School Admission Appeals

Refused a place at Saint Aidan's Church of England High School?

You are not alone. In 2026/27, 38 families who named Saint Aidan's Church of England High School as their first choice did not get a place: the school offered 160 and 195 put it first.

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

1.22

first choices for every place available

195 first preferences for 160 places, 2026/27

Appealing a refusal at Saint Aidan's Church of England High School

There is no published appeal success rate for Saint Aidan'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

Saint Aidan's Church of England High School turned first-choice families away in 10 of the last 12 years. More families named it first than it had places in 9 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 Saint Aidan'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 1.02 per place 168 first choices 165 places 2016/17 0.99 per place 167 first choices 168 places 2017/18 1.21 per place 203 first choices 168 places 2018/19 0.88 per place 147 first choices 167 places 2019/20 1.32 per place 217 first choices 165 places 2020/21 1.11 per place 185 first choices 166 places 2021/22 0.92 per place 154 first choices 167 places 2022/23 1.28 per place 213 first choices 166 places 2023/24 1.08 per place 180 first choices 167 places 2024/25 1.25 per place 198 first choices 159 places 2025/26 1.15 per place 191 first choices 166 places 2026/27 1.22 per place 195 first choices 160 places
First preferences per place at Saint Aidan's Church of England High School. Years with too small an intake to carry a ratio are left blank rather than plotted. Latest year: 195 first preferences for 160 places.
View as a table
Places, first preferences and offers at Saint Aidan'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
2015/16 165 168 148 1.02
2016/17 168 167 150 0.99
2017/18 168 203 163 1.21
2018/19 167 147 137 0.88
2019/20 165 217 161 1.32
2020/21 166 185 162 1.11
2021/22 167 154 154 0.92
2022/23 166 213 162 1.28
2023/24 167 180 158 1.08
2024/25 159 198 150 1.25
2025/26 166 191 163 1.15
2026/27 160 195 157 1.22

Places offered

160

in 2026/27

Named first choice

195

483 named it at any preference

First choices offered a place

80.5%

157 of 195

Offers to families outside the council

4%

6 of 160 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

869

2024/25, whole school

Pupils in them

835

96.1% of capacity

Unfilled places

34

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 Saint Aidan'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 Saint Aidan's Church of England High School reported 34 unfilled places across Years 7 to 11, at 96.1% 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, 2009/10 to 2024/25

Places Pupils on roll

Places and pupils on roll at Saint Aidan's Church of England High School from 2009/10 to 2024/25. Where the roll meets the places line, the school is full. 0 450 900 places on roll 09/10 11/12 13/14 15/16 17/18 20/21 22/23 24/25 2009/10 840 places 835 on roll 2010/11 840 places 828 on roll 2011/12 840 places 813 on roll 2012/13 840 places 800 on roll 2013/14 840 places 747 on roll 2014/15 840 places 749 on roll 2015/16 840 places 765 on roll 2016/17 840 places 780 on roll 2017/18 840 places 792 on roll 2018/19 840 places 843 on roll 2020/21 840 places 859 on roll 2021/22 840 places 847 on roll 2022/23 840 places 844 on roll 2023/24 869 places 833 on roll 2024/25 869 places 835 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
Voluntary aided school
Admissions policy
Non-selective
Religious character
Faith
Entry point
Year 7
Council
Lancashire

Postcode FY6 0NP. School details from Get Information About Schools (URN 119789).

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.