More appeals over school places

Jim Knight says it is good that parents should have a right of appeal

More parents lodged appeals over being refused places in England's primary schools for last year than in 2005-06.

Official statistics show there were 26,440 appeals in 2006-07: 3.1% of all admissions, up from 2.6%.

The success rate of those that were heard by an independent appeal panel dropped from 36.1% going in parents' favour to 32.2%.

In secondary schools the number of appeals was down a little as was the success rate, from 36.4% to 35.3%.

Schools Minister Jim Knight said the statistics showed the system was "working for parents".

'Toughened'

"It is absolutely right that parents have the legal right to appeal to an independent panel," Mr Knight said.

"I want every child to have a fair and equal chance of getting into a school, regardless of background - that's why we have toughened up enforcement of unlawful arrangements and made the appeals process even more transparent.

"The very small proportion of appeals heard, compared to the overall number of admissions processed, shows the system works well - 98% of primary admissions offers and over 94% of secondary do not have any appeal heard against them.

"There will always be some oversubscribed schools, more popular than others - the key is to give parents confidence that their local schools can meet children's needs or talents wherever they live."

Anxiety

But an organisation which helps families with such things as appeals and exclusions, the Advisory Centre for Education, said it knew the distress that more 56,000 families had experienced who had had to appeal against their admission offer.

Chief executive Simon Hepburn said: "This anxiety is intensified by the fact that many parents believe that they have a choice about which school their child goes to. The system does not provide a choice, it is based instead upon preference.

"All children should be able to attend a school that meets their individual needs. Had parents been given better information when applying for schools they would have been able to make more informed decisions about their preferences."

He said admissions criteria could be extremely complex and many parents did not understand the system.

"It remains to be seen whether the new system, which has come into practice this year, has proved to be any clearer and meets the needs of families."

The Department for Children, Schools and Families also published the final secondary school admissions for this year, from the 11 local authorities which had not verified their data when figures were released in March.

The department said these had not altered the national averages, with 82% of children getting their first preference school for this September and 94% getting one of their top three preferences.