via the annual co-ordinated admissions process, of a place at their first preference school for entry into primary or secondary school; however, appeals relating to other transfers at the start of the school year are also included. Appeals relating to community and voluntary controlled schools are provided as aggregated totals by local authorities. Academy, foundation and voluntary aided schools provide their own appeal figures via the school census. The latest data covers appeals relating to admissions at the start of the 2020 - 2021 academic year. The appeals must have been lodged with the appropriate admissions authority by 1 September 2020. Approximately 11,239 appeals were heard relating to primary school places for 2020/21; this represented 1.4% of new admissions. The number and rate have both been dropping since 2015/16, when 22,820 primary appeals were heard (2.6% of new admissions). Of those heard in 2020/21, 1,823 primary appeals were successful, a rate of 16.2%; this rate is the lowest since this collection started in 2015/16. Approximately 29,871 appeals were heard
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November 2021
relating secondary school places for 2020/21; this represented 4.1% of new admissions; this is a decline from last year, when 35,648 (4.9% of new admissions) appeals were heard and reverses the increases seen since the start of this collection in 2015/16. In that year 22,964 secondary appeals were heard (3.6% of new admissions). Of those heard in 2020/21, 6,000 secondary appeals were successful, representing 20.1% of the number heard; this rate has been gradually dropping since 2015/16, when 26.3% of secondary appeals were successful.
APPEALS LODGED Applicants can lodge appeals for any school they have not been awarded a place in, but not all lodged appeals are heard at an appeal panel. A number are withdrawn before that point, for example, because the child has been offered a place at the school via the waiting list. Therefore, the best measure is the number of appeals which actually reach the stage of being heard by the appropriate authority, and this release focuses on these figures. In 2020/21, 16,781 primary appeals were lodged, with 11,239 reaching the stage of being heard by an appeals panel. At secondary level, 36,743 appeals were lodged and 29,871 heard.
