Appeal against a school admission decision

In this section

  1. Appeal against a school admission decision
  2. Appeal hearing dates
  3. How to become a voluntary school appeal panel member

If you have been refused a place at your preferred Stoke-on-Trent school and you are unhappy with the school you have been offered, you can make an appeal against this decision to an independent appeals panel. The decision of the panel is final.

Appeal application forms

If you are appealing for a place at any of the schools listed below, please contact the school to request an appeal form.

Primary schools

Secondary schools

Other Stoke-on-Trent schools 

For all other Stoke-on-Trent schools, you must use the appeals application form provided by the city council. To appeal online, please choose from the two options below:

Years 3 - 11

Reception to Year 2

To receive a hard copy of the appeal application form, please email schooladmissionappeals@stoke.gov.uk.

Infant class size appeals 

This applies to reception, year 1 and year 2 classes where classes are limited to 30 children aged seven and under.

Appeals panels can only uphold an infant class size appeal if

  • admitting an extra child would not breach the class size limit of 30 pupils
  • your child would have been offered a place if the admission arrangements had complied with admissions law or were correctly and impartially applied
  • the admission authority’s decision to refuse a place was not one which a reasonable admission authority would have made in the circumstances of the case

The threshold for appeals panels is very high and therefore, many infant class size appeals are unsuccessful.