Appeal a School Admission Place

A decision letter sent from the School Admissions Team will include further details about

• How to appeal.
  • For academies, church and trust schools, and schools outside Nottingham City, your decision letter will advise you of how to appeal and who will deal with this.
  • For community or voluntary controlled schools and any academy that has requested this service, the appeals process is dealt with by the School Appeals Team in the Constitutional Services Department of the City Council, who are independent of Children and Adults.
• Details of why you have been refused and how to appeal against that refusal.
• The exact deadline for you to return your completed appeal form which is usually 28 school days from the date of the decision letter. 

The below PDF lists Nottingham City Schools and what type of school they are. Click the link to download and view the document.

• List of Nottingham City Schools and what type of school they are.

To access information about school appeals in more detail or for information about the appeal procedure, please see the School Appeals Team Page below.

If your child has been refused due to the infant class size legal limit of 30

The law states that no infant child (Reception through to Year 2) should be in a class above 30 pupils in an ordinary teaching session.

The grounds for allowing an infant class size appeal are limited to

• Either the admission authority has not processed the application correctly
• The decision to refuse was completely unreasonable.

If your child has been refused due to more applications than places and in line with the oversubscription criteria (Normal prejudice appeal) 

The Panel will:

• Consider how the school would be affected by admitting one more pupil.
• Consider how your child will be affected by not going to this particular school.
• Consider circumstances, such as if there are no other schools nearby with places available and any particular difficulties that may result from your child not attending this particular school.
• Weigh up whether the school (and the pupils already on the roll) would be more disadvantaged by your child attending,
• Weigh up whether your child would be more disadvantaged by not going to this school.

In deciding as to who would be more disadvantaged, the Panel will consider evidence from the Admissions Authority, such as communal space, size of classrooms, levels of special education needs or English as an additional language etc.

This section is only relevant if you are appealing because your child has a medical condition that can only be managed at the school you are appealing for. 

The Appeal Panel must be made aware of your child’s medical condition, how it affects your child, and why the appealed school is the only school that can support your child’s condition.

If you are relying on information relating to a medical condition to support your appeal, documents should be submitted with this your appeal, from a medical professional, outlining full details of the condition and how it affects your child.

• Timetable for School Appeals 2023 to 2024
• Timetable for School Appeals 2024 to 2025
• Infant admission refusal information 2024 to 2025
• Secondary admission refusal information 2024 to 2025

School Admissions Team

• Tel: 0115 841 5568
• Online: School Admissions FAQs and Online Contact Form - Nottingham City Council

School Appeals Team- Constitutional Services:

(Independently administered through Constitutional Services)

• Tel: 0115 876 4302 or 01158 763760
• Email: School Appeals Nottingham City