School Admission Appeals

Refused a place at Millfield Science & Performing Arts College?

You are not alone. In 2026/27, 82 families who named Millfield Science & Performing Arts College as their first choice did not get a place: the school offered 168 and 244 put it first.

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

1.45

first choices for every place available

244 first preferences for 168 places, 2026/27

Appealing a refusal at Millfield Science & Performing Arts College

There is no published appeal success rate for Millfield Science & Performing Arts College, 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

Millfield Science & Performing Arts College turned first-choice families away in every one of the 12 years published. In each of those years more families named it as their first choice than it had places available.

First preferences per place at Millfield Science & Performing Arts College, 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 1.58 per place 253 first choices 160 places 2016/17 1.64 per place 281 first choices 171 places 2017/18 1.3 per place 226 first choices 174 places 2018/19 1.54 per place 260 first choices 169 places 2019/20 1.34 per place 235 first choices 176 places 2020/21 1.44 per place 250 first choices 174 places 2021/22 1.32 per place 228 first choices 173 places 2022/23 1.34 per place 234 first choices 174 places 2023/24 1.2 per place 208 first choices 174 places 2024/25 1.31 per place 234 first choices 179 places 2025/26 1.35 per place 227 first choices 168 places 2026/27 1.45 per place 244 first choices 168 places
First preferences per place at Millfield Science & Performing Arts College. Years with too small an intake to carry a ratio are left blank rather than plotted. Latest year: 244 first preferences for 168 places.
View as a table
Places, first preferences and offers at Millfield Science & Performing Arts College, by year. A ratio is shown only where the intake is large enough to carry one.
Year Places First choices Offered Per place
2015/16 160 253 156 1.58
2016/17 171 281 169 1.64
2017/18 174 226 160 1.3
2018/19 169 260 152 1.54
2019/20 176 235 161 1.34
2020/21 174 250 172 1.44
2021/22 173 228 170 1.32
2022/23 174 234 165 1.34
2023/24 174 208 154 1.2
2024/25 179 234 170 1.31
2025/26 168 227 161 1.35
2026/27 168 244 162 1.45

Places offered

168

in 2026/27

Named first choice

244

638 named it at any preference

First choices offered a place

66.4%

162 of 244

Offers to families outside the council

1%

1 of 168 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

930

2024/25, whole school

Pupils in them

873

93.9% of capacity

Unfilled places

57

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 Millfield Science & Performing Arts College 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 Millfield Science & Performing Arts College reported 57 unfilled places across Years 7 to 11, at 93.9% 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, 2009/10 to 2024/25

Places Pupils on roll

Places and pupils on roll at Millfield Science & Performing Arts College from 2009/10 to 2024/25. Where the roll meets the places line, the school is full. 0 500 1,000 places on roll 09/10 11/12 13/14 15/16 17/18 20/21 22/23 24/25 2009/10 932 places 559 on roll 2010/11 867 places 611 on roll 2011/12 867 places 682 on roll 2012/13 888 places 725 on roll 2013/14 888 places 761 on roll 2014/15 908 places 811 on roll 2015/16 909 places 815 on roll 2016/17 909 places 819 on roll 2017/18 909 places 832 on roll 2018/19 909 places 841 on roll 2020/21 909 places 866 on roll 2021/22 909 places 871 on roll 2022/23 909 places 865 on roll 2023/24 930 places 868 on roll 2024/25 930 places 873 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
Community school
Admissions policy
Non-selective
Religious character
No religious character
Entry point
Year 7
Council
Lancashire

Postcode FY5 5DG. School details from Get Information About Schools (URN 119714).

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.