What a panel is not allowed to consider
This list is where most appeals quietly die
What this is
Panels work inside rules. Some arguments that feel powerful cannot be acted on. Knowing the list stops you spending your best effort on something that will be read politely and then set aside.
What to do
- Do not build your case on the allocated school being worse. A panel cannot compare schools that way.
- Do not build it on your childcare or work pattern alone. It carries very little weight on its own.
- Do not build it on having moved house to be near the school. That often counts against you.
- Do build it on something specific to your child that this school can meet and the other cannot.
- If it is an infant class size appeal, understand that almost all of step two is off the table. Only a mistake, an unlawful rule, or a decision no reasonable school could have made can win it.
How you know it worked
Everything left in your case is something a panel is allowed to act on.
Easy to get wrong
- Long sections about Ofsted grades.
- Long sections about how upset your child is. Real, and it moves nobody with a rulebook.
- Nothing at all about the school’s own numbers.
If that does not work
If most of your case is on this list, that is useful to find out now. It usually means the waiting list deserves your effort instead.
Last updated 7 October 2026. Written against the School Admission Appeals Code 2022 and the School Admissions Code 2021. This is information, not legal advice.