School Admission Appeals

Refused a place at The Holy Cross School?

You are not alone. In 2026/27, 37 families who named The Holy Cross School as their first choice did not get a place: the school offered 157 and 165 put it first.

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

1.05

first choices for every place available

165 first preferences for 157 places, 2026/27

Appealing a refusal at The Holy Cross School

There is no published appeal success rate for The Holy Cross 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 Kingston upon Thames 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 Kingston upon Thames, 16.2% of secondary appeals heard were upheld — 18 of 111 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 Kingston upon Thames.

What a panel here can act on

These are national rules, not Kingston upon Thames 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 Holy Cross School turned first-choice families away in every one of the 12 years published. More families named it first than it had places in 9 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 Holy Cross 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 0.97 per place 143 first choices 148 places 2016/17 1.22 per place 177 first choices 145 places 2017/18 1.03 per place 153 first choices 148 places 2018/19 1.12 per place 167 first choices 149 places 2019/20 1.12 per place 167 first choices 149 places 2020/21 1.2 per place 177 first choices 147 places 2021/22 0.92 per place 135 first choices 147 places 2022/23 1.11 per place 162 first choices 146 places 2023/24 0.98 per place 152 first choices 155 places 2024/25 1.08 per place 167 first choices 154 places 2025/26 1.05 per place 162 first choices 155 places 2026/27 1.05 per place 165 first choices 157 places
First preferences per place at The Holy Cross School. Years with too small an intake to carry a ratio are left blank rather than plotted. Latest year: 165 first preferences for 157 places.
View as a table
Places, first preferences and offers at The Holy Cross School, by year. A ratio is shown only where the intake is large enough to carry one.
Year Places First choices Offered Per place
2015/16 148 143 113 0.97
2016/17 145 177 120 1.22
2017/18 148 153 122 1.03
2018/19 149 167 117 1.12
2019/20 149 167 109 1.12
2020/21 147 177 121 1.2
2021/22 147 135 112 0.92
2022/23 146 162 127 1.11
2023/24 155 152 130 0.98
2024/25 154 167 137 1.08
2025/26 155 162 126 1.05
2026/27 157 165 128 1.05

Places offered

157

in 2026/27

Named first choice

165

674 named it at any preference

First choices offered a place

77.6%

128 of 165

Offers to families outside the council

38%

59 of 157 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

850

2024/25, whole school

Pupils in them

774

91.1% of capacity

Unfilled places

76

across Years 7 to 11

Sixth form places

201

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 Holy Cross 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 Holy Cross School reported 76 unfilled places across Years 7 to 11, at 91.1% 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, 2012/13 to 2024/25

Places Pupils on roll

Places and pupils on roll at The Holy Cross School 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 2012/13 929 places 936 on roll 2013/14 929 places 942 on roll 2014/15 929 places 942 on roll 2015/16 950 places 945 on roll 2016/17 950 places 954 on roll 2017/18 950 places 952 on roll 2018/19 1,051 places 964 on roll 2020/21 1,051 places 987 on roll 2021/22 1,051 places 986 on roll 2022/23 1,051 places 974 on roll 2023/24 1,051 places 969 on roll 2024/25 1,051 places 988 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
Kingston upon Thames

Postcode KT3 5AR. School details from Get Information About Schools (URN 138459).

Other contested secondary schools in Kingston upon Thames

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.