School Admission Appeals

Refused a place at The Bourne Academy?

You are not alone. In 2026/27, 39 families who named The Bourne Academy as their first choice did not get a place: the school offered 171 and 181 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.

1.06

first choices for every place available

181 first preferences for 171 places, 2026/27

Appealing a refusal at The Bourne Academy

There is no published appeal success rate for The Bourne Academy, 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

The Bourne Academy turned first-choice families away in 10 of the last 12 years. More families named it first than it had places in 7 of those years. In the other 3 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 The Bourne Academy, 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 0.98 per place 132 first choices 135 places 2016/17 0.97 per place 167 first choices 172 places 2017/18 1.11 per place 200 first choices 180 places 2018/19 1.04 per place 187 first choices 179 places 2019/20 0.83 per place 149 first choices 179 places 2020/21 0.94 per place 167 first choices 177 places 2021/22 0.82 per place 144 first choices 176 places 2022/23 1.01 per place 173 first choices 172 places 2023/24 1.12 per place 193 first choices 172 places 2024/25 1.57 per place 262 first choices 167 places 2025/26 1.06 per place 184 first choices 173 places 2026/27 1.06 per place 181 first choices 171 places
First preferences per place at The Bourne Academy. Years with too small an intake to carry a ratio are left blank rather than plotted. Latest year: 181 first preferences for 171 places.
View as a table
Places, first preferences and offers at The Bourne Academy, by year. A ratio is shown only where the intake is large enough to carry one.
Year Places First choices Offered Per place
2015/16 135 132 121 0.98
2016/17 172 167 160 0.97
2017/18 180 200 168 1.11
2018/19 179 187 161 1.04
2019/20 179 149 129 0.83
2020/21 177 167 129 0.94
2021/22 176 144 129 0.82
2022/23 172 173 134 1.01
2023/24 172 193 138 1.12
2024/25 167 262 159 1.57
2025/26 173 184 157 1.06
2026/27 171 181 142 1.06

Places offered

171

in 2026/27

Named first choice

181

601 named it at any preference

First choices offered a place

78.5%

142 of 181

Offers to families outside the council

0%

0 of 171 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

900

2024/25, whole school

Pupils in them

829

92.1% of capacity

Unfilled places

71

across Years 7 to 11

Sixth form places

150

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 The Bourne Academy 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 The Bourne Academy reported 71 unfilled places across Years 7 to 11, at 92.1% 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, 2010/11 to 2024/25

Places Pupils on roll

Places and pupils on roll at The Bourne Academy from 2010/11 to 2024/25. Where the roll meets the places line, the school is full. 0 550 1,100 places on roll 10/11 12/13 14/15 16/17 18/19 21/22 23/24 24/25 2010/11 1,050 places 570 on roll 2011/12 650 places 544 on roll 2012/13 670 places 602 on roll 2013/14 1,050 places 651 on roll 2014/15 1,050 places 745 on roll 2015/16 1,050 places 813 on roll 2016/17 1,050 places 875 on roll 2017/18 1,050 places 914 on roll 2018/19 1,050 places 976 on roll 2020/21 1,050 places 945 on roll 2021/22 994 places 941 on roll 2022/23 1,050 places 928 on roll 2023/24 1,050 places 917 on roll 2024/25 1,050 places 929 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
Academy sponsor led
Admissions policy
Non-selective
Religious character
No religious character
Entry point
Year 7
Council
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole

Postcode BH10 5HS. School details from Get Information About Schools (URN 136125).

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.