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Original poster

Secondary School Appeal

34 replies

Lionesses2026 · 03/03/2026 17:48

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone had any advice about appealing our secondary school place please. We received our second choice but my daughter is unhappy.

I see it is often suggested to check whether there has been an error with the allocations. Im not sure how I would do this. Can anyone advise in more detail about what this means?

The reason my daughter is not happy with her second choice is that she currently plays for a girls football academy. She chose a school with excellent sporting facilities and that has a partnership with a premiership football club. The school she has been allocated doesn't even have an astroturf facility :-( They do have a grass football pitch but it is built on a flood plain and is frequently unusable during the winter months.

I realise this might sound a very weak reason, but it is something that is very important to my daughter's happiness and wellbeing.

Can anyone advise if this would even be considered as a reason or would I be laughed out of the appeals process?

Thank you

OP posts:
stichguru · 03/03/2026 20:01

LIZS · 03/03/2026 18:15

The letter should clarify why the place at her first preference was not allocated, which admissions category she was given and the oversubscription criteria applied be it distance, sibling priority, faith or similar. Her interest in football is worth an appeal if you can evidence it and this is the only school which can fulfil it.

This. It is worth appealing on the grounds that given this schools link to football, should have been taken into account and possibly hasn't been. It's also possible that children which more pressing reasons to attend that school were given the places, which is fair enough.

Original poster
Lionesses2026 · 03/03/2026 19:40

LIZS · 03/03/2026 18:15

The letter should clarify why the place at her first preference was not allocated, which admissions category she was given and the oversubscription criteria applied be it distance, sibling priority, faith or similar. Her interest in football is worth an appeal if you can evidence it and this is the only school which can fulfil it.

Thank you @LIZS this is really helpful x

OP posts:
Original poster
Lionesses2026 · 03/03/2026 19:39

minipie · 03/03/2026 18:08

Plays for a girls football academy- does that mean attends a weekly football club? Or has been selected as a promising young player by an academy attached to a club?

Also the school you want - silly q perhaps but do they definitely do girls’ football? How much/ how often?

It would be a valid reason yes, you wouldn’t be laughed at. Whether it is enough is hard to say - a lot will depend on how crowded the school you want is already.

Regarding admissions errors - you would need some reason to believe there had been an error, like you have a sibling there or live on the doorstep but still haven’t got a place.

Thanks for your reply. She plays for an academy that she trials for each year. It's a "proper" academy, for want of a better word, that is run by a professional club. It's not a grassroots team. They definitely do girls football there and have excellent facilities. It's good to know I won't be laughed out even if it isn't guaranteed! Thank you again.

OP posts:
Original poster
Lionesses2026 · 03/03/2026 19:34

eternalsprings · 03/03/2026 18:07

You won't be laughed out, but if the school has a strong case for being full then your case may not be strong enough to win. Your daughter plays football at a very high level.outside of school, so you would have to give a good reason why not going to the preferred school will be to her detriment. Will she even have time for school-level football?

Thank you for your reply, and you make a good point, which I hadn't considered. The school she was hoping to go to has links to a premiership football club and she was excited for the opportunities that would bring. The girls football offering at her allocated school looks poor - they train in an indoor sports hall (where as the boys get taken to an off site facility).

OP posts:
Original poster
Lionesses2026 · 03/03/2026 19:30

FlockofSquirrels · 03/03/2026 18:06

I'm sorry to hear your daughter received disappointing news yesterday.

When people talk about making sure that an error wasn't made it means making sure that the admissions authority used the correct info and applied the admissions criteria as written. The specifics vary depending on the school's oversubscription criteria, but often this means making sure your DD was categorized correctly (for example, if the admissions criteria has a category for students from feeder schools, or students in a specific catchment, or students who sat banding tests, or students with a faith commitment) and checking that the distance measurement to your home that they used is correct. One place to start with this is to look on the council website for the allocation of places offered for the school and make sure that they didn't offer to a farther distance than yours in the applicant category you think your daughter should have been in. Mistakes aren't common, but it's always worth checking. You can also contact either the school or admissions authority (whichever manages the waiting list) and confirm both your DD's position on the list and the admissions category and distance from school they have her listed at.

Your daughter's football commitment and ability definitely isn't a laughable appeal argument. It's difficult for anyone to tell you odds of success without knowing how oversubscribed the school is and what other appeals they will get, but that's a strong starting place.

This is incredibly helpful. Thank you so much for taking the time to write this out and to share your knowledge. That makes sense now - I thought I was somehow supposed to check they have properly allocated all the other places! 🙈 Thank you again.

OP posts:
LIZS · 03/03/2026 18:15

The letter should clarify why the place at her first preference was not allocated, which admissions category she was given and the oversubscription criteria applied be it distance, sibling priority, faith or similar. Her interest in football is worth an appeal if you can evidence it and this is the only school which can fulfil it.

minipie · 03/03/2026 18:08

Plays for a girls football academy- does that mean attends a weekly football club? Or has been selected as a promising young player by an academy attached to a club?

Also the school you want - silly q perhaps but do they definitely do girls’ football? How much/ how often?

It would be a valid reason yes, you wouldn’t be laughed at. Whether it is enough is hard to say - a lot will depend on how crowded the school you want is already.

Regarding admissions errors - you would need some reason to believe there had been an error, like you have a sibling there or live on the doorstep but still haven’t got a place.

eternalsprings · 03/03/2026 18:07

You won't be laughed out, but if the school has a strong case for being full then your case may not be strong enough to win. Your daughter plays football at a very high level.outside of school, so you would have to give a good reason why not going to the preferred school will be to her detriment. Will she even have time for school-level football?

FlockofSquirrels · 03/03/2026 18:06

I'm sorry to hear your daughter received disappointing news yesterday.

When people talk about making sure that an error wasn't made it means making sure that the admissions authority used the correct info and applied the admissions criteria as written. The specifics vary depending on the school's oversubscription criteria, but often this means making sure your DD was categorized correctly (for example, if the admissions criteria has a category for students from feeder schools, or students in a specific catchment, or students who sat banding tests, or students with a faith commitment) and checking that the distance measurement to your home that they used is correct. One place to start with this is to look on the council website for the allocation of places offered for the school and make sure that they didn't offer to a farther distance than yours in the applicant category you think your daughter should have been in. Mistakes aren't common, but it's always worth checking. You can also contact either the school or admissions authority (whichever manages the waiting list) and confirm both your DD's position on the list and the admissions category and distance from school they have her listed at.

Your daughter's football commitment and ability definitely isn't a laughable appeal argument. It's difficult for anyone to tell you odds of success without knowing how oversubscribed the school is and what other appeals they will get, but that's a strong starting place.