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When a school place is refused

Every refusal comes with a right of appeal, and most parents have no idea whether it is worth taking. In the 2025 release, independent panels heard 29,640 appeals for secondary places in England and allowed 5,903 of them, 19.9%. Where you live changes that more than anything else on this page: Sunderland allowed 95.1% of the appeals it heard, and Reading 0.0%.

19.9%of secondary appeals heard in England were allowed

29,640secondary appeals heard

37,289lodged, so some are withdrawn or settled before a hearing

151councils with appeals heard

The odds by council, secondary places

Councils ordered by the share of heard appeals a panel allowed, in the 2025 release, which covers appeals decided by 1 September 2024. The counts are beside every share on purpose: Sunderland's 95.1% rests on 41 hearings, where a large council's rate rests on thousands. A council with fewer than 30 appeals heard is listed below the table instead of ranked, because at that size a rate is one family's luck.

Find your council

#	Council	Lodged	Heard	Allowed	Share allowed
1	Sunderland	47	41	39	95.1%
2	Cumberland	93	64	38	59.4%
3	Rotherham	160	130	70	53.8%
4	Cornwall	129	94	48	51.1%
5	Westmorland and Furness	50	43	21	48.8%
6	Warrington	110	88	38	43.2%
7	Barnsley	139	121	52	43.0%
8	York	40	30	12	40.0%
9	Lincolnshire	745	627	242	38.6%
10	Norfolk	269	197	76	38.6%
11	North Lincolnshire	46	40	15	37.5%
12	Northumberland	148	115	43	37.4%
13	Oxfordshire	265	160	58	36.2%
14	Cheshire East	73	39	14	35.9%
15	Kirklees	357	288	103	35.8%
16	Sefton	198	124	44	35.5%
17	Sheffield	236	139	49	35.3%
18	Darlington	39	32	11	34.4%
19	Nottinghamshire	478	394	131	33.2%
20	Brighton and Hove	208	121	40	33.1%
21	Dorset	143	105	34	32.4%
22	Cheshire West and Chester	90	70	22	31.4%
23	Hampshire	352	243	76	31.3%
24	South Tyneside	80	64	20	31.2%
25	Central Bedfordshire	158	121	37	30.6%
26	Halton	115	112	34	30.4%
27	Bristol, City of	281	218	64	29.4%
28	Shropshire	143	75	22	29.3%
29	Newcastle upon Tyne	231	203	59	29.1%
30	Bury	265	158	46	29.1%
31	Cambridgeshire	377	304	88	28.9%
32	Isle of Wight	51	38	11	28.9%
33	Wakefield	123	104	30	28.8%
34	Windsor and Maidenhead	69	52	15	28.8%
35	Derbyshire	344	220	62	28.2%
36	Lancashire	1,253	1,034	289	27.9%
37	Wiltshire	88	58	16	27.6%
38	Suffolk	193	157	43	27.4%
39	County Durham	232	166	45	27.1%
40	North Yorkshire	154	100	27	27.0%
41	Kent	2,498	2,231	595	26.7%
42	Stoke-on-Trent	259	191	51	26.7%
43	Gloucestershire	638	543	140	25.8%
44	Kingston upon Hull, City of	308	278	70	25.2%
45	Nottingham	514	425	105	24.7%
46	Camden	65	37	9	24.3%
47	Bedford	145	133	32	24.1%
48	East Sussex	470	348	83	23.9%
49	Coventry	427	355	83	23.4%
50	South Gloucestershire	196	155	36	23.2%
51	Telford and Wrekin	130	95	22	23.2%
52	Herefordshire, County of	78	62	14	22.6%
53	Wirral	587	477	107	22.4%
54	Medway	433	395	86	21.8%
55	Bolton	319	290	63	21.7%
56	Southwark	164	152	33	21.7%
