School Admission Appeals

Refused a place at Archbishop Holgate's School, A Church of England Academy?

You are not alone. In 2026/27, 20 families who named Archbishop Holgate's School, A Church of England Academy as their first choice did not get a place: the school offered 294 and 305 put it first.

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

1.04

first choices for every place available

305 first preferences for 294 places, 2026/27

Appealing a refusal at Archbishop Holgate's School, A Church of England Academy

There is no published appeal success rate for Archbishop Holgate's School, A Church of England 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 York 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 York, 43.4% of secondary appeals heard were upheld — 36 of 83 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 York.

What a panel here can act on

These are national rules, not York 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

Archbishop Holgate's School, A Church of England Academy turned first-choice families away in 6 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 Archbishop Holgate's School, A Church of England Academy, 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 0.89 per place 212 first choices 239 places 2016/17 0.95 per place 259 first choices 274 places 2017/18 0.99 per place 294 first choices 297 places 2018/19 0.96 per place 285 first choices 298 places 2019/20 1.05 per place 312 first choices 298 places 2020/21 1.01 per place 300 first choices 297 places 2021/22 0.92 per place 271 first choices 294 places 2022/23 1.06 per place 320 first choices 301 places 2023/24 0.97 per place 284 first choices 292 places 2024/25 1.05 per place 307 first choices 293 places 2025/26 1.07 per place 316 first choices 295 places 2026/27 1.04 per place 305 first choices 294 places
First preferences per place at Archbishop Holgate's School, A Church of England Academy. Years with too small an intake to carry a ratio are left blank rather than plotted. Latest year: 305 first preferences for 294 places.
View as a table
Places, first preferences and offers at Archbishop Holgate's School, A Church of England Academy, by year. A ratio is shown only where the intake is large enough to carry one.
Year Places First choices Offered Per place
2015/16 239 212 212 0.89
2016/17 274 259 257 0.95
2017/18 297 294 282 0.99
2018/19 298 285 278 0.96
2019/20 298 312 285 1.05
2020/21 297 300 272 1.01
2021/22 294 271 271 0.92
2022/23 301 320 290 1.06
2023/24 292 284 284 0.97
2024/25 293 307 277 1.05
2025/26 295 316 284 1.07
2026/27 294 305 285 1.04

Places offered

294

in 2026/27

Named first choice

305

574 named it at any preference

First choices offered a place

93.4%

285 of 305

Offers to families outside the council

12%

36 of 294 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

1,550

2024/25, whole school

Pupils in them

1,469

94.8% of capacity

Unfilled places

81

across Years 7 to 11

Sixth form places

350

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 Archbishop Holgate's School, A Church of England 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 Archbishop Holgate's School, A Church of England Academy reported 81 unfilled places across Years 7 to 11, at 94.8% 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 Archbishop Holgate's School, A Church of England Academy from 2010/11 to 2024/25. Where the roll meets the places line, the school is full. 0 950 1,900 places on roll 10/11 12/13 14/15 16/17 18/19 21/22 23/24 24/25 2010/11 810 places 882 on roll 2011/12 970 places 947 on roll 2012/13 970 places 1,032 on roll 2013/14 1,300 places 1,084 on roll 2014/15 1,411 places 1,195 on roll 2015/16 1,411 places 1,261 on roll 2016/17 1,700 places 1,363 on roll 2017/18 1,416 places 1,445 on roll 2018/19 1,514 places 1,531 on roll 2020/21 1,900 places 1,750 on roll 2021/22 1,900 places 1,788 on roll 2022/23 1,900 places 1,835 on roll 2023/24 1,900 places 1,831 on roll 2024/25 1,900 places 1,804 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
York

Postcode YO10 5ZA. School details from Get Information About Schools (URN 136617).

Other contested secondary schools in York

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.