School Admission Appeals

Refused a place at Accrington St Christopher's Church of England High School?

You are not alone. In 2026/27, 60 families who named Accrington St Christopher's Church of England High School as their first choice did not get a place: the school offered 190 and 246 put it first.

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

1.29

first choices for every place available

246 first preferences for 190 places, 2026/27

Appealing a refusal at Accrington St Christopher's Church of England High School

There is no published appeal success rate for Accrington St Christopher's 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 Lancashire 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 Lancashire, 28.4% of secondary appeals heard were upheld — 768 of 2,706 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 Lancashire.

What a panel here can act on

These are national rules, not Lancashire 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

Accrington St Christopher's Church of England High School 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 Accrington St Christopher's 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 1.31 per place 257 first choices 196 places 2016/17 1.11 per place 215 first choices 194 places 2017/18 0.97 per place 189 first choices 195 places 2018/19 1.17 per place 227 first choices 194 places 2019/20 1.23 per place 239 first choices 195 places 2020/21 1.31 per place 256 first choices 195 places 2021/22 1.32 per place 259 first choices 196 places 2022/23 1.13 per place 219 first choices 193 places 2023/24 1.11 per place 217 first choices 195 places 2024/25 1.29 per place 246 first choices 191 places 2025/26 1.02 per place 196 first choices 192 places 2026/27 1.29 per place 246 first choices 190 places
First preferences per place at Accrington St Christopher's Church of England High School. Years with too small an intake to carry a ratio are left blank rather than plotted. Latest year: 246 first preferences for 190 places.
View as a table
Places, first preferences and offers at Accrington St Christopher's 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
2015/16 196 257 190 1.31
2016/17 194 215 178 1.11
2017/18 195 189 169 0.97
2018/19 194 227 181 1.17
2019/20 195 239 188 1.23
2020/21 195 256 181 1.31
2021/22 196 259 190 1.32
2022/23 193 219 181 1.13
2023/24 195 217 190 1.11
2024/25 191 246 185 1.29
2025/26 192 196 185 1.02
2026/27 190 246 186 1.29

Places offered

190

in 2026/27

Named first choice

246

757 named it at any preference

First choices offered a place

75.6%

186 of 246

Offers to families outside the council

1%

1 of 190 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

1,010

2024/25, whole school

Pupils in them

1,002

99.2% of capacity

Unfilled places

8

across Years 7 to 11

Sixth form places

270

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 Accrington St Christopher's 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 Accrington St Christopher's Church of England High School reported 8 unfilled places across Years 7 to 11, at 99.2% 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, 2011/12 to 2024/25

Places Pupils on roll

Places and pupils on roll at Accrington St Christopher's Church of England High School from 2011/12 to 2024/25. Where the roll meets the places line, the school is full. 0 700 1,400 places on roll 11/12 13/14 15/16 17/18 20/21 22/23 24/25 2011/12 1,260 places 1,263 on roll 2012/13 1,280 places 1,305 on roll 2013/14 1,280 places 1,342 on roll 2014/15 1,280 places 1,306 on roll 2015/16 1,280 places 1,302 on roll 2016/17 1,280 places 1,327 on roll 2017/18 1,280 places 1,305 on roll 2018/19 1,280 places 1,300 on roll 2020/21 1,280 places 1,287 on roll 2021/22 1,280 places 1,301 on roll 2022/23 1,280 places 1,271 on roll 2023/24 1,280 places 1,310 on roll 2024/25 1,280 places 1,289 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
Lancashire

Postcode BB5 4AY. School details from Get Information About Schools (URN 137421).

Other contested secondary schools in Lancashire

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.