Appeals

If your child has not been offered a place at your preferred school, you may request an appeal. In the case of grammar school selection tests and places for Buckinghamshire LA schools, the council itself is the Admission Authority, for the Academies, Foundation or Voluntary Aided (VA) Schools; the Admission Authority is the Governing Body of that school.

Your appeal will be arranged by the Appeals Team within Legal & Democratic Services.  The Appeals Team work independently of the Local Authority's Admissions & Transport Team.  The Admissions Team are responsible for the allocation of school places and maintaining most of the waiting lists for schools.

The Appeals Team arrange for an Independent Appeal Panel (IAP) to consider your appeal.  This panel is completely independent of the Local Authority, any other Admission Authority and Buckinghamshire County Council.

The IAP will be made up of three people that will include:

• Persons who are eligible to be a Lay Member; that is someone without personal experience in the management or provision of education in any school (excluding experience as a school governor, or in any other voluntary capacity) and
• Persons who are eligible to be a non-lay member; that is someone with experience in education, are acquainted with educational conditions in the area of the authority or are parents of a registered school pupil.

The different types of appeals are:

1 - Selection appeals

If your child has not achieved the qualifying score for admission to a Buckinghamshire grammar school and you can demonstrate and provide evidence as to why you believe your child is suitable for a grammar school education, then you may apply for a Selection Appeal.  The IAP has the power to decide that your child is suitable for a grammar school education.  The IAP will do this by reading and/or listening to your evidence as to why your child did not achieve the qualifying score in the selection test.  The panel will want to see sufficient and convincing academic evidence of your child's ability and understand why your child did not perform as expected in the tests.

Please see our Guide for Parents Selection appeal booklet.

2 - Transfer appeals

If your child has not been allocated a place at your preferred primary, grammar or upper school because it is full, you may apply for a Transfer Appeal. The IAP have the power to decide that your child should be offered a place at your preferred school (despite it being full).  The Admission Authority for that school must comply with the IAP's decision.  For a Transfer Appeal the IAP must consider whether the individual circumstances of your case outweigh any 'prejudice' to the school, which might be caused by admitting any further child or children.

Please note that some Foundation, VA and Academies choose to administer their own appeals.  If you wish to appeal for one of these schools, you should contact the school direct.

Please see our Guide for Parents Transfer appeal booklet.

3 - Infant Class Size appeal (ICS)

The majority of appeals for entrance into Reception, Year 1 or Year 2 at an Infant or Combined School will be heard as 'Infant Class Size Appeals'.

The law does not allow the Admission Authority to exceed 30 children in a classroom with other children who will be aged five, six or seven.  Where the published admission number of a school allows for classes of 30 pupils, further admissions are refused on "infant class size prejudice" grounds as the school would have to take "qualifying measures" to comply with the duty to limit infant class sizes to 30 pupils.  Such qualifying measures may include employing additional teachers or building an extra classroom.

Although you have a legal right to appeal under this criteria, there are very limited circumstances in which an IAP can direct a child to be admitted to a school.

The IAP can uphold an appeal on "class size prejudice" grounds only if they are satisfied that one of the following very limited ground applies:

• your child would have been offered a place if the admission arrangements had been properly implemented;
• your child would have been offered a place if the admission arrangements had complied with the mandatory requirements in the School Admissions code and the School Standards & Framework Act 1998 ("SSFA") and/or
• the decision to refuse admission was not one which a reasonable admission authority would have made in the circumstances of the case*

(*The courts have defined an unreasonable decision in this context as being one which is "perverse in the light of the admission arrangements".  The word 'perverse' has a stronger meaning in its legal sense.  It means beyond the range of responses open to a reasonable decision maker".)

As the grounds for upholding an appeal of this type are very limited, the percentage success rate is minimal.  In considering whether you wish to appeal in such circumstances, you must be aware that your personal reasons for wanting the school, however strongly you feel, cannot be taken into account.

To illustrate the minimal success rate of these ICS appeals we can tell you that of all the Infant Class Size appeals heard last year, approximately 3 out of every 100 were successful.  Parents are often distressed that their personal reasons were not considered due to the very limited criteria therefore; please think carefully before submitting an appeal of this type.

Please note that a decision that makes it impossible for you to transport all your family to school on time, or even impossible for you to continue working, is very unlikely to be confirmed as an unreasonable decision.  The courts have confirmed this position.

Please see our Guide for Parents, 'Appeals affected by Infant Class Size Legislation' and a recent fact sheet published by the Local Government Ombudsman, for further information on these appeals.

4 - Appeal to test 

When the Admissions Authority decide, on the basis of a report from your child's current headteacher or academic information submitted by yourself, that a place at a Grammar School would not be in your child's best interest and they refuse to test, you may appeal against this decision.  In this appeal, the IAP has the power to decide that your child should be tested to determine his/her suitability for grammar school education.  They can only consider whether the decision to test is the correct one.  They cannot consider whether your child is suitable for a grammar school.

Please see our Guide for Parents Appeals To Test booklet.

The table below provides appeal statistics for the Academic Year 2011/2012 as of 31/08/2011.

Independent Appeal panel members ("IAP")

IAP members are specially trained volunteers with an interest in education and in the community of  Buckinghamshire.  They are trained on the law and its procedures in relation to education appeals.  Some people are not permitted to hear education appeals.  This includes any person employed by the Local Authority in a capacity connected with education.

Members come from two groups - those who have experience of education (Non Lay) and those who do not (Lay). 

If you are interested in becoming an IAP  member please contact us on 01296 383384.  We have a pool of approximately 100 members and are always keen to hear from new people.  Panel members receive 'out-of-pocket' expenses.  Applications are particularly welcome from ethnic minority groups.

If you have a query about the admissions procedure you can email admissions@buckscc.gov.uk or telephone 01296 383250

If you have a query about the admission appeals procedure you can email appeals@buckscc.gov.uk or telephone 01296 383384.