Can I Choose Which School My Child Attends?

You are allowed to say which state school you would like your child to attend. However, the Local Education Authority does not have to send your child to your preferred school. If you are applying at the normal time that a child starts school, your Local Education Authority may limit the number of schools you can apply to.

If you are applying at another time (for example, because you have just moved into a new area) you can apply to as many schools as you want to. You should apply in writing to make sure your application is dealt with properly.

For most community and voluntary controlled schools the Local Education Authority would decide whether or not your child can have a place at your preferred school. For other schools, however, it is a matter for the school’s Governing Body to decide.

An admission authority, either being the Local Education Authority or the school’s Governing Body, can refuse to grant your child a place at their school for a number of reasons. These reasons could be:

the school is full;
giving your child a place would take the school beyond the legal limit for infant class size (which is 30 pupils to each qualified teacher);
the school has a special character (which may for example be religious) and your child does not meet the admission rules relating to this;
the school is a “selective school” and your child does not meet its particular standards or requirements;
your child has been permanently excluded from two or more schools, the last time being less than two years ago;
the Secretary of State for Education has allowed two or more schools to have “co-ordinated admission arrangements” (where they share places);

In addition, if a school is classified as having serious problems and already has many children who exhibit difficult behaviour, it may turn down a child with similar difficulties. This only applies if you are not applying for a place after the beginning of the school year.

If more children apply than there are places at school, the school will use its “admission oversubscription criteria” to decide who to offer a place to. These criteria should be objective, clear and fair. However, the school is allowed a measure of discretion in the way in which it draws up these criteria. The criteria must be available in a printed document to which parents have access.

If your child has been refused a place at your school of choice you have the right of appeal to an independent panel. If your child is refused a place, the Admission Authority should write to you to explain why the decision has been taken and to confirm that you do have a right of appeal and they should also tell you how long you have in which to lodge your appeal. Further, they may well be prepared to admit a late appeal, that is an appeal lodged out of time, if you had a good reason for not making the appeal in time. You have to write, stating the reasons why you wish to appeal. You can send in information at any time and can even hand in further information at the appeal itself. However, as a general rule, the sooner you lodge any further evidence or information the better. Once you have sent in your appeal you will be given a hearing date. If that date is not convenient to you, you can ask the Admissions Authority to change it.

The hearings themselves have two stages. The school will get to present its case first. If your child was turned down because infant classes have reached the legal limit of 30 children to one teacher, then your appeal will only be accepted if the Appeals Panel decides that the Admission Authority did not follow the rules properly and should have offered your child a place or made an unreasonable decision in the strict legal sense. This would mean that he decision would have to be regarded by the Appeals Panel as being illogical. It would be very rare for an Appeals Panel to come to this sort of conclusion.

With respect to all other appeals, where the school is full, the Appeals Panel must decide whether taking your child would “prejudice efficient education or efficient use of resources.” This means they must consider whether the school would face problems or inconvenience if it had to take another child. If the Appeals Panel decides that this is the case, then they must go on to the second stage, which is to look at your child’s particular situation and balance that against the difficulties the school would face in taking another child. Particular circumstances in your case might, for example, be that you have other children already attending that school or that to attend another school would be extremely difficult or inconvenient. This, however, is not an exhaustive list.

The Appeals Panel are obliged to give full written reasons for their decision.

The Law Centre may be able to provide advice and assistance in pursuing an appeal. The Law Centre may sometimes be able to represent you at any such appeal. However, the Law Centre would want to be satisfied that any appeal would have reasonable prospects of success and would have to be satisfied that there was a point of some importance involved in the appeal before we would agree to take your case.

Although every effort is made to ensure the information in this leaflet is accurate and up to date, it should not be treated as a complete and authoritative statement of the law and does not constitute legal advice - we cannot be held liable for any inaccuracies and their consequences. The information in this leaflet is written for people resident in, or affected by, the laws of England and Wales only.

June 2003

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