School admission appeals in Cumberland
Cumberland heard 56 school admission appeals in 2026, and 25 of them were upheld. The figures below come from the Department for Education and cover every state-funded school in the authority — they describe Cumberland as a whole, not any single school.
Over the last three years the Cumberland success rate has run 32.2 percentage points higher than the England average of 19.4%.
of appeals heard in Cumberland were upheld
80 of 155 appeals heard in 2024–2026
2026 at a glance
Appeals lodged
81
by parents in Cumberland
Appeals heard by a panel
56
69% of those lodged
Appeals upheld
25
44.6% of those heard
England, same year
18.5%
6,414 of 34,711 heard
If your child is going into Reception, Year 1 or Year 2, read this first
80% of the primary appeals heard in Cumberland were infant class size appeals. These are a different kind of appeal with a much narrower test. A panel can only uphold one if the admission arrangements were unlawful, they were applied incorrectly, or the decision to refuse was one no reasonable authority would have made. How much your child wants the place, or how strong the school is, cannot come into it.
Too few were heard in Cumberland to publish a local rate; across England the figure is 9.4%. That is far lower than other appeals, and it is the single most important thing to establish before you spend time on a case.
The three grounds one can be upheld on, and how to tell if yours is even an infant class size case →
What counts as grounds in Cumberland
The rules are national, so this part does not vary by council: a panel works through two fixed stages, and the Cumberland rate above tells you nothing about which arguments it can act on. Most appeals fail because the case put to the panel answers neither stage.
- Infant class size
- A mistake in how the decision was made
- Distance and catchment
- Siblings
- Faith and religious criteria
- Medical and social need
- Special educational needs without an EHC plan
- A late application
- In-year admissions
- Grammar schools and the 11-plus
- Sixth form places
- Twins and multiple births
Which appeals succeed in Cumberland
Secondary and primary appeals are judged on different tests, and the gap between them is usually wide. Pooling three years gives a steadier picture than any single year.
Vertical marker shows the England figure for the same phase.
View as a table
| Phase | Heard | Upheld | Rate | England |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Secondary | 145 | 76 | 52.4% | 20.1% |
| Primary | 10 | 4 | 40% | 17.1% |
| Infant class size | 8 | 3 | too few | 9.4% |
Infant class size appeals are counted within the primary figures, not added to them.
Appeals in Cumberland since 2024
Cumberland has only existed since 2024, so there is less history here than for most councils.
View as a table
| Year | Heard | Upheld | Cumberland | England |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 33 | 17 | 51.5% | 20% |
| 2025 | 66 | 38 | 57.6% | 19.4% |
| 2026 | 56 | 25 | 44.6% | 18.5% |
How Cumberland compares
Success rate ranking
2 of 151
English councils, ranked on the pooled 3-year success rate, LAs with 10+ appeals heard. Position 1 is the highest rate.
Appeal volume ranking
137 of 151
by number of appeals heard over the same period — 155 in total.
Success rates vary enormously between councils, from under 5% to over 50%. Some of that is real difference in how panels and admission authorities operate; some of it reflects which schools are oversubscribed and how many hopeless cases get lodged. A high local rate is not a prediction about your appeal.
Before Cumberland existed
Cumbria was replaced in 2024. Its figures cover a different area and are shown as context only. Figures for Cumbria are shown separately because they cover a different area — they are background, not this council's record.
| Year | Heard | Upheld | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 146 | 40 | 27.4% |
| 2017 | 151 | 44 | 29.1% |
| 2018 | 161 | 37 | 23% |
| 2019 | 189 | 53 | 28% |
| 2020 | 144 | 44 | 30.6% |
| 2021 | 116 | 37 | 31.9% |
| 2022 | 122 | 33 | 27% |
| 2023 | 121 | 36 | 29.8% |
Schools in Cumberland
Cumberland has 164 state-funded mainstream schools — 145 primary and 19 secondary. The largest concentrations are in Carlisle, Wigton, Workington and Whitehaven.
What we can't tell you
Nobody publishes appeal outcomes school by school — the Department for Education collects returns from individual schools but only releases them added up to council level. Any site claiming to know your school's appeal odds is guessing. What matters far more than a local average is whether your particular grounds are ones a panel is allowed to act on.
Where places are hardest to get
What is published, school by school, is how many families applied and how many got in. These are the Cumberland schools with the most first choices for each place available in 2026/27 — the places where refusals, and so appeals, are concentrated. High demand does not mean an appeal is more likely to succeed; it means more families are refused.
See all 10 secondary and 19 primary schools in Cumberland →
| School | Places | First choices | Per place |
|---|---|---|---|
| Richard Rose Central Academy | 201 | 227 | 1.13 |
| St John Henry Newman Catholic School | 114 | 126 | 1.11 |
| Caldew School | 164 | 180 | 1.10 |
| Richard Rose Morton Academy | 171 | 181 | 1.06 |
| The Whitehaven Academy | 170 | 180 | 1.06 |
| St Josephs Catholic High School, Workington | 118 | 124 | 1.05 |
| Workington Academy | 194 | 195 | 1.01 |
| Keswick School | 200 | 199 | 0.99 |
| Cockermouth School | 175 | 172 | 0.98 |
| William Howard School | 222 | 202 | 0.91 |
| School | Places | First choices | Per place |
|---|---|---|---|
| Belle Vue Primary School | 59 | 71 | 1.20 |
| Kells Infant School | 30 | 35 | 1.17 |
| Kingmoor Nursery and Infant School | 88 | 98 | 1.11 |
| Eaglesfield Paddle CofE Primary Academy | 30 | 32 | 1.07 |
| Jericho Primary School | 59 | 61 | 1.03 |
| Cumwhinton School | 28 | 28 | 1 |
| Haverigg Primary School | 26 | 26 | 1 |
| Seaton Academy | 35 | 35 | 1 |
| Stoneraise School | 24 | 24 | 1 |
| Newlaithes Infant School | 48 | 45 | 0.94 |
Department for Education, Primary and secondary school applications and offers, school-level file, 2026/27.