57	Blackpool	111	103	22	21.4%
58	Stockton-on-Tees	96	80	17	21.2%
59	Staffordshire	349	289	61	21.1%
60	Bexley	173	152	32	21.1%
61	Hertfordshire	814	519	109	21.0%
62	Derby	374	309	65	21.0%
63	Doncaster	307	212	44	20.8%
64	Torbay	62	53	11	20.8%
65	Knowsley	94	87	18	20.7%
66	Southampton	97	82	17	20.7%
67	Stockport	364	267	55	20.6%
68	Walsall	382	353	72	20.4%
69	Warwickshire	476	356	71	19.9%
70	Merton	61	46	9	19.6%
71	Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole	265	221	43	19.5%
72	North Tyneside	86	77	15	19.5%
73	Worcestershire	137	104	19	18.3%
74	St. Helens	61	55	10	18.2%
75	Plymouth	74	57	10	17.5%
76	Surrey	383	264	46	17.4%
77	Dudley	185	127	22	17.3%
78	West Sussex	492	353	60	17.0%
79	Milton Keynes	262	224	38	17.0%
80	Barnet	97	84	14	16.7%
81	Redcar and Cleveland	56	36	6	16.7%
82	Leicestershire	420	259	43	16.6%
83	Manchester	503	368	60	16.3%
84	Calderdale	113	98	16	16.3%
85	Gateshead	132	93	15	16.1%
86	Lambeth	127	93	15	16.1%
87	North Northamptonshire	224	203	32	15.8%
88	Wigan	261	192	30	15.6%
89	Swindon	71	52	8	15.4%
90	Essex	807	645	99	15.3%
91	Richmond upon Thames	82	53	8	15.1%
92	Somerset	200	116	17	14.7%
93	Tameside	257	206	29	14.1%
94	Enfield	179	138	19	13.8%
95	Buckinghamshire	626	496	67	13.5%
96	Bradford	756	583	78	13.4%
97	North Somerset	48	30	4	13.3%
98	Ealing	240	212	28	13.2%
99	Portsmouth	101	84	11	13.1%
100	Hillingdon	85	77	10	13.0%
101	Leeds	804	589	76	12.9%
102	Trafford	444	385	48	12.5%
103	Middlesbrough	156	120	15	12.5%
104	West Berkshire	58	48	6	12.5%
105	Wokingham	81	49	6	12.2%
106	Islington	66	51	6	11.8%
107	Hackney	164	107	12	11.2%
108	Thurrock	88	81	9	11.1%
109	Kingston upon Thames	41	36	4	11.1%
110	Birmingham	1,099	813	88	10.8%
111	Rochdale	159	121	13	10.7%
112	West Northamptonshire	392	335	33	9.9%
113	Bromley	128	103	10	9.7%
114	Barking and Dagenham	103	62	6	9.7%
115	Blackburn with Darwen	279	243	23	9.5%
116	Sandwell	411	354	32	9.0%
117	Luton	244	202	18	8.9%
118	Sutton	212	194	17	8.8%
119	Waltham Forest	127	95	8	8.4%
120	Havering	174	147	12	8.2%
121	Salford	281	204	16	7.8%
122	Liverpool	872	779	59	7.6%
123	Wolverhampton	408	357	27	7.6%
124	Lewisham	115	55	4	7.3%
125	Leicester	403	350	25	7.1%
126	Wandsworth	85	70	5	7.1%
127	East Riding of Yorkshire	56	42	3	7.1%
128	Hounslow	145	128	9	7.0%
129	Harrow	65	57	4	7.0%
130	Greenwich	254	217	14	6.5%
131	Redbridge	199	167	10	6.0%
132	Peterborough	82	69	4	5.8%
133	Newham	164	157	9	5.7%
134	Oldham	277	248	14	5.6%
135	Croydon	60	57	3	5.3%
136	Haringey	96	65	3	4.6%
137	Brent	137	123	5	4.1%
138	Southend-on-Sea	103	78	3	3.8%
139	Hammersmith and Fulham	69	58	2	3.4%
140	Tower Hamlets	176	154	4	2.6%
141	Slough	495	417	9	2.2%
142	Solihull	250	220	4	1.8%
143	Reading	100	63	0	0.0%
144	Westminster	66	58	0	0.0%

Too few heard to read as a rate: North East Lincolnshire (18 of 28), Bath and North East Somerset (6 of 20), Devon (6 of 26), Hartlepool (4 of 22), Kensington and Chelsea (2 of 22), Bracknell Forest (1 of 17), Rutland (0 of 13).

