Appeal: Have I be treated unfairly?

[MsPigle]

Hello everyone,

Please could you advise on the following.

I have kept some info general so as not to reveal confidential info about either me, my friend or the specific school, but I hope it is understandable as is.
Thank you so much in advance.

I applied to a school for an in-year transfer for Year 6 in September 2025.
My very close friend applied for her child to the same school and same year a few days before me.
I lodged an appeal in October 2025.
My friend lodged her appeal after me (by a few days I think.)
Both of us waived the 10 days notice.

Some background info:
-The official class capacity in all classes at the school is 26 pupils, but they currently have 27 and 28 in some classes.

-The school is one form entry all the way through.

-The class we were applying for had 26 pupils in it at the point we lodged our appeals.

-My friend has a second child who she also applied and appealed for at the same time. At the point she appealed that class (Year 3) also had 26 children on roll.

-None of our children have EHCPs or any SEN need. We both live the same distance away (we both live in a separate LEA to the one that the school we are applying for is in). Our children are all the ‘same’ essentially for the purposes of applying for and being given a place.

I was called by the appeals clerk on the Monday before the last day of school of the Christmas term (Weds) and asked to attend an appeals hearing online on the Weds. (E.g 1 working day’s notice.)
I said I couldn't do the Weds (it really was very extreme, exceptional circumstances) but said I could do the Thurs or Fri instead, or the first week of Jan.

I was called by the admissions officer at the school and she asked me if I knew why my friend’s mobile wasn’t working. I said yes, she’s abroad on an international holiday in a different time zone with mobile calls turned off. I alerted my friend via WhatsApp who then made contact with the school via email. Like me she also said she would prefer to do the hearing in the first week of January but in the end she agreed via email to do the appeals hearing online on the Weds from her holiday abroad.

Her appeal went ahead. No representative from the school attended the hearing. The schools statement that she received ahead of the hearing had no points of argument in it as to why they couldn’t offer her child a place.
There was no information included in the statement from the school beyond what they had already said when they turned down the in-year transfer - no space.

In the appeal hearing my friend was told at the start that both her children would be offered places, taking both classes to 27 children (so one child over the official capacity). She did not have to plead her case at all or get into any argument about the detriment to her children vs any detriment to the existing children in the school.

The Monday of the first week back in January I emailed the school asking for the date and time of my appeal hearing. At 5.30pm on Tuesday they confirmed the date/time for the appeal hearing as the Thursday (again only 1 working day’s notice.)
I’d logged off my work email so I didn’t see the school statement and the confirmation of hearing date/time until the Weds morning.

The school’s statement to me was extremely robust with a long list of very detailed bullet points as to why my child would not be offered a place.
This included fire regs capacity and square meterage capacity. Plus detriment to existing school and pupils in terms of curriculum delivery, EHCPs, SEN, the school being over PAN across the whole school.

It was clear to me on reading the statement that I was going into a very different hearing to my friend and that I would have to really plead my case, fight really hard and argue on every point.

During the hearing with regards to the timing of my friend’s hearing and my hearing I said the following:

‘Proper process has not been adhered to as I believe this hearing should have been heard as one of ‘multiple appeals’.

A panel hearing multiple appeals must not make decisions on any of those appeals until all the appeals have been heard.

In multiple appeals, the panel must not compare the individual cases when deciding whether an appellant’s case outweighs the prejudice to the school. However, where the panel finds there are more cases which outweigh prejudice than the school can admit, it must then compare the cases and uphold those with the strongest case for admission. Where a certain number of children could be admitted without causing prejudice, the panel must uphold the appeals of at least that number of children.

As my appeal was lodged first, the panel should have delayed making any decisions until they heard my case, or, even better, rearranged all the hearings.’

The chair of the panel then paused the hearing for 20 mins and put me and the school representative in separate waiting rooms.

