England · primary and secondary school places
Your child didn’t get the school.
You have about 20 school days to appeal. Most parents spend them arguing the one thing a panel is not allowed to act on.
- Can your appeal actually win? Some can. Some cannot. We tell you which.
- Your exact deadline, counted in school days from your own letter.
- What to say, and the half of the hearing nearly everyone skips.
Free · two minutes · no card, no account
A panel decides in two halves.
Almost every appeal argues the second one and skips the first. The first is the easier half to win, because it is about the school’s paperwork rather than your child.
Every school publishes the rules it uses to decide who gets in. The panel checks four things: how many places the school had, how many children it actually took, how far away the last child offered a place lives, and which rule that place went under. If any of it was applied wrongly to your child, the panel can uphold your appeal there and then — without hearing anything about your child at all.
Only now does your child come into it. What can this school give them that the school you were offered cannot? Something specific, and written down by someone other than you.
Stage one is about their paperwork. Stage two is about your child.
Four mistakes that cost families a place
Every one is free to fix, and every one is common.
Accepting it harms nothing. Refusing can leave your child with no place at all.
Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 have a far narrower test. Most of what you want to say cannot be heard.
Places available, children admitted, distance of the last one in, and which rule they got in under. You are entitled to ask. Almost nobody does.
It moves all summer. For many families it is the better route, not the fallback.
Where the numbers sit
We are not going to tell you this is easy.
Some cases are strong. A few are hopeless. The check tells you which you are, including when it is the answer you did not want.
What is free, and what is not
Two different jobs. Only one of them costs anything.
Understand how appeals work
Eight guides. Free forever. No card, no email.
- Why accepting the offered place is safe
- Which of the three appeals you are in
- How the waiting list is really ordered
- What a panel is not allowed to consider
- When not to appeal at all
Yours at the end of the check. Nothing to pay.
Build your appeal
One pack, matched to your case. One payment.
- Your written case, section by section
- The four numbers to request, and the wording
- What happens in the hearing room, in order
- How to appeal for every school you named
- What to do if the panel says no
Shown at the end of the check, once we know your case.
The difference in one line. The free guides explain how appeals work. The pack builds yours.
How it works
Two minutes, on your phone, with the letter in front of you.
Your child's year, the date on the letter, and what it says.
Which of the six your case sits on, and what a panel will decide.
Every step lands on a real date, worked back from your deadline.
Questions parents ask first
Does accepting the offered place hurt my appeal?
No. It does not affect your appeal or your waiting list position. It only means your child has a school in September.
How long do I have?
At least 20 school days from the refusal. The exact date is on your letter, and school days skip weekends and holidays.
Can I appeal for more than one school?
Yes, for any school you named that refused you. Each is a separate appeal with its own form.
Does the appeal cost anything?
No. Appeals are always free. We sell optional guidance, and the check itself costs nothing.
Is this legal advice?
No. It is information, built on the statutory codes. Panels are independent and their decisions are their own.
Why you can take our word for it
We are new. So here is exactly what we are and what we are not.
Every guide is written against the School Admission Appeals Code 2022 and the School Admissions Code 2021. Not opinion, not forum threads. Reviewed every December before the season.
We take no commission from schools, councils, advisers or solicitors. We sell one thing, to you, once. That is the only money that reaches us.
Our content is reviewed by a former appeal panel member. We will name them here once that is in place.
Reply to your receipt within sixty days and we refund it. No form, no questions, no explaining yourself.
What parents said
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No reviews here yet, because we have not had customers yet. When we do, they go here in their own words, good and bad. We are not going to invent them.
Start with the letter in your hand
Eight questions. Your ground, your deadline, and what the panel will actually decide.
No card. No account.