School Admission Appeals

Refused a place at St Gregory's Catholic Science College?

You are not alone. In 2026/27, 35 families who named St Gregory's Catholic Science College as their first choice did not get a place: the school offered 190 and 205 put it first.

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

1.08

first choices for every place available

205 first preferences for 190 places, 2026/27

Appealing a refusal at St Gregory's Catholic Science College

There is no published appeal success rate for St Gregory's Catholic Science 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 Brent 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 Brent, 4.5% of secondary appeals heard were upheld — 17 of 382 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 Brent.

What a panel here can act on

These are national rules, not Brent 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 Gregory's Catholic Science College turned first-choice families away in every one of the 12 years published. More families named it first than it had places in 11 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 St Gregory's Catholic Science College, 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 0.89 per place 149 first choices 167 places 2016/17 1.05 per place 181 first choices 173 places 2017/18 1.07 per place 203 first choices 189 places 2018/19 1.17 per place 219 first choices 187 places 2019/20 1.15 per place 217 first choices 189 places 2020/21 1.31 per place 247 first choices 188 places 2021/22 1.16 per place 217 first choices 187 places 2022/23 1.15 per place 215 first choices 187 places 2023/24 1.09 per place 204 first choices 187 places 2024/25 1.15 per place 209 first choices 182 places 2025/26 1.11 per place 207 first choices 187 places 2026/27 1.08 per place 205 first choices 190 places
First preferences per place at St Gregory's Catholic Science College. Years with too small an intake to carry a ratio are left blank rather than plotted. Latest year: 205 first preferences for 190 places.
View as a table
Places, first preferences and offers at St Gregory's Catholic Science College, by year. A ratio is shown only where the intake is large enough to carry one.
Year Places First choices Offered Per place
2015/16 167 149 119 0.89
2016/17 173 181 141 1.05
2017/18 189 203 162 1.07
2018/19 187 219 142 1.17
2019/20 189 217 156 1.15
2020/21 188 247 156 1.31
2021/22 187 217 161 1.16
2022/23 187 215 170 1.15
2023/24 187 204 161 1.09
2024/25 182 209 167 1.15
2025/26 187 207 167 1.11
2026/27 190 205 170 1.08

Places offered

190

in 2026/27

Named first choice

205

536 named it at any preference

First choices offered a place

82.9%

170 of 205

Offers to families outside the council

33%

62 of 190 offers

This school was issued a new Department for Education reference when it converted to an academy. Its earlier years are included above, reported at the time under reference 101563.

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

1,106

2024/25, whole school

Pupils in them

944

85.4% of capacity

Unfilled places

162

across Years 7 to 11

Sixth form places

250

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 Gregory's Catholic Science 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 St Gregory's Catholic Science College reported 162 unfilled places across Years 7 to 11, at 85.4% 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 Gregory's Catholic Science College from 2009/10 to 2024/25. Where the roll meets the places line, the school is full. 0 700 1,400 places on roll 09/10 11/12 13/14 15/16 17/18 20/21 22/23 24/25 2009/10 1,058 places 1,025 on roll 2010/11 1,058 places 1,062 on roll 2011/12 1,090 places 1,088 on roll 2012/13 1,029 places 1,096 on roll 2013/14 1,029 places 1,101 on roll 2014/15 1,029 places 1,061 on roll 2015/16 1,217 places 1,090 on roll 2016/17 1,217 places 1,090 on roll 2017/18 1,217 places 1,083 on roll 2018/19 1,217 places 1,105 on roll 2020/21 1,217 places 1,175 on roll 2021/22 1,217 places 1,156 on roll 2022/23 1,217 places 1,158 on roll 2023/24 1,217 places 1,157 on roll 2024/25 1,356 places 1,151 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 converter
Admissions policy
Non-selective
Religious character
Faith
Entry point
Year 7
Council
Brent

Postcode HA3 0NB. School details from Get Information About Schools (URN 142560).

Other contested secondary schools in Brent

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.