We then resumed the hearing and the chair of the panel said that the two hearings were not multiple hearings and that it would have been unreasonable to delay my friend's appeal hearing, as that wouldn’t be fair or reasonable.

My appeal hearing was adjourned to the following week (this Thursday coming, three day’s time) as it had already gone on for over 2 hours, and I had also said that I wasn’t happy with the 1 day’s notice and wanted to request more information from the school about things like net capacity calculations but hadn’t had time.

I followed up via email as follows:

‘I still maintain that as I lodged my appeal before the other parent, my appeal should have been heard first.

As my appeal was lodged first, the panel should have delayed making a decision on the other case until they heard my case, or, even better, rearranged all the hearings.

This would not have caused detriment to the other child as the hearings could still have both been heard within the 30 day limit.

I still maintain that as it appears there is only one place in the class and both appeals were lodged at a very similar point in time, these two appeals should have been heard at the same time, and the same school statement should have been given to both appellants.’

What do you all think?

She had the appeal first, even when she was on holiday. Sounds cruel but that's just the way it is.

I did a primary appeal, it was an in year appeal and when I got a pack of information from the LEA there was a list of dates when appeals took place. Sometimes there was two a month and sometimes one a month.

I think the crux of the matter is the definition of ‘multiple appeals’. And what happens when one appellant can’t attend. In my mind it’s not fair on the other child to have to wait to be awarded a place because someone else can’t attend an appeal but it’s not about what anyone feels or thinks. It’s about the rules.

I was called by the admissions officer at the school and she asked me if I knew why my friend’s mobile wasn’t working.

1. How would the school know you were friends
2. Why would they call a friend and not next of kin (although they wouldn't do that either for an appeal. Only an emergency)
3. Why was the school calling at all. The school shouldn't contact you for appeal information, it's all done through the LA.
4. Does GDPR mean anything to the school?

If you're account of what happened is true, there are many, many, many more failings than whether it's a multiple or not.

She applied before you so she got first refusal. I cannot believe the school called you to ask for your friends number. They play no part in appeals!

@MsPigle I defend appeals for my secondary school. I have only ever done multiple appeals for September entry into year 7, not ever for in-year admissions. However, in-year admissions don't tend to be simultaneous. It sounds like your friend got very lucky - it's unusual for a school not to lodge a defence.

I think your procedural unfairness claim does have merit in relation to clause 2.21 of the appeals code. The admission authority should arguably have taken "reasonable steps" to make sure the appeals were heard by the same panel and decisions coordinated. The word "reasonable" is open to interpretation though.

If you lose the appeal, consider a complaint.

Not going to comment on your particular situation, and the absolute not on your nelly of asking you for your friend's phone avilability, but as an ex chair of governors at a small single entry primary we saw many requests for in year transfer that we had to turn down because of several reasons, especially if the child was not SEN etc.

What I note from your post is that the school seems to be close to PAN (maximum intake per year) in all of the classes, although there may have been some cases where intake was slightly lower one year allowing the school to request an increase for the following year or just generally having a little wiggle room and still stay below maximum legal class size - however the school will have a maximum number of children in total that they can have on roll. For example our PAN was usually 13 but one year we only had an intake of 8 which allowed us to request an increase in PAN the following year to 15 (no of applications that year) but to still keep below our total maximum on roll of 95

It is also entirely possible that the Y3 class had a child move, or had the facility to enroll the younger child, at this point the older Y6 child may have (depending on the admissions criteria) have moved up in preference as having a sibling at the school.

I know this doesn't seem fair but it's likely that the reasons will be somewhere in the admisisons policy and all I can suggest is to request that the school keeps you in mind should a space open up.

Absolutely!! Are you in the uk?

@pawsedforthought the school was at PAN. If it was under PAN then the OP and her friend would not have needed to lodge appeals. If a place came up at the last minute, as you suggest, the friend's appeal would have been cancelled.

