When not to appeal

What this is

Roughly one in five appeals heard succeeds. Appealing is free and costs you a form, so it is usually worth doing. But deciding where your real effort goes is a different question, and for some families the appeal is not it.

What to do

1. Appeal anyway. It is free and it takes an hour.
2. But put your main effort on the waiting list if you are in an infant class size case, or if you have no mistake and nothing specific this school uniquely offers.
3. Ask about applying for a place mid-year. Different rules apply once term has started.
4. If you think the school’s admission rules themselves are wrong, there is a separate route to challenge them. It will not get your child in this year, but it can change next year for everyone.
5. If the appeal was run unfairly, that is a complaint about the process, and it goes somewhere different from the appeal itself.

Easy to get wrong

• Spending six weeks on a case that could not win, and none on the list that could.
• Not appealing at all because the odds look bad. It is free. Send it.
• Stopping everything the day the panel says no.

If that does not work

A no from a panel is not the end of the year. Most of the routes above are still open the following morning.