School Admission Appeals

Refused a place at The Bishops' Blue Coat Church of England High School?

You are not alone. In 2026/27, 20 families who named The Bishops' Blue Coat Church of England High School as their first choice did not get a place: the school offered 202 and 219 put it first.

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

1.08

first choices for every place available

219 first preferences for 202 places, 2026/27

Appealing a refusal at The Bishops' Blue Coat Church of England High School

There is no published appeal success rate for The Bishops' Blue Coat Church of England High School, or for any individual school in England. The Department for Education collects appeal outcomes and publishes them by council. The figures here are for Cheshire West and Chester 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 Cheshire West and Chester, 33.6% of secondary appeals heard were upheld — 78 of 232 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 Cheshire West and Chester.

What a panel here can act on

These are national rules, not Cheshire West and Chester 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 Bishops' Blue Coat Church of England High School turned first-choice families away in 9 of the last 12 years. In each of those years more families named it as their first choice than it had places available.

First preferences per place at The Bishops' Blue Coat Church of England High School, 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 1.16 per place 200 first choices 172 places 2016/17 1.1 per place 179 first choices 162 places 2017/18 0.88 per place 145 first choices 165 places 2018/19 1.03 per place 175 first choices 170 places 2019/20 0.81 per place 169 first choices 209 places 2020/21 1.11 per place 231 first choices 209 places 2021/22 1.1 per place 216 first choices 196 places 2022/23 0.93 per place 193 first choices 208 places 2023/24 1.23 per place 253 first choices 206 places 2024/25 1.02 per place 213 first choices 209 places 2025/26 1.11 per place 224 first choices 202 places 2026/27 1.08 per place 219 first choices 202 places
First preferences per place at The Bishops' Blue Coat Church of England High School. Years with too small an intake to carry a ratio are left blank rather than plotted. Latest year: 219 first preferences for 202 places.
View as a table
Places, first preferences and offers at The Bishops' Blue Coat Church of England High School, by year. A ratio is shown only where the intake is large enough to carry one.
Year Places First choices Offered Per place
2015/16 172 200 163 1.16
2016/17 162 179 154 1.1
2017/18 165 145 145 0.88
2018/19 170 175 146 1.03
2019/20 209 169 169 0.81
2020/21 209 231 201 1.11
2021/22 196 216 181 1.1
2022/23 208 193 181 0.93
2023/24 206 253 193 1.23
2024/25 209 213 203 1.02
2025/26 202 224 196 1.11
2026/27 202 219 199 1.08

Places offered

202

in 2026/27

Named first choice

219

599 named it at any preference

First choices offered a place

90.9%

199 of 219

Offers to families outside the council

0%

0 of 202 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

1,052

2024/25, whole school

Pupils in them

1,013

96.3% of capacity

Unfilled places

39

across Years 7 to 11

Sixth form places

158

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 Bishops' Blue Coat Church of England High School 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 Bishops' Blue Coat Church of England High School reported 39 unfilled places across Years 7 to 11, at 96.3% 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 Bishops' Blue Coat Church of England High School from 2010/11 to 2024/25. Where the roll meets the places line, the school is full. 0 650 1,300 places on roll 10/11 12/13 14/15 16/17 18/19 21/22 23/24 24/25 2010/11 1,049 places 1,052 on roll 2011/12 1,058 places 1,037 on roll 2012/13 1,058 places 1,018 on roll 2013/14 1,058 places 1,022 on roll 2014/15 1,058 places 1,056 on roll 2015/16 1,058 places 1,043 on roll 2016/17 1,058 places 1,027 on roll 2017/18 1,058 places 1,026 on roll 2018/19 1,058 places 1,011 on roll 2020/21 1,050 places 1,099 on roll 2021/22 1,050 places 1,119 on roll 2022/23 1,210 places 1,144 on roll 2023/24 1,210 places 1,177 on roll 2024/25 1,210 places 1,196 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
Cheshire West and Chester

Postcode CH3 5XF. School details from Get Information About Schools (URN 136543).

Other contested secondary schools in Cheshire West and Chester

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.