It is more likely that the school chose not to defend it because they felt able to go one over PAN.

If I were the OP, I would ask the school at the hearing why they felt able to go one over PAN but not two.

Thank you very much everyone for reading my very long post and taking the time to reply - I really appreciate it.

Responses to the posts above:

-Yes I'm in the UK.

-Regarding school not lodging a defence to my friends appeal.
I believe this was deliberate. They'd already decided that they were going to admit her children/already decided that they were going to go one over PAN in each class.
By not lodging any defence that then gives whoever comes next (in this case me, but could be anyone else in the future) no precedent/leg to stand on.
E.g. If they'd made my friend argue her case and then she'd 'won' on a certain point, I could then argue the same point, and so could other people in the future. But because no argument was aired, it is then impossible for me to claim that they have treated us differently and to challenge on the same point.
I suspect that the school has developed this 'strategy position' over several years because they get so many appeals and have such long waiting lists. So their tactic is to not put a defence/argument forward when they've decided to accept the child. Maybe they behave differently if there is SEN/EHCP involved, I don't know.

-In terms of fairness and making the other child/children wait for a place.
I don't agree with this because I offered to have my appeal on the two days after the date offered (the response was that the panel were not available - okay fair enough). But both my friend and I were saying that we would prefer to wait until the first week in January. So they could have heard both our appeals on the same day in January. I don't believe this was about being fair to either family, I believe it was about creating a situation that meant the school could justify only awarding one place in my child's class. Also as we are both moving into a different LEA, the other family are not able to take up the places until the end of Feb, due to moving house etc (which my friend told the school before the appeal, I've seen the email), so it's not as if the other children could have started in the first week in January anyway. There was also the 2 week Christmas break - so again children not at school then anyway, so no child being denied an education. And as I said before they could still have heard both our appeals within the 30 day window. At a push if the other family had been ready to start straight away they would have missed the first 3 days of school in January.

-In terms of the queue etc:
Yes she applied before me, but I lodged my appeal first. There are lots of other people on the waiting list for the class who have applied but not lodged an appeal. It's up to the individual if/when you lodge an appeal (you can only appeal once a year), so when you applied is not relevant.

-LEA vs school.
The school deal with all the admissions and appeals are dealt with by the independent appeals panel. It's not the LEA. I think this might be specific to this school. There hasn't been any lack of process here, this is how it's done at this school. (Is my understanding.) The LEA might get involved if a child has an EHCP?

-PAN.
The school is at PAN in every year and has waiting lists for every class and has done for many, many years now. They have currently exceeded overall PAN for the school by 4.8%. However the night before my appeal I looked at a massive spreadsheet of PAN/capacity of all schools in England and Wales and I could see that 4.8% over PAN isn't actually that much in the scheme of things. There are loads of schools that have gone above overall PAN. Some 3%, some 5%, some 9%, some even 20%. It seemed that it was actually more unusual to be below PAN!

-Sibling priority.
This is not the case. I've seen the figures and there was also no space in the other class for the sibling. The spaces they've given to the two children mean that both classes have gone to 27 and the PAN/capacity is 26. So it's not that the sibling's class had a place and then the other child was awarded a place in my child's class due to sibling priority.

-Regarding the admissions officer calling me.
This is a bit suspect, now you mention it! Thank you for picking up on this!
This is how it went:
The appeals clerk phoned me first, and we had the conversation about my availability.
4 minutes later (I've just checked my phone log) the admissions officer for the school phoned me and said something along the lines of 'Hello just calling about your appeal'. I was a bit confused about why she was calling me so I said 'Oh I've just spoken to the appeals clerk on the phone?!?' Admissions officer then replied 'Oh sorry, I wasn't sure if she'd spoken to you. Apologies for doubling up and bothering you... Oh while you are here and I've got you on the phone, we're trying to reach X, would you know why her phone isn't working?'.
Now I look back on it there was clearly no reason for admissions officer to call me, she was clearly just fishing for info about my friend!
In terms of how she knew we were friends - I had been in contact with the admissions officer to arrange a visit previously (which didn't happen because I was ill) and my friend and I were both going to visit together in the same car etc, so she knew we were friends.

