School admission appeals

Unfortunately, it is not always possible to offer your child a place in your preferred school. If your child is refused a place you have the right to appeal the decision. Your child will also be added to the school's waiting list.

Before you appeal

You do not need to submit an appeal for your child to join a waiting list. Waiting lists and appeals are separate processes.

You can choose to:

• Stay on the waiting list
• Submit an appeal
• Accept the school place you've been offered and stay on the waiting list for a preferred school

Waiting lists

If your child is offered a place at a lower preference school, they will usually be placed automatically on the waiting lists for any schools you ranked higher.

Accepting the place you've been offered will not affect your child's place on a waiting list for a higher preference school.

Waiting lists do not work on a first-come, first-served basis.  They are managed according to national school admission rules. Places are offered based on each school's published admission criteria, not on when you applied or when your child was added to the waiting list.

Your child's position can go up or down because:

• a new applicant may join the list and have a higher priority under the school's admissions criteria
• another child might leave the waiting list
• a child may be offered a place elsewhere

Any waiting list position given to you is accurate on that date, but it may change over time.

How long does the waiting list stay open?

We manage Reception and Year 7 waiting lists until 31 December of the admission year. If you want your child to stay on a waiting list after this date, contact the school or admission authority.

For in-year admissions, please check the school's admission arrangements for information about how their waiting list operates.

School appeals

The council does not manage appeals for every school.

On National Offer Day, your offer email will include information on the appeals procedure and a list of schools with places still available. This information will also be published below the day after offer day for September 2027 admissions.

• Year 7 appeals procedure and list of secondary schools with places still available (to be published on 2nd March 2027)
• Reception appeals procedure and list of primary schools with places still available for September 2027 (to be published on 16th April 2027).

How to appeal

This appeals process is for voluntary controlled and community schools, including in-year transfer appeals. These are schools that are managed by Liverpool City Council.

Before you start your appeal, read the admissions appeals guide which includes details on:

• how to prepare your case
• documents you may wish to include to support your appeal
• what to expect from the panel
• how decisions are made

If uploading documents to support your appeal, the file size should not exceed 10MB in total. You can upload images/scanned documents from your computer, tablet or mobile device.

Submit a notice of appeal

Closing dates and hearings

For pupils due to start Reception or Year 7 in September 2027.

Secondary schools

• You must submit the notice of appeal form by 28th March 2027.
• Appeal hearings to be held in May, June and July 2027.

Primary schools

• You must submit the notice of appeal form by 14th May 2027.
• Appeal hearings to be held in June and July 2027.

We aim to hold all appeal hearings within 40 school days after the deadline. In some exceptional circumstances we may need to hold hearings after this date. We will give appellants 10 days notice of an appeal hearing date and time.

All appeals will be held remotely via video link with our clerking service.

If you are not successful

If you do not win your appeal you will be told what your options are.

Parents can only have one appeal to an individual school in any school year - you may wish to appeal for a number of schools at the same time.

Appeals data for local authority maintained schools

The table below shows the number of appeals submitted to local authority maintained schools (voluntary controlled and community schools) and how many appeals were successful.