Secondary school admission appeals

Appeal a secondary school admission decision

You should only complete the appeals form to appeal about not getting into a school in the borough of Rochdale.

You'll need to complete a separate form for each child. If you’re appealing decisions for more than one school, you must complete one form per school per child.

School admission appeal form

Documents and evidence you'll need to appeal

To complete the form, you'll need:

  • Details about you and your child, including the name of the school you're appealing against.
  • Your reason for appealing.
  • If you'd like to provide any evidence to support your appeal, have it ready to upload to the form. Evidence can be anything you think supports your case, such as a doctor's note or a letter from a social worker.

Deadline for making an appeal

The deadline for lodging your secondary school admission appeal is 12 midnight, Friday, 28 April 2023.

  • If you submit your appeal before the deadline, your appeal will be heard by Friday, 21 July 2023.
  • If you submit your appeal after the deadline, your appeal will be heard as soon as is practicable within 30 school days of being submitted.
  • If you made a late or in-year application, you must submit your appeal within 20 school days of the date you were notified your application was unsuccessful. Where possible, your appeal will be heard within 40 school days from the deadline for lodging appeals, or within 30 school days of the appeal being lodged.

After you make a primary school admissions appeal

Once you've submitted the form:

  1. We'll arrange an appeal hearing and send you a letter telling you when and where your appeal hearing will take place. We'll give you at least 14 days' notice.
  2. The hearing will take place at the specified time. You don't have to attend but if you do, you'll be able to elaborate and clarify any questions the appeals panel may have.
  3. We'll send you a letter telling you the result of your appeal within 5 working days of the hearing. We're not able to tell you over the phone. 

If your appeal is unsuccessful, you can't appeal again unless you've got a significant change in your circumstances, such as a change of address.

If you want to make a complaint about our decision, you can lodge a complaint with the Local Government Ombudsman or the Education and Skills Funding Agency depending on the type of school. Complain about your appeal

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