School Admission Appeals

Refused a place at Saint Pius X Catholic High School A Specialist School in Humanities?

You are not alone. In 2026/27, 5 families who named Saint Pius X Catholic High School A Specialist School in Humanities as their first choice did not get a place: 112 put it first and 107 of them were offered one.

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

5

first-choice families refused a place in 2026/27

112 first preferences for 131 places, 2026/27

Appealing a refusal at Saint Pius X Catholic High School A Specialist School in Humanities

There is no published appeal success rate for Saint Pius X Catholic High School A Specialist School in Humanities, or for any individual school in England. The Department for Education collects appeal outcomes and publishes them by council. The figures here are for Rotherham 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 Rotherham, 50.4% of secondary appeals heard were upheld — 232 of 460 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 Rotherham.

What a panel here can act on

These are national rules, not Rotherham 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 Pius X Catholic High School A Specialist School in Humanities turned first-choice families away in 7 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 Saint Pius X Catholic High School A Specialist School in Humanities, 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 0.9 per place 109 first choices 121 places 2016/17 0.93 per place 109 first choices 117 places 2017/18 1.08 per place 139 first choices 129 places 2018/19 0.99 per place 128 first choices 129 places 2019/20 1.18 per place 149 first choices 126 places 2020/21 1.32 per place 160 first choices 121 places 2021/22 1.15 per place 152 first choices 132 places 2022/23 1.24 per place 168 first choices 135 places 2023/24 1.36 per place 182 first choices 134 places 2024/25 1.22 per place 154 first choices 126 places 2025/26 0.81 per place 105 first choices 129 places 2026/27 0.85 per place 112 first choices 131 places
First preferences per place at Saint Pius X Catholic High School A Specialist School in Humanities. Years with too small an intake to carry a ratio are left blank rather than plotted. Latest year: 112 first preferences for 131 places.
View as a table
Places, first preferences and offers at Saint Pius X Catholic High School A Specialist School in Humanities, by year. A ratio is shown only where the intake is large enough to carry one.
Year Places First choices Offered Per place
2015/16 121 109 100 0.9
2016/17 117 109 109 0.93
2017/18 129 139 124 1.08
2018/19 129 128 128 0.99
2019/20 126 149 124 1.18
2020/21 121 160 119 1.32
2021/22 132 152 131 1.15
2022/23 135 168 135 1.24
2023/24 134 182 131 1.36
2024/25 126 154 114 1.22
2025/26 129 105 105 0.81
2026/27 131 112 107 0.85

Places offered

131

in 2026/27

Named first choice

112

310 named it at any preference

First choices offered a place

95.5%

107 of 112

Offers to families outside the council

56%

73 of 131 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 106962.

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

765

2024/25, whole school

Pupils in them

705

92.2% of capacity

Unfilled places

60

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 Pius X Catholic High School A Specialist School in Humanities 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 Pius X Catholic High School A Specialist School in Humanities reported 60 unfilled places across Years 7 to 11, at 92.2% 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, 2009/10 to 2024/25

Places Pupils on roll

Places and pupils on roll at Saint Pius X Catholic High School A Specialist School in Humanities from 2009/10 to 2024/25. Where the roll meets the places line, the school is full. 0 400 800 places on roll 09/10 11/12 13/14 15/16 17/18 20/21 22/23 24/25 2009/10 685 places 653 on roll 2010/11 685 places 654 on roll 2011/12 685 places 647 on roll 2012/13 685 places 641 on roll 2013/14 685 places 643 on roll 2014/15 685 places 648 on roll 2015/16 685 places 640 on roll 2016/17 685 places 648 on roll 2017/18 685 places 653 on roll 2018/19 685 places 649 on roll 2020/21 685 places 663 on roll 2021/22 685 places 676 on roll 2022/23 761 places 677 on roll 2023/24 761 places 690 on roll 2024/25 765 places 705 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
Rotherham

Postcode S63 7PQ. School details from Get Information About Schools (URN 152056).

Other contested secondary schools in Rotherham

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.