School Admission Appeals

Refused a place at Biddenham International School and Sports College?

You are not alone. In 2026/27, 22 families who named Biddenham International School and Sports College as their first choice did not get a place: the school offered 252 and 267 put it first.

Below: what an appeal in Bedford actually involves, and how contested this school has been over 10 years of official figures.

1.06

first choices for every place available

267 first preferences for 252 places, 2026/27

Appealing a refusal at Biddenham International School and Sports College

There is no published appeal success rate for Biddenham International School and Sports College, or for any individual school in England. The Department for Education collects appeal outcomes and publishes them by council. The figures here are for Bedford as a whole and cover every state-funded school in the authority. Anyone quoting you odds for a named school is making them up.

Across Bedford, 29.8% of secondary appeals heard were upheld — 91 of 305 appeals heard in 2024–2026. The England figure is 20.1%.

A panel is not deciding whether you want the school. It decides whether the admission arrangements were lawful and correctly applied, and then whether the harm to your child of not being admitted outweighs the harm to the school of going over its published number. Cases built on preference rather than on those two questions are the ones that fail.

See the full appeal figures for Bedford.

What a panel here can act on

These are national rules, not Bedford ones. Whichever school you are appealing for, the panel works through the same two stages and is required to ignore the same things.

How contested this school has been

Biddenham International School and Sports College turned first-choice families away in 5 of the last 10 years. More families named it first than it had places in 4 of those years. In the other 1 it had places on paper and still turned first-choice families away — which happens where families who may not meet a school's criteria rank it below a safer choice — common at selective, faith and single-sex schools, and it means the first-preference count understates how wanted the school is.

First preferences per place at Biddenham International School and Sports College, 2017/18 to 2026/27. A value above 1 means more families named the school first than there were places. 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 one first preference per place 17/18 19/20 21/22 23/24 25/26 26/27 2017/18 0.98 per place 94 first choices 96 places 2018/19 1.01 per place 128 first choices 127 places 2019/20 0.94 per place 186 first choices 198 places 2020/21 0.95 per place 190 first choices 201 places 2021/22 0.87 per place 201 first choices 231 places 2022/23 0.89 per place 208 first choices 235 places 2023/24 1 per place 240 first choices 240 places 2024/25 1.13 per place 264 first choices 234 places 2025/26 1.28 per place 300 first choices 234 places 2026/27 1.06 per place 267 first choices 252 places
First preferences per place at Biddenham International School and Sports College. Years with too small an intake to carry a ratio are left blank rather than plotted. Latest year: 267 first preferences for 252 places.
View as a table
Places, first preferences and offers at Biddenham International School and Sports College, by year. A ratio is shown only where the intake is large enough to carry one.
Year Places First choices Offered Per place
2017/18 96 94 92 0.98
2018/19 127 128 126 1.01
2019/20 198 186 168 0.94
2020/21 201 190 179 0.95
2021/22 231 201 187 0.87
2022/23 235 208 205 0.89
2023/24 240 240 214 1
2024/25 234 264 210 1.13
2025/26 234 300 220 1.28
2026/27 252 267 245 1.06

Places offered

252

in 2026/27

Named first choice

267

624 named it at any preference

First choices offered a place

91.8%

245 of 267

Offers to families outside the council

0%

0 of 252 offers

Was the school full?

This is the question a panel spends most of its time on. At the second stage of an appeal it weighs the harm to the school of taking an extra child against the harm to your child of being refused — and how much room the school has is the heart of that. The admission authority has to show harm over and above the fact that its published number has been reached, so it is fair to ask what the specific harm is — how the second stage actually works.

Places, Years 7 to 11

1,316

2024/25, whole school

Pupils in them

1,159

88.1% of capacity

Unfilled places

157

across Years 7 to 11

Sixth form places

230

excluded from the figures above

Read this before you use these numbers

These are whole-school figures across Years 7 to 11, not the year group you are appealing for. A school can hold spare places in its upper years while the year you want is genuinely full, and the panel will have the year-group numbers in front of it. So this does not show that Biddenham International School and Sports College has room for your child.

They are also the school's own reported capacity, as at 1 May 2025 — a year behind the application figures further up this page, and a description rather than a finding.

On the published figures Biddenham International School and Sports College reported 157 unfilled places across Years 7 to 11, at 88.1% of capacity. That is worth asking about — but ask it as a question, not an assertion. A panel will want the figure for the year group in question, and the school may have a good answer about staffing, rooms or timetabling.

Places and pupils on roll, whole school, 2009/10 to 2024/25

Places Pupils on roll

Places and pupils on roll at Biddenham International School and Sports College from 2009/10 to 2024/25. Where the roll meets the places line, the school is full. 0 800 1,600 places on roll 09/10 11/12 13/14 15/16 17/18 20/21 22/23 24/25 2009/10 955 places 1,102 on roll 2010/11 1,145 places 1,172 on roll 2011/12 1,145 places 1,040 on roll 2012/13 1,145 places 976 on roll 2013/14 955 places 973 on roll 2014/15 1,075 places 885 on roll 2015/16 1,165 places 879 on roll 2016/17 1,165 places 928 on roll 2017/18 1,065 places 983 on roll 2018/19 1,065 places 1,050 on roll 2020/21 1,065 places 1,210 on roll 2021/22 1,065 places 1,259 on roll 2022/23 1,230 places 1,283 on roll 2023/24 1,430 places 1,341 on roll 2024/25 1,546 places 1,347 on roll
Whole-school figures including any sixth form, as at 1 May each year. 2019/20 is missing because the 2020 School Capacity survey was cancelled.

Department for Education, School capacity, school-level file, 2024/25. Published under the Open Government Licence.

What these figures do not tell you

About the school

Type
Foundation school
Admissions policy
Non-selective
Religious character
No religious character
Entry point
Year 7
Council
Bedford

Postcode MK40 4AZ. School details from Get Information About Schools (URN 109690).

Other contested secondary schools in Bedford

Applications and offers: Department for Education, Primary and secondary school applications and offers, school-level file, 2026/27. Appeal figures: Admission appeals in England. Both under the Open Government Licence.