School Admission Appeals

School admission appeals in North Tyneside

North Tyneside heard 90 school admission appeals in 2025, and 19 of them were upheld. The figures below come from the Department for Education and cover every state-funded school in the authority — they describe North Tyneside as a whole, not any single school.

Over the last three years the North Tyneside success rate has run 1 percentage points lower than the England average of 19.8%.

18.8%

of appeals heard in North Tyneside were upheld

50 of 266 appeals heard in 2023–2025

2025 at a glance

Appeals lodged

108

by parents in North Tyneside

Appeals heard by a panel

90

83% of those lodged

Appeals upheld

19

21.1% of those heard

England, same year

19.4%

7,498 of 38,639 heard

If your child is going into Reception, Year 1 or Year 2, read this first

79.3% of the primary appeals heard in North Tyneside were infant class size appeals. These are a different kind of appeal with a much narrower test. A panel can only uphold one if the admission arrangements were unlawful, they were applied incorrectly, or the decision to refuse was one no reasonable authority would have made. How much your child wants the place, or how strong the school is, cannot come into it.

In North Tyneside, 6.5% of infant class size appeals were upheld (3 of 46 appeals heard in 2023–2025) against 9.8% across England. That is far lower than other appeals, and it is the single most important thing to establish before you spend time on a case.

Which appeals succeed in North Tyneside

Secondary and primary appeals are judged on different tests, and the gap between them is usually wide. Pooling three years gives a steadier picture than any single year.

Appeals upheld by phase, three-year pooled rate
0% 15% 30% Secondary 20.7% England 20.5% Primary 12.1% England 17.4% Infant class size 6.5% England 9.8%

Vertical marker shows the England figure for the same phase.

View as a table
Appeals heard and upheld by phase, pooled across three years.
Phase Heard Upheld Rate England
Secondary 208 43 20.7% 20.5%
Primary 58 7 12.1% 17.4%
Infant class size 46 3 6.5% 9.8%

Infant class size appeals are counted within the primary figures, not added to them.

Ten years of appeals in North Tyneside

Appeals upheld, North Tyneside and England, 2016–2025
0% 7.5% 15% 22.5% 30% 2016 2018 2020 2022 2024 2025 19.4% 21.1% 2016 15.7% 22.3% 2017 19.3% 21.8% 2018 15.4% 21.8% 2019 21.2% 22.2% 2020 19.2% 21.2% 2021 7% 19% 2022 12.7% 20.1% 2023 15.6% 19.8% 2024 19.2% 20% 2025 21.1% 19.4%
View as a table
Appeals heard and upheld in North Tyneside, by year. A rate is shown only where at least 10 appeals were heard.
Year Heard Upheld North Tyneside England
2016 51 8 15.7% 22.3%
2017 88 17 19.3% 21.8%
2018 65 10 15.4% 21.8%
2019 85 18 21.2% 22.2%
2020 203 39 19.2% 21.2%
2021 129 9 7% 19%
2022 110 14 12.7% 20.1%
2023 77 12 15.6% 19.8%
2024 99 19 19.2% 20%
2025 90 19 21.1% 19.4%

How North Tyneside compares

Success rate ranking

75 of 151

English councils, ranked on the pooled 3-year success rate, LAs with 10+ appeals heard. Position 1 is the highest rate.

Appeal volume ranking

120 of 151

by number of appeals heard over the same period — 266 in total.

Success rates vary enormously between councils, from under 5% to over 50%. Some of that is real difference in how panels and admission authorities operate; some of it reflects which schools are oversubscribed and how many hopeless cases get lodged. A high local rate is not a prediction about your appeal.

Schools in North Tyneside

North Tyneside has 69 state-funded mainstream schools — 54 primary, 14 secondary and 1 all-through. The largest concentrations are in North Shields, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Whitley Bay and Wallsend.

What we can't tell you

Nobody publishes appeal outcomes school by school — the Department for Education collects returns from individual schools but only releases them added up to council level. Any site claiming to know your school's appeal odds is guessing. What matters far more than a local average is whether your particular grounds are ones a panel is allowed to act on.

Other councils in North East