School Admission Appeals

Refused a place at St Edward's Roman Catholic/Church of England School, Poole?

You are not alone. In 2026/27, 31 families who named St Edward's Roman Catholic/Church of England School, Poole as their first choice did not get a place: the school offered 170 and 190 put it first.

Below: what an appeal in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole actually involves, and how contested this school has been over 12 years of official figures.

1.12

first choices for every place available

190 first preferences for 170 places, 2026/27

Appealing a refusal at St Edward's Roman Catholic/Church of England School, Poole

There is no published appeal success rate for St Edward's Roman Catholic/Church of England School, Poole, or for any individual school in England. The Department for Education collects appeal outcomes and publishes them by council. The figures here are for Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole 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 Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, 24.4% of secondary appeals heard were upheld — 163 of 669 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 Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.

What a panel here can act on

These are national rules, not Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole 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 Edward's Roman Catholic/Church of England School, Poole 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 Edward's Roman Catholic/Church of England School, Poole, 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 1.21 per place 215 first choices 177 places 2016/17 1.11 per place 196 first choices 177 places 2017/18 1.08 per place 198 first choices 183 places 2018/19 1.23 per place 225 first choices 183 places 2019/20 1.09 per place 197 first choices 181 places 2020/21 1.12 per place 208 first choices 185 places 2021/22 1.19 per place 211 first choices 178 places 2022/23 1.12 per place 198 first choices 177 places 2023/24 1.31 per place 230 first choices 176 places 2024/25 1.26 per place 219 first choices 174 places 2025/26 1.53 per place 260 first choices 170 places 2026/27 1.12 per place 190 first choices 170 places
First preferences per place at St Edward's Roman Catholic/Church of England School, Poole. Years with too small an intake to carry a ratio are left blank rather than plotted. Latest year: 190 first preferences for 170 places.
View as a table
Places, first preferences and offers at St Edward's Roman Catholic/Church of England School, Poole, by year. A ratio is shown only where the intake is large enough to carry one.
Year Places First choices Offered Per place
2015/16 177 215 167 1.21
2016/17 177 196 163 1.11
2017/18 183 198 173 1.08
2018/19 183 225 170 1.23
2019/20 181 197 162 1.09
2020/21 185 208 171 1.12
2021/22 178 211 147 1.19
2022/23 177 198 159 1.12
2023/24 176 230 166 1.31
2024/25 174 219 168 1.26
2025/26 170 260 160 1.53
2026/27 170 190 159 1.12

Places offered

170

in 2026/27

Named first choice

190

691 named it at any preference

First choices offered a place

83.7%

159 of 190

Offers to families outside the council

1%

2 of 170 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

897

2024/25, whole school

Pupils in them

888

99% of capacity

Unfilled places

9

across Years 7 to 11

Sixth form places

200

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 Edward's Roman Catholic/Church of England School, Poole 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 Edward's Roman Catholic/Church of England School, Poole reported 9 unfilled places across Years 7 to 11, at 99% 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 Edward's Roman Catholic/Church of England School, Poole from 2009/10 to 2024/25. Where the roll meets the places line, the school is full. 0 600 1,200 places on roll 09/10 11/12 13/14 15/16 17/18 20/21 22/23 24/25 2009/10 752 places 875 on roll 2010/11 752 places 899 on roll 2011/12 897 places 897 on roll 2012/13 897 places 877 on roll 2013/14 1,077 places 1,081 on roll 2014/15 1,094 places 1,075 on roll 2015/16 1,150 places 1,084 on roll 2016/17 1,150 places 1,055 on roll 2017/18 1,150 places 1,071 on roll 2018/19 1,110 places 1,060 on roll 2020/21 1,110 places 1,089 on roll 2021/22 1,097 places 1,113 on roll 2022/23 1,097 places 1,091 on roll 2023/24 1,097 places 1,060 on roll 2024/25 1,097 places 1,057 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
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole

Postcode BH15 3HY. School details from Get Information About Schools (URN 113893).

Other contested secondary schools in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole

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.