Regarding the point about why the school feel able to go one over PAN but not two. I agree with you that this is a very central point.
At the initial hearing I pushed the school on the fact that they already have 27 and 28 in some classes, and that they were willing to push two classes to 27 by admitting my friend's children (neither of whom have SEN, EHCPs etc or anything that would prioritise them above my child.)
The school said this was because they had been ‘forced’ to go to 27 and 28 via the LEA (EHCPs) and/or via appeals panels.
The panel chair then said ‘just because it’s happened once it doesn’t mean it’s right to do the same thing again.’
The hardest part of the school statement to argue was on fire regs and square meterage capacity, but I had a very good go.
Essentially they were saying 27 fine, but 28 not fine.
And that where they had gone to 28 this had been due to being forced to do it by the LEA/an appeals panel.
They also were making specific points about the specific classroom and fire regs.

@MsPigle "If they'd made my friend argue her case and then she'd 'won' on a certain point, I could then argue the same point, and so could other people in the future."

This is naive. Appeals are decided on the balance of arguments. The appellant's argument for needing a place has to be stronger than the school's case for being full. If the school presents no case for being full (rare) then the appellant wins by default. Now that the school considers itself to be at capacity, they are presenting a case. If your case is considered stronger than theirs you will win. That doesn't make it easy for the next appellant - they can't present the same case as you because their circumstances will be different. Even if their circumstances are identical to yours then the school's case will have strengthened because they will already have been pushed over their maximum. Every addition admission over PAN strengthen's the school's case.

It is unusual for appellants to compare notes.

Thank you for raising clause 2.21. I think this is the crux of it and I will argue this at the adjourned hearing on Thurs.

As above - I think the decision not to defend the case to my friend was deliberate, so that they then haven't conceded publicly on any points, and it isn't clear to me (or anyone else who follows afterwards) how or why my friend was successful.

Why do you think they had decided ahead to accept her two dc?

the school asking you about her not answering is very very weird

@MsPigle in the current financial climate it is more likely that the school wants to increase from 26 to 27 students per class. As it's a small school, I'm surprised they're operating at less than 30. Their budget is likely to be under pressure.

Clause 2.14 of the appeals code prevents school representatives from actively supporting appeals, but they can choose not to defend them.

Your conspiracy theory makes no sense.

I understand what you are saying. I think the issue for me is - I should have gone first or our cases should have been heard at the same time. Then my outcome would be potentially different, as there is nothing which prioritises any of the children over each other.

Can I ask some other questions?

Do you think at the point that the school were contacting me and my friend and asking us to attend an appeals hearing on the same day (the Weds) they had a duty to be more transparent with both of us and tell us that effectively there was only one place in the class as they were willing to go to 27 but not 28?
E.g. Should they have been more transparent about how high the stakes were?

With regards to me saying I couldn’t do the hearing on the Weds but could make the Thursday and Friday and the first week in Jan, would there have been some reasons that were more valid than others for me saying no to the Weds?
E.g. If I was doing jury service? Or my husband was critically ill in hospital? Or that I am a surgeon and had surgery scheduled for that day?
Or does the reason not matter?

I believe that the school only giving the school’s statement and the date and time of the hearing 24 hours ahead of the hearing date, is potentially another deliberate strategy they have developed to try and manufacture these types of situations.
(They’ve done it to me twice now, so I can’t think that it isn’t deliberate.)

My understanding is that:
The law requires at least 10 school days' notice unless you've agreed to less; reducing it to one day is an extreme departure and likely to prejudice your appeal.

The waiving of 10 day’s notice is not usual and should only come into play when school holidays are involved. E.g This would typically be ignoring ‘school’ days and instead counting ‘working’ days or just ‘days’.

