School Admission Appeals

Refused a place at St Bede's Roman Catholic High School, Blackburn?

You are not alone. In 2026/27, 57 families who named St Bede's Roman Catholic High School, Blackburn as their first choice did not get a place: the school offered 207 and 262 put it first.

Below: what an appeal in Blackburn with Darwen actually involves, and how contested this school has been over 12 years of official figures.

1.27

first choices for every place available

262 first preferences for 207 places, 2026/27

Appealing a refusal at St Bede's Roman Catholic High School, Blackburn

There is no published appeal success rate for St Bede's Roman Catholic High School, Blackburn, or for any individual school in England. The Department for Education collects appeal outcomes and publishes them by council. The figures here are for Blackburn with Darwen 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 Blackburn with Darwen, 9.8% of secondary appeals heard were upheld — 58 of 594 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 Blackburn with Darwen.

What a panel here can act on

These are national rules, not Blackburn with Darwen 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

St Bede's Roman Catholic High School, Blackburn turned first-choice families away in every one of the 12 years published. In each of those years more families named it as their first choice than it had places available.

First preferences per place at St Bede's Roman Catholic High School, Blackburn, 2015/16 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 15/16 17/18 19/20 21/22 23/24 25/26 26/27 2015/16 1.04 per place 214 first choices 205 places 2016/17 1.27 per place 264 first choices 208 places 2017/18 1.12 per place 235 first choices 209 places 2018/19 1.22 per place 244 first choices 200 places 2019/20 1.19 per place 243 first choices 205 places 2020/21 1.38 per place 282 first choices 204 places 2021/22 1.58 per place 317 first choices 201 places 2022/23 1.21 per place 249 first choices 205 places 2023/24 1.2 per place 245 first choices 204 places 2024/25 1.29 per place 264 first choices 204 places 2025/26 1.17 per place 238 first choices 203 places 2026/27 1.27 per place 262 first choices 207 places
First preferences per place at St Bede's Roman Catholic High School, Blackburn. Years with too small an intake to carry a ratio are left blank rather than plotted. Latest year: 262 first preferences for 207 places.
View as a table
Places, first preferences and offers at St Bede's Roman Catholic High School, Blackburn, by year. A ratio is shown only where the intake is large enough to carry one.
Year Places First choices Offered Per place
2015/16 205 214 193 1.04
2016/17 208 264 206 1.27
2017/18 209 235 204 1.12
2018/19 200 244 196 1.22
2019/20 205 243 203 1.19
2020/21 204 282 199 1.38
2021/22 201 317 199 1.58
2022/23 205 249 203 1.21
2023/24 204 245 203 1.2
2024/25 204 264 202 1.29
2025/26 203 238 201 1.17
2026/27 207 262 205 1.27

Places offered

207

in 2026/27

Named first choice

262

521 named it at any preference

First choices offered a place

78.2%

205 of 262

Offers to families outside the council

1%

3 of 207 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

1,050

2024/25, whole school

Pupils in them

1,048

99.8% of capacity

Unfilled places

2

across Years 7 to 11

Sixth form places

0

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 St Bede's Roman Catholic High School, Blackburn 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 St Bede's Roman Catholic High School, Blackburn reported 2 unfilled places across Years 7 to 11, at 99.8% 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 St Bede's Roman Catholic High School, Blackburn from 2009/10 to 2024/25. Where the roll meets the places line, the school is full. 0 550 1,100 places on roll 09/10 11/12 13/14 15/16 17/18 20/21 22/23 24/25 2009/10 975 places 1,017 on roll 2010/11 975 places 1,014 on roll 2011/12 975 places 999 on roll 2012/13 975 places 977 on roll 2013/14 975 places 978 on roll 2014/15 1,000 places 981 on roll 2015/16 1,000 places 989 on roll 2016/17 1,000 places 999 on roll 2017/18 1,000 places 1,025 on roll 2018/19 1,050 places 1,030 on roll 2020/21 1,050 places 1,069 on roll 2021/22 1,050 places 1,063 on roll 2022/23 1,050 places 1,058 on roll 2023/24 1,050 places 1,057 on roll 2024/25 1,050 places 1,048 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
Voluntary aided school
Admissions policy
Non-selective
Religious character
Faith
Entry point
Year 7
Council
Blackburn with Darwen

Postcode BB2 4SR. School details from Get Information About Schools (URN 119793).

Other contested secondary schools in Blackburn with Darwen

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.