School Admission Appeals

Refused a place at Westcliff High School for Boys Academy?

You are not alone. In 2026/27, 139 families who named Westcliff High School for Boys Academy as their first choice did not get a place: the school offered 182 and 280 put it first.

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

1.54

first choices for every place available

280 first preferences for 182 places, 2026/27

Appealing a refusal at Westcliff High School for Boys Academy

There is no published appeal success rate for Westcliff High School for Boys Academy, or for any individual school in England. The Department for Education collects appeal outcomes and publishes them by council. The figures here are for Southend-on-Sea 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 Southend-on-Sea, 4.7% of secondary appeals heard were upheld — 13 of 277 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 Southend-on-Sea.

What a panel here can act on

These are national rules, not Southend-on-Sea 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

Westcliff High School for Boys Academy turned first-choice families away in every one of the 12 years published. In each of those years more families named it as their first choice than it had places available.

First preferences per place at Westcliff High School for Boys Academy, 2015/16 to 2026/27. A value above 1 means more families named the school first than there were places. 0.0 0.6 1.3 1.9 2.5 one first preference per place 15/16 17/18 19/20 21/22 23/24 25/26 26/27 2015/16 1.32 per place 241 first choices 183 places 2016/17 1.25 per place 228 first choices 182 places 2017/18 1.3 per place 236 first choices 181 places 2018/19 1.48 per place 269 first choices 182 places 2019/20 1.64 per place 289 first choices 176 places 2020/21 2.09 per place 289 first choices 138 places 2021/22 2 per place 368 first choices 184 places 2022/23 1.41 per place 258 first choices 183 places 2023/24 1.57 per place 266 first choices 169 places 2024/25 1.33 per place 222 first choices 167 places 2025/26 1.56 per place 283 first choices 181 places 2026/27 1.54 per place 280 first choices 182 places
First preferences per place at Westcliff High School for Boys Academy. Years with too small an intake to carry a ratio are left blank rather than plotted. Latest year: 280 first preferences for 182 places.
View as a table
Places, first preferences and offers at Westcliff High School for Boys Academy, by year. A ratio is shown only where the intake is large enough to carry one.
Year Places First choices Offered Per place
2015/16 183 241 117 1.32
2016/17 182 228 128 1.25
2017/18 181 236 131 1.3
2018/19 182 269 134 1.48
2019/20 176 289 142 1.64
2020/21 138 289 129 2.09
2021/22 184 368 146 2
2022/23 183 258 149 1.41
2023/24 169 266 128 1.57
2024/25 167 222 126 1.33
2025/26 181 283 148 1.56
2026/27 182 280 141 1.54

Places offered

182

in 2026/27

Named first choice

280

1,028 named it at any preference

First choices offered a place

50.4%

141 of 280

Offers to families outside the council

43%

78 of 182 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

1,052

2024/25, whole school

Pupils in them

912

86.7% of capacity

Unfilled places

140

across Years 7 to 11

Sixth form places

300

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 Westcliff High School for Boys Academy 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 Westcliff High School for Boys Academy reported 140 unfilled places across Years 7 to 11, at 86.7% 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, 2010/11 to 2024/25

Places Pupils on roll

Places and pupils on roll at Westcliff High School for Boys Academy from 2010/11 to 2024/25. Where the roll meets the places line, the school is full. 0 700 1,400 places on roll 10/11 12/13 14/15 16/17 18/19 21/22 23/24 24/25 2010/11 1,090 places 1,068 on roll 2011/12 1,069 places 1,101 on roll 2012/13 1,069 places 1,101 on roll 2013/14 1,090 places 1,107 on roll 2014/15 1,200 places 1,106 on roll 2015/16 1,282 places 1,123 on roll 2016/17 1,282 places 1,151 on roll 2017/18 1,282 places 1,151 on roll 2018/19 1,282 places 1,198 on roll 2020/21 1,282 places 1,275 on roll 2021/22 1,200 places 1,249 on roll 2022/23 1,200 places 1,263 on roll 2023/24 1,200 places 1,278 on roll 2024/25 1,352 places 1,289 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
Selective
Religious character
No religious character
Entry point
Year 7
Council
Southend-on-Sea

Postcode SS0 0BP. School details from Get Information About Schools (URN 136272).

Other contested secondary schools in Southend-on-Sea

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.