Are there rules about how far in advance the appeals panel have to give you the school's statement? Is this separate to the 10 days notice or the same?
When the Weds was offered to me on the phone and I said I couldn't do it, the appeals clerk asked me if I wanted the hearing to be heard in my absence or if I wanted to appoint someone else to attend.
I was too nervous to appoint someone else to attend the hearing, and I was too nervous for the hearing to go ahead without me, because I having not seen the schools statement at that point I assumed that the school would put forward a very strong argument and that I needed to engage in person in a very strong rebuttal.

If I had seen the school's statement in advance and seen that the school had not mounted a defence, I would have been happy for the hearing to go ahead in my absence.
Presumably if I had gone first this is what would have happened...

"The panel chair then said ‘just because it’s happened once it doesn’t mean it’s right to do the same thing again."

The panel chair is right on this point (albeit not well expressed) but the more nuanced question is why the school did not defend going one over PAN but did defend going 2 over PAN. This is a question needing an answer, not an argument that will necessarily strengthen your case.

If your reasons for wanting the school are simply "it's a good school and I don't believe they are full" then you stand little chance of winning. Your better angle is why your case was not considered at the same time as your friend's.

I don't think they necessarily decided to accept her children and not mine (although that is possible due to personal connections). I think they'd just decided that they were only willing to go to 27 children in each class and not 28, and therefore whichever appeal went first would be successful. So what I'm questioning here is that I think they should have heard both appeals before making a decision - this would have been fair as it would have given both families the opportunity to argue their case and then the appeals panel would have had to have chosen one over the other, or admit that there was no difference in the cases and thereby both had to be admitted, or admit that there was no difference in the cases and thereby not admit any of the children?

"-The class we were applying for had 26 pupils in it at the point we lodged our appeals.
-My friend has a second child who she also applied and appealed for at the same time. At the point she appealed that class (Year 3) also had 26 children on roll."

SIBLINGS!
I would imagine that the school was able to take her year 3 because that class was deemed able to take another pupil anyway (maybe their PAN is 27). Once her year 3 was in then, assuming no looked after children or SEN children were applying to year 3, her child would have achieved the highest priority category.

I really dont understand when you knew that the school would likely only give 1 additional space per class, you didn't do everything you could to attend the appeal date offered.

Your friend made sure she took the appeal date meeting. It doesn't matter that you and she both preferred to wait until January.
Its a pity you helped your friend out by making sure the school could contact her.

Had your friend told the current school that she was taking her children abroad for a term time holiday? Were you seeking to gain some advantage by mentioning this? I find it very odd / unlikely the staff would have mentioned another case to you, had either of you mentioned you were friends or are you saying they mentioned it first?

Why do you want to move your child in Year 6, is it in connection with feeder status or priority for senior school?

No the PAN for all classes is 26, and both classes applied for were at 26.

I didn't know that the school would likely only give one place. That was complete news to me. As I said there are classes currently with two above PAN.

‘I applied to a school for an in-year transfer for Year 6 in September 2025.
My very close friend applied for her child to the same school and same year a few days before me.’

She was always going to get a place before you. However many places they were giving.

I won't reply to this in detail as it doesn't help my case/argument and in order to explain I would need to give details that would potentially reveal the school in question that we are applying to and the school that we were both at in December. But absolutely not, no, I was not seeking to gain any advantage by saying my friend was abroad on holiday, my motivation was to be helpful to both my friend and the school we were appealing to.
Secondly there are very personal and legitimate reasons for both of us applying in Year 6 which are sadly and stressfully unavoidable, but to explain doesn't help my case/argument and would potentially reveal the school that we are applying to and the school that we were both at in December. Essentially this is not a choice that we have chosen ourselves, but we find ourselves in this position unavoidably.

It's not in connection with feeder status or priority for secondary school.