Primary places, and why infant appeals are different

A reception, year 1 or year 2 appeal is heard under a separate rule. Where admitting another child would push an infant class past 30, the panel may only allow the appeal on narrow legal grounds: that the arrangements were applied wrongly or unlawfully, or that the decision was one no reasonable panel would have made. England allowed 9.7% of the 5,128 infant class appeals heard, against 17.7% across primary appeals as a whole and 19.9% for secondary places.

Council	Primary appeals heard	Allowed	Share allowed
Rotherham	67	35	52.2%
Oxfordshire	59	23	39.0%
Milton Keynes	80	31	38.8%
Suffolk	60	23	38.3%
Sefton	65	23	35.4%
Gloucestershire	154	54	35.1%
Norfolk	60	20	33.3%
Central Bedfordshire	62	20	32.3%
Doncaster	55	17	30.9%
Coventry	206	62	30.1%
Middlesbrough	30	9	30.0%
North Yorkshire	64	19	29.7%
Southampton	35	10	28.6%
Telford and Wrekin	73	20	27.4%
Lancashire	473	126	26.6%
Cambridgeshire	99	26	26.3%
Wigan	100	26	26.0%
Kirklees	179	46	25.7%
Stoke-on-Trent	47	12	25.5%
Medway	48	12	25.0%

The twenty councils whose panels allowed the largest share, among those with enough primary hearings to read.

What these figures are, and what they are not

They belong to councils, not to schools. The Department for Education collects appeals against community and voluntary controlled schools as council totals, and does not publish the school-level returns academies and voluntary aided schools make. Appeals are not published school by school, so nobody can tell you how often appeals against one named school succeed, and this page does not pretend to.

They describe a round that has finished. The 2025 release covers appeals decided by 1 September 2024, against places for that September. A panel decides your case on its own facts.

Lodged, heard and allowed are three different numbers. Some appeals are withdrawn when a place comes up, and some are settled before a hearing, which is why fewer are heard than lodged. The share allowed is always of the appeals actually heard.

A high rate is not a promise. It usually means places were still available somewhere in that council. A low one usually means the schools appealed against were genuinely full.

Questions people ask

How often do school admission appeals succeed?

In the 2025 release, panels heard 29,640 appeals for secondary places in England and allowed 5,903 of them, 19.9%. The rate differs council by council, from under 5% in some to over half in others, which is what the table on this page shows. It describes the round that has already happened, not the one you are about to appeal in.

Why do infant class appeals almost never succeed?

An infant class appeal, for reception to year 2, can only be allowed on narrow legal grounds: that the admission arrangements were applied wrongly or unlawfully, or that the decision was one no reasonable panel would make. That is why England allowed 9.7% of the 5,128 infant class appeals heard, against 19.9% for secondary places.

Does a high success rate mean my appeal will succeed?

No. A council's rate is made of every school in it, and a panel decides each case on its own facts: whether the school is genuinely full, whether the arrangements were applied correctly, and what the child's circumstances are. A high rate usually means places were still available somewhere in that council, and a low one that the schools appealed against were genuinely full.

Source: Admission appeals in England, reporting year 2025, Department for Education, read 1 October 2026. Figures for reporting years 2021 to 2025; the next release is due in August.

Before it comes to an appeal

The distance each school admitted from is the figure that decides most places in the first round: how far each school admitted from, council by council, England's tightest catchments, and how admissions work. Check an address against the schools around it before you choose where to apply from.