School Admission Appeals

School admission appeals in York

York heard 40 school admission appeals in 2026, and 20 of them were upheld. The figures below come from the Department for Education and cover every state-funded school in the authority — they describe York as a whole, not any single school.

Over the last three years the York success rate has run 21.4 percentage points higher than the England average of 19.4%.

40.8%

of appeals heard in York were upheld

49 of 120 appeals heard in 2024–2026

2026 at a glance

Appeals lodged

62

by parents in York

Appeals heard by a panel

40

65% of those lodged

Appeals upheld

20

50% of those heard

England, same year

18.5%

6,414 of 34,711 heard

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

32.4% of the primary appeals heard in York 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 York, 16.7% of infant class size appeals were upheld (2 of 12 appeals heard in 2024–2026) against 9.4% 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.

The three grounds one can be upheld on, and how to tell if yours is even an infant class size case →

What counts as grounds in York

The rules are national, so this part does not vary by council: a panel works through two fixed stages, and the York rate above tells you nothing about which arguments it can act on. Most appeals fail because the case put to the panel answers neither stage.

Which appeals succeed in York

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% 25% 50% Secondary England 20.1% 43.4% Primary England 17.1% 35.1% Infant class size England 9.4% 16.7%

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 83 36 43.4% 20.1%
Primary 37 13 35.1% 17.1%
Infant class size 12 2 16.7% 9.4%

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

Appeals in York, 2016–2026

Appeals upheld, York and England, 2016–2026
0% 12.5% 25% 37.5% 50% 2016 2018 2020 2022 2024 2026 18.5% 50% 2016 36.6% 22.3% 2017 34.5% 21.8% 2018 27% 21.8% 2019 23.9% 22.2% 2020 26.8% 21.2% 2021 30.2% 19% 2022 19.4% 20.1% 2023 26.2% 19.8% 2024 28.2% 20% 2025 43.9% 19.4% 2026 50% 18.5%
View as a table
Appeals heard and upheld in York, by year. A rate is shown only where at least 10 appeals were heard.
Year Heard Upheld York England
2016 82 30 36.6% 22.3%
2017 58 20 34.5% 21.8%
2018 89 24 27% 21.8%
2019 46 11 23.9% 22.2%
2020 56 15 26.8% 21.2%
2021 63 19 30.2% 19%
2022 31 6 19.4% 20.1%
2023 42 11 26.2% 19.8%
2024 39 11 28.2% 20%
2025 41 18 43.9% 19.4%
2026 40 20 50% 18.5%

How York compares

Success rate ranking

6 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

144 of 151

by number of appeals heard over the same period — 120 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 York

York has 58 state-funded mainstream schools — 49 primary and 9 secondary. The largest concentrations are in York.

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.

Where places are hardest to get

What is published, school by school, is how many families applied and how many got in. These are the York schools with the most first choices for each place available in 2026/27 — the places where refusals, and so appeals, are concentrated. High demand does not mean an appeal is more likely to succeed; it means more families are refused.

See all 5 secondary and 15 primary schools in York →

Most contested secondary schools in York, 2026/27
School Places First choices Per place
All Saints Catholic School York 174 229 1.32
Huntington School 227 266 1.17
Fulford School 286 302 1.06
Archbishop Holgate's School, A Church of England Academy 294 305 1.04
York High School 125 119 0.95
Most contested primary schools in York, 2026/27
School Places First choices Per place
Lord Deramore's Primary School 27 66 2.44
St Oswald's Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School 43 52 1.21
Acomb Primary School 45 52 1.16
Ralph Butterfield Primary School 44 49 1.11
Dringhouses Primary School 45 49 1.09
Clifton With Rawcliffe Primary School 89 95 1.07
St Wilfrid's Catholic Primary School - a Catholic Voluntary Academy 27 29 1.07
Woodthorpe Primary School 60 64 1.07
Knavesmire Primary School 60 60 1
Wheldrake with Thorganby Church of England Primary School 24 23 0.96

Department for Education, Primary and secondary school applications and offers, school-level file, 2026/27.

Other councils in Yorkshire and The Humber