What happens after my appeal hearing
The appeal panel will make a decision on your appeal; it must either uphold or dismiss your appeal. If an appeal panel decides that your child should be admitted to the school that decision is binding on the admission authority concerned.
Once the appeal panel has made its decision you will be notified of the decision in writing as soon as possible. If your appeal was one of a group of appeals for the same school, you will not be notified of the decision until all of the appeals have been heard. This may mean that you will have to wait a few days before you know the outcome of your appeal. The admission authority will also be informed of the decision.
Your first letter will inform you of the outcome of your appeal, this will be followed by a detailed letter, which will include the reasons for the appeal panel's decision. The full decision letter is normally sent to you within 5 school days, however, due to the large number of appeals heard for different schools during April to July this is often not possible. A copy of the full decision letter will also be provided to the admission authority.
Can you appeal again if your appeal is unsuccessful
If your appeal is unsuccessful you cannot normally appeal again for the same school, in the same academic year. If your child's name remains on the waiting list and there have been successful appeals the school may wait until it has dropped back to its published admission number before it starts to offer places from the waiting list again.
There is no right of appeal against the appeal panel's decision. If you are concerned that your appeal was not dealt with correctly and the procedures did not comply with the School Admission Appeals Code and believe this may have affected the outcome of your appeal, you can complain to either the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) or the Department for Education (DfE) depending on the status of the school.
Neither the LGO nor the DfE can overturn the decision of the appeal panel, but if they agree with you that your appeal was not conducted properly and this has led to injustice, they can recommend that you are offered a fresh appeal with a new appeal panel.
The LGO can investigate complaints for maintained schools, excluding academies and free schools. Complaints can be made by calling the LGO Advice Team on 0300 061 0614 or online via the LGO website.
Complaints for academies and free schools must be made to the DfE using its complaints form.
