Your dates

What this is

Your refusal letter has a deadline for sending in your appeal. By law you must be given at least 20 school days from the date of the refusal. School days means term-time weekdays, so holidays do not count. Miss that date and you do not get an extension. You lose the right.

What to do

1. Find the letter. It is usually an email. Search your inbox for the school name and check your junk folder.
2. Find the deadline. It is normally near the end, under a heading about appealing.
3. Put it in your phone calendar now, with an alarm three days before.
4. Put a second alarm ten days before. That is when you should have asked the school for its numbers.
5. If you cannot find the letter, ring the admissions team and ask them to email it again today.

Easy to get wrong

• Assuming it is “a month”. It is a stated date and it varies.
• Counting normal days. School days skip weekends and holidays, so the real date is often later than you feared.
• Waiting until the case is perfect. A form sent on time with rough reasons beats a perfect one sent late.

If that does not work

If the date has already gone, send it anyway with a short note explaining why it is late. Late appeals are usually still heard. They are just heard later.