School Admission Appeals

Refused a place at St Michael's Church of England High School?

You are not alone. In 2026/27, 103 families who named St Michael's Church of England High School as their first choice did not get a place: the school offered 234 and 326 put it first.

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

1.39

first choices for every place available

326 first preferences for 234 places, 2026/27

Appealing a refusal at St Michael's Church of England High School

There is no published appeal success rate for St Michael'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 Sandwell 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 Sandwell, 9% of secondary appeals heard were upheld — 98 of 1,092 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 Sandwell.

What a panel here can act on

These are national rules, not Sandwell 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

St Michael's Church of England High School turned first-choice families away in 11 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 St Michael'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 1.07 per place 255 first choices 239 places 2016/17 1.05 per place 250 first choices 239 places 2017/18 1.1 per place 264 first choices 241 places 2018/19 0.96 per place 229 first choices 238 places 2019/20 1.13 per place 304 first choices 270 places 2020/21 1.12 per place 260 first choices 232 places 2021/22 1.21 per place 282 first choices 233 places 2022/23 1.13 per place 267 first choices 236 places 2023/24 1.34 per place 310 first choices 231 places 2024/25 1.2 per place 277 first choices 231 places 2025/26 1.09 per place 290 first choices 266 places 2026/27 1.39 per place 326 first choices 234 places
First preferences per place at St Michael's Church of England High School. Years with too small an intake to carry a ratio are left blank rather than plotted. Latest year: 326 first preferences for 234 places.
View as a table
Places, first preferences and offers at St Michael'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
2015/16 239 255 224 1.07
2016/17 239 250 228 1.05
2017/18 241 264 235 1.1
2018/19 238 229 222 0.96
2019/20 270 304 252 1.13
2020/21 232 260 218 1.12
2021/22 233 282 224 1.21
2022/23 236 267 223 1.13
2023/24 231 310 227 1.34
2024/25 231 277 216 1.2
2025/26 266 290 250 1.09
2026/27 234 326 223 1.39

Places offered

234

in 2026/27

Named first choice

326

560 named it at any preference

First choices offered a place

68.4%

223 of 326

Offers to families outside the council

5%

11 of 234 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

1,230

2024/25, whole school

Pupils in them

1,182

96.1% of capacity

Unfilled places

48

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 St Michael'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 St Michael's Church of England High School reported 48 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 St Michael's Church of England High School from 2009/10 to 2024/25. Where the roll meets the places line, the school is full. 0 650 1,300 places on roll 09/10 11/12 13/14 15/16 17/18 20/21 22/23 24/25 2009/10 1,024 places 994 on roll 2010/11 1,024 places 987 on roll 2011/12 1,200 places 1,044 on roll 2012/13 1,200 places 1,062 on roll 2013/14 1,200 places 1,091 on roll 2014/15 1,200 places 1,132 on roll 2015/16 1,200 places 1,177 on roll 2016/17 1,200 places 1,186 on roll 2017/18 1,200 places 1,187 on roll 2018/19 1,200 places 1,168 on roll 2020/21 1,230 places 1,222 on roll 2021/22 1,230 places 1,218 on roll 2022/23 1,230 places 1,224 on roll 2023/24 1,230 places 1,218 on roll 2024/25 1,230 places 1,182 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
Sandwell

Postcode B65 9AN. School details from Get Information About Schools (URN 104019).

Other contested secondary schools in Sandwell

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.