Appealing against admission decisions

If your child has been refused a place at any school for which you have expressed a preference, you have the right to appeal against this decision. 

Information about the appeals procedure for voluntary aided schools is available from the school in question. Under Department for Education guidance, the appeal procedure does not apply to nursery admissions. 

Appeals for community schools 

The letter informing you that a place cannot be offered to your child will tell you how to appeal. If you decide to appeal, you should contact the School Admissions Team following receipt of your refusal letter to request an appeal form. 

Send your completed appeal form to:

Strategic Director
Corporate Services and Governance 
Civic Centre
Regent Street
Gateshead 
NE8 1HH

Where possible, we will arrange and conduct all admission appeal hearings for September 2024, before the end of the current academic year. 

Late appeal forms may result in appeal hearing dates having to be rearranged at short notice with inconvenience to other parents and panel members. Before deciding whether to appeal you should think about:

• the admission policy for admitting pupils
• your reasons for wanting your child to attend the school
• how strong a case you have. 

You may also want to consider visiting the school where you have been offered a place or alternative schools that still have places available. Contact the School Admissions Team on: 0191 433 2757 if you would like information on the availability of places at other schools you may consider.

If you decide to appeal, your appeal will be heard by a panel that is independent of us, Gateshead Council, and the school. You may want to attend an appeal for more than one school at which you have been refused a place. The outcome of one appeal does not prevent you from attending another. You will be informed of the date and place of the appeal hearing. You should be given at least seven days notice. 

Seven days before the hearing, we will send copies of the statement of case that will be put before the appeal panel in support of the our decision not to offer your child a place. You are advised to attend the appeal hearing. You will have the opportunity to put your case forward and ask questions. You can take someone with you if you wish. If you are unable to attend, the case made by you in writing will be considered in your absence. In making your case, you may want to refer to your original reasons for choosing the school.

You should submit any additional information with your appeal form. If not you can provide these to the clerk in good time for the panel and to be able to consider them before the hearing. There will be representatives from us and the school at the hearing to explain to the panel why it was not possible to offer your child a place. At the end of the hearing, the clerk should be able to give you an idea of how soon you can expect to receive the panel's written decision. 

The panel's decision is final. 

You can only appeal once for admission of your child to a particular school for any given academic year. We will only determine a second application for any given academic year where it accepts there has been a significant and material change in your circumstances relevant to the question of admission.