School admissions appeals decline

Statistics published by the Department for Education show that school admissions appeals have fallen by 2.3 per cent in comparison to last year.

There has been a slight decrease in the number of appeals from parents who have not got their children into their chosen school.

The figures show that in 2016-17, there were 60,886 appeals made by parents compared with 62,301 in the year before.

In addition, there has been a 2.5 per cent drop in the number of appeals that have been heard by a panel.

Cases taken before a panel in the 2016-17 period totalled at 44,626 compared with 45,784 in the previous year.

Over a fifth of cases heard by a panel (21.8 per cent) resulted in a win for parents, however, this was still a drop on last year where 22.3 per cent of appeals were in favour of parents.

Despite the overall fall, the rise in the number of secondary school appeals made by parents and heard by a panel has risen in comparison to the previous year.

This year, 4.8 per cent of secondary school admissions received appeals, compared with 4.5 per cent the previous year.

In addition, 3.7 per cent of secondary admissions had appeals heard by a panel this year, compared with 3.6 per cent last year.