Primary school places appeal: How do I appeal if my child doesn't get his or her first choice?

There are three types of appeal available

More than one in three bright boys and 24 per cent of bright girls from disadvantaged homes underachieve at GCSE (Getty)

Parents across the country are waiting to hear whether their child has got into their first choice primary school.

Many will get their first choice accepted. Others, however, will not be so lucky. If this happens, the final option is to attempt to secure a place through the independent appeals process.

This is what do do:

Before you do anything make sure you reply to a request to include your son or daughter on the waiting list for the school of choice. It’s possible you may be offered a place through rejection of places by other parents.

Otherwise, there are three types of appeal open to you.

1. The infant class size appeal:

Regulations introduced in 1999 limit class size to 30 except in very limited situations. You will have to do your own research in finding out exactly how many pupils the school admits compared to the number of teachers. The school will have to prove that admitting an extra pupil would require them to employ an extra pupil.

2. Checking for a mistake:

You have the right to ask the admissions authority exactly why your application was unsuccessful. Generally the reason given will be distance and it is worth checking that the authority's facts were absolutely correct regarding this.

If applying to a faith school or under exceptional medical and social situations it may be possible that all of the information you provided has not been fully processed or analysed. This should be verified.

3. Unreasonable decision:

Unreasonable is defined by the School Admission Appeals Code as: “perverse in the light of the admission arrangements, i.e it ‘beyond the range of responses open to a reasonable decision maker,’ or ‘a decision which is so outrageous in its defiance of logic or of accepted moral standards that no sensible person who applied his mind to the questions could have arrived at it.”

As can be inferred by the wording, this is the most unlikely method of appeal for success and will involve directly targeting the person who made the decision and establishing what advice was sought in reaching it.

If you believe that the school is the only one able to meet your child’s needs then the validation of a professional, essentially a doctor or a consultant, could be vital.