School appeal success rates by council

Every council, reporting year 2026

153 councils. Figures cover every state school in the council area, academies included, for places at the start of the school year. “Few heard” marks a council that heard fewer than 20: one or two appeals move its rate a lot. “None heard” is not 0%. Councils formed since 2019 (Dorset, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, North and West Northamptonshire, Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness) have only the years since they began.

What the words mean

Lodged

Every appeal the admission authority received.

Heard

Decided by an independent panel. An appeal withdrawn first (for example, a place came from the waiting list) is lodged but not heard.

Successful

Heard and upheld: the school must admit the child. A heard appeal is either upheld or dismissed.

Success rate

Successful divided by heard, DfE’s own measure. Not counted per child: a family appealing for two schools makes two appeals.

Infant classes

Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. DfE counts every appeal for these year groups here, not only those refused under the 30-pupil class size limit. In-year appeals (moving school during the year) are not in any of these figures.

England over time

Sum of every council DfE lists each year; reporting year 2026 covers places from September 2025.

What this means for your appeal

• A council’s rate is a past average across all its schools and families. Your appeal is decided on its own facts, by the steps below.
• First, the panel checks the decision. If the admission arrangements broke the law or were wrongly applied, and your child would otherwise have had a place, it must uphold the appeal (School Admission Appeals Code 2022, paragraph 3.5).
• The school must show harm, not just that it is full. It has to show prejudice beyond reaching its admission number (paragraph 3.10).
• Then the panel weighs your case against that prejudice, including what the school offers your child that the allocated school cannot (paragraph 3.8).
• Infant classes are narrower. An appeal can be upheld only if the class size limit would not be breached, the arrangements were wrongly applied and cost your child the place, or the refusal was one no reasonable admission authority would make (paragraph 4.6).
• Deadlines (England): at least 20 school days to appeal from the decision letter, at least 10 school days’ notice of the hearing, and a hearing within 40 school days of the appeal deadline. A late appeal must still be heard (paragraph 2.4).

Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are not in these figures: DfE’s statistics cover England. Their appeal routes differ; see the appeals guide.