Secondary school admission appeals

To be eligible to appeal an admissions decision:

1. You can only appeal for schools where you’ve been refused a place. If you’ve not made a Year 7 admission application or an in-year transfer request for a specific school, you must follow the admissions process.
   • Apply for a year 7 secondary school place
   • Apply for an in-year school transfer
2. You can only appeal if you’ve made a recent admission application or in-year transfer request.
3. You can only appeal for schools which were a higher preference in your admission application. For example:
   • If you were offered your third choice school, you’d be eligible to appeal for your first and second choice schools, but not your fourth.
   • If you were offered your first choice school but would now prefer your child to attend a lower preference school, you’ll need to contact the School Admissions Team to complete a change of preference request. Your admission application will be processed again and if a place cannot be offered you’d be offered the right of appeal. School Admissions can be contacted at school.admissions@rochdale.gov.uk
4. You can only appeal to us for schools in the borough of Rochdale.
   • You’ll need to contact the school admission authority of the school you want to appeal for if the school is located outside the borough of Rochdale. 
5. You can only appeal for any year group once per school year, per school.
   • If you want to appeal again for the same school, you’ll have to submit a new in-year transfer request for the next year group. If your admission request for the year group is refused then you’ll be offered the right of appeal.