You may wish to appeal if:

• you have not been offered school places in the school of your choice
• your circumstances have changed since you applied for school places and the allocated school is no longer appropriate
•  only one from a set of multiples has been offered a school place. You can appeal for a second place or more on the grounds that the multiple siblings are excepted children. In infant schools they may exceed the 30 children class limit in order to admit excepted pupils

• Find out about your local authority’s school admission and appeals process
• Contact your local authority informing them that you wish to appeal the decision about your childrens’ school places
• Complete the initial appeal form

Supporting evidence may include:

• An Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)
• Speech and Language report (SALT)
• Doctor’s letters and paediatrician report
• Pre-school/nursery key worker report
• Health visitor or GP report
• Special Educational needs co-ordinator (SENCO) report
• Supporting letter from a Twins Trust Honorary Consultant
• Any other supporting evidence that you feel is relevant

Top tips:

• Keep the letters short, preferably one side of A4
• Keep electronic and paper copies of all correspondence
• Make a separate folder for each child
• Remember that appeals should be made for your preferred choice of school rather than against the school that has been allocated
• Remember you are making a case for each child who has been denied a place at your preferred school.

• Identify the reasons why you’d like your child to attend your preferred school
• If the allocated school is not the right school for your child, you may be able to turn these into positive reasons about why you have selected your preferred school. For example, if a child is in a wheelchair then a single-story school could be the preferred option

Top tips:

• Prepare to be flexible. It may be that you don’t get the school of your choice
• Be prepared to accept a second or third choice school. If this happens it’s worth making an appointment to go and visit the school
• Parents will need to have a think about whether they would like their children to be together or apart in the classroom. This decision should be made independently of any decision regarding appealing school placement decisions

• Children with an EHCP will be allocated a school place by the local authority.
• If one child in a set of multiples has special needs, you may need to appeal for siblings to also have a place at the same school. To potentially avoid this, you may want to consider making an application for just one school for all your multiples, using social and medical grounds to argue that this is the only suitable school. It is best to seek advice from your Local Authority admissions service if this is the case

• The distance from school is measured ‘as the crow flies’
• In rare circumstances the distance to the school has proved useful at appeal but only ever as part of the overall picture. It’s not a strong enough reason for an appeal to be successful on its own

• Await a date for the hearing
• Prior to the hearing date, it may be that places become available in your chosen school
• Attend the hearing and be prepared to state your case clearly and concisely

• Take a break and think things through. You still have choices
• Decide whether you are going to send your children to the allocated school
• You may appeal once in any academic year. So, you can appeal again once the September term starts if you have additional evidence
• If you suspect that the appeals process hasn’t been followed properly, you can contact the Local Government Ombudsmen

• It may be worth involving other agencies in your campaign for places in your chosen school
• Your local MP or Councillor may be able to help if there is a need for outside intervention
• Consider getting some legal help too. It’s important they are education experts

• Complete the referral form on the Twins Trust website include the name of the school and the school’s appeals policy
• If Twins Trust feel they can help, we’ll contact one of our expert honorary consultants

• An honorary consultant will spend approximately 4 hours preparing for an appeal
• If you were to pay a consultant to do this on your behalf, you’d expect to be in the region of £150 per hour
• If you are a Twins Trust member, you receive the help free of charge as part of your membership
• If you are not a Twins Trust member and have received support from the service, we would encourage you make a donation to the charity or sign up as a member