School Admission Appeals

Refused a place at Acklam Grange School?

You are not alone. In 2026/27, 133 families who named Acklam Grange School as their first choice did not get a place: the school offered 287 and 409 put it first.

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

1.43

first choices for every place available

409 first preferences for 287 places, 2026/27

Appealing a refusal at Acklam Grange School

There is no published appeal success rate for Acklam Grange 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 Middlesbrough 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 Middlesbrough, 10.7% of secondary appeals heard were upheld — 34 of 318 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 Middlesbrough.

What a panel here can act on

These are national rules, not Middlesbrough 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

Acklam Grange School turned first-choice families away in 9 of the last 12 years. In each of those years more families named it as their first choice than it had places available.

First preferences per place at Acklam Grange 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 0.63 per place 183 first choices 290 places 2016/17 0.64 per place 157 first choices 245 places 2017/18 0.83 per place 243 first choices 293 places 2018/19 1.13 per place 330 first choices 291 places 2019/20 1.53 per place 445 first choices 290 places 2020/21 1.58 per place 457 first choices 290 places 2021/22 1.5 per place 439 first choices 292 places 2022/23 1.55 per place 445 first choices 287 places 2023/24 1.6 per place 462 first choices 288 places 2024/25 1.47 per place 424 first choices 288 places 2025/26 1.38 per place 400 first choices 290 places 2026/27 1.43 per place 409 first choices 287 places
First preferences per place at Acklam Grange School. Years with too small an intake to carry a ratio are left blank rather than plotted. Latest year: 409 first preferences for 287 places.
View as a table
Places, first preferences and offers at Acklam Grange School, by year. A ratio is shown only where the intake is large enough to carry one.
Year Places First choices Offered Per place
2015/16 290 183 181 0.63
2016/17 245 157 157 0.64
2017/18 293 243 235 0.83
2018/19 291 330 273 1.13
2019/20 290 445 268 1.53
2020/21 290 457 272 1.58
2021/22 292 439 279 1.5
2022/23 287 445 277 1.55
2023/24 288 462 285 1.6
2024/25 288 424 281 1.47
2025/26 290 400 280 1.38
2026/27 287 409 276 1.43

Places offered

287

in 2026/27

Named first choice

409

953 named it at any preference

First choices offered a place

67.5%

276 of 409

Offers to families outside the council

2%

5 of 287 offers

This school was issued a new Department for Education reference when it converted to an academy. Its earlier years are included above, reported at the time under reference 111751.

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

1,470

2024/25, whole school

Pupils in them

1,445

98.3% of capacity

Unfilled places

25

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 Acklam Grange 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 Acklam Grange School reported 25 unfilled places across Years 7 to 11, at 98.3% 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 Acklam Grange School from 2009/10 to 2024/25. Where the roll meets the places line, the school is full. 0 750 1,500 places on roll 09/10 11/12 13/14 15/16 17/18 20/21 22/23 24/25 2009/10 1,423 places 1,345 on roll 2010/11 1,441 places 1,373 on roll 2011/12 1,474 places 1,399 on roll 2012/13 1,494 places 1,389 on roll 2013/14 1,494 places 1,394 on roll 2014/15 1,470 places 1,390 on roll 2015/16 1,470 places 1,414 on roll 2016/17 1,470 places 1,414 on roll 2017/18 1,470 places 1,447 on roll 2018/19 1,470 places 1,430 on roll 2020/21 1,470 places 1,440 on roll 2021/22 1,470 places 1,453 on roll 2022/23 1,470 places 1,461 on roll 2023/24 1,470 places 1,473 on roll 2024/25 1,470 places 1,445 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
No religious character
Entry point
Year 7
Council
Middlesbrough

Postcode TS5 8PB. School details from Get Information About Schools (URN 145774).

Other contested secondary schools in Middlesbrough

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.