Appealing for a Place in a Selective School or Grammar School

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.

What factors does the Panel have to consider to allow an appeal?

To allow an appeal the Panel must determine:

1. Whether a local review process* was applied to your child’s 11+ results;
2. Where a local review process (not all selective schools undertake this process, please contact the relevant school to determine this) has not been applied the Panel must only uphold your appeal if it is satisfied:
   • • That there is evidence to demonstrate that your child is of the required academic standard, for example Year 5/Year 6 SAT results or a letter of support from their current or previous school clearly indicating why the child is considered to be of selective school ability; and
     • Where the reasons for your child to attend your preferred school outweigh the admission authority’s case that admission of your child would cause prejudice.
3. where a local review process has been applied the Panel must only uphold your appeal if it is satisfied that the local review process was:
   • • carried out in a fair, consistent and objective way; and
     • if there is no evidence that this has been done, that there is evidence to demonstrate that your child is of the required academic standard, for example Year 5/Year 6 SAT results or a letter of support from their current or previous school clearly indicating why the child is considered to be of selective school ability; and
     • Where the reasons for your child to attend your preferred school outweigh the admission authority’s case that admission of your child would cause prejudice.
4. in either case the Panel must not devise its own methods to assess your child’s academic ability, they can only consider the evidence provided.

Consideration of ‘prejudice’

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:

1. what effect an additional pupil would have on the school in the current and following academic years as the year group moves through the school;
2. whether any changes have been made to the school’s physical accommodation or organisation since an admission number was originally set for the relevant year group;
3. the impact of the locally agreed Fair Access Protocol; and
4. the impact on the organisation and size of classes, the availability of teaching staff, and the effect on children already at the school.

*Locally the local review process is sometimes referred to as the Border Zone Panel.

Selective School or Grammar School appeal process

School case

The school representative will present the case, explaining why a place could not be offered for your child at your preferred school.

You and the panel may question the school representative on what has been said.

The panel will, separately from any other party except the clerk, consider whether the admission arrangements comply with the School Admissions Code the School Standards & Framework Act 1998, whether arrangements were correctly and impartially applied and whether additional children would ‘prejudice the provision of efficient education or the efficient use of resources.’

If the panel decides that the arrangements did not comply or were not correctly applied in your case, or that the year group is not full, the hearing will not go on any longer.

If yours is the only appeal for the school, your child will be admitted and the hearing will conclude at Stage 1.

Where there are multiple appeals for the same school and some but not all of the applicants could be admitted, the hearing would move to stage 2 to consider which children should be admitted.

Your personal circumstances

You will be invited to present your case independently of any other parents who are appealing and explain why you are appealing against the school’s decision.

You should mention all the reasons why you feel the school you are appealing for is the best option for your child, and what extenuating factors justify your child getting a place even though the panel has agreed that there was a good reason for turning you down. 

You should include all relevant information and where possible provide supporting written evidence with your written application.  Remember everything you say is confidential and it is important that the panel fully understands your reasons for appealing!

The panel and school representative may question you about what you have said.

All parents will be interviewed individually before any final decisions on admission are made.