School Admission Appeals

Refused a place at The County High School, Leftwich?

You are not alone. In 2026/27, 21 families who named The County High School, Leftwich as their first choice did not get a place: the school offered 205 and 226 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.

1.10

first choices for every place available

226 first preferences for 205 places, 2026/27

Appealing a refusal at The County High School, Leftwich

There is no published appeal success rate for The County High School, Leftwich, 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 County High School, Leftwich turned first-choice families away in 11 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 County High School, Leftwich, 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 per place 202 first choices 203 places 2016/17 1.17 per place 235 first choices 201 places 2017/18 1.11 per place 214 first choices 193 places 2018/19 1.32 per place 258 first choices 196 places 2019/20 1.44 per place 283 first choices 196 places 2020/21 1.1 per place 215 first choices 195 places 2021/22 1.15 per place 237 first choices 206 places 2022/23 1.1 per place 231 first choices 210 places 2023/24 1.17 per place 240 first choices 205 places 2024/25 1.17 per place 245 first choices 209 places 2025/26 1.18 per place 240 first choices 204 places 2026/27 1.1 per place 226 first choices 205 places
First preferences per place at The County High School, Leftwich. Years with too small an intake to carry a ratio are left blank rather than plotted. Latest year: 226 first preferences for 205 places.
View as a table
Places, first preferences and offers at The County High School, Leftwich, by year. A ratio is shown only where the intake is large enough to carry one.
Year Places First choices Offered Per place
2015/16 203 202 191 1
2016/17 201 235 191 1.17
2017/18 193 214 186 1.11
2018/19 196 258 187 1.32
2019/20 196 283 196 1.44
2020/21 195 215 187 1.1
2021/22 206 237 197 1.15
2022/23 210 231 208 1.1
2023/24 205 240 204 1.17
2024/25 209 245 209 1.17
2025/26 204 240 204 1.18
2026/27 205 226 205 1.1

Places offered

205

in 2026/27

Named first choice

226

466 named it at any preference

First choices offered a place

90.7%

205 of 226

Offers to families outside the council

1%

2 of 205 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 The County High School, Leftwich 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 County High School, Leftwich 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, 2012/13 to 2024/25

Places Pupils on roll

Places and pupils on roll at The County High School, Leftwich from 2012/13 to 2024/25. Where the roll meets the places line, the school is full. 0 550 1,100 places on roll 12/13 14/15 16/17 18/19 21/22 23/24 24/25 2012/13 975 places 948 on roll 2013/14 975 places 933 on roll 2014/15 975 places 947 on roll 2015/16 975 places 968 on roll 2016/17 975 places 986 on roll 2017/18 975 places 987 on roll 2018/19 975 places 995 on roll 2020/21 975 places 999 on roll 2021/22 975 places 1,013 on roll 2022/23 975 places 1,028 on roll 2023/24 1,050 places 1,036 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
Academy converter
Admissions policy
Non-selective
Religious character
No religious character
Entry point
Year 7
Council
Cheshire West and Chester

Postcode CW9 8EZ. School details from Get Information About Schools (URN 138743).

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.