School Admissions Appeals

Find out how to appeal against a decision to refuse your placing request application

You have the right to refer the Education Department's decision to refuse your placing request application to the Council's Education Appeal Committee. The Committee will decide whether the Council has applied the priorities for granting placing requests for the particular school correctly.

You must make a request within 28 days of receipt of your refusal/allocation letter.

The Council appreciates that parents/carers who appeal a refused placing request or alternative catchment/redirect school allocation wish to have an appeal hearing as soon as possible. Whilst the time limit for appeal committee hearings to be heard is 28 days, the Council will endeavour to provide a hearing within this time frame; for those requesting a place for August we will seek to do so before the start of term. To this end, the Council is planning for the majority of appeal hearings to be held by video or telephone conference as this provides the most efficient way of holding appeal committee hearings.

Whilst the Council will attempt to meet any request for an appeal committee hearing to be heard in person or by written submissions only, appellants should be aware that these approaches will invariably result in a longer time period for an appeal to be heard given additional organisation and administration required for appeals by these formats.

Please note you may only make one reference to an education appeal committee per child in any one 12 month period. If you have already had an appeal heard by an appeal committee for the same child in the last 12 months you are unable to refer another appeal for this child to the appeals committee.

An Appeal Committee Hearing is arranged for the Panel, the Education Department and appellants; appeals will continue to be processed in one of the following ways:

By video conference or telephone conference, depending on your preference. Further details will be provided by the Clerk of Appeals should you choose this option
By traditional appeal hearing with all participants physically in attendance

In order to manage appeal hearings, a maximum of 3 people (including the appellant) may take part in a hearing to support the appellant, however only one person may speak at any one time.

By agreement of all parties, a written submission alone can be made to the appeal committee by the appellant and the Education Department. The panel of the appeal committee will convene to consider the appeal and a decision will be made based solely on the written papers submitted by both parties. No other means of engagement in the appeal process through, for example, the use of voice or video call facilities will be available to either party should you choose to appeal by written submission only.

You may be very disappointed that your child cannot go to the school you want however, as highlighted by the Scottish Government, there is not much point in appealing simply because you are disappointed. You must have a good reason for asking the appeal committee to look at your request again.

Before you decide to appeal, you should consider:

whether you agree with what the Council has said about why your request was refused;
whether what the Council has said is allowable
whether the Council's guidelines have been followed

Should you wish to proceed to appeal after having considered the merits of the case, you must make a request in writing within 28 days of receipt of your refusal/allocation letter by completing the online placing request appeal form.

The appeal must be made by the person who submitted the original placing request/catchment application.

The appeal committee should acknowledge receipt of your appeal request within 5 days. Following receipt of your appeal it will be forwarded to the Clerk of the Appeals Committee who will contact you to make arrangements for a hearing.

If you have not received confirmation of receipt of your appeal request within 5 days or if you have any questions regarding an appeal hearing, please contact Corporate and Community Services by email: educationappealclerk@eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk or by telephone: 0141 577 3126

Submit Appeal Form online

Education Department
Council Offices
211 Main Street
Barrhead
G78 1SY

The appeal must be made by the person who submitted the original placing request/catchment application.

In submitting an appeal request, you must provide the following details:

if you are appealing the refusal of a placing request application please include the placing request reference number on the refusal letter beginning '9/'
if you are appealing an alternative catchment/redirected school allocation please include the catchment application reference number from your allocation letter;
your forename and surname and relationship to the child;
your child's forename, surname and the school and stage applied for;
your acceptance of appeal hearing by video / telephone conference, or request for a written submission only or for an appeal hearing in person.

Your letter should provide the appeal committee with details of why you believe a place should be made available at the school requested as a consequence of the Education Department not applying the priorities for granting placing requests for the particular school correctly or why the Education Department was wrong to refuse your application given your specific circumstances. Whilst there is no limit to the written submission which you can make, it should only contain information which is relevant to the case you wish to make.

Last modified on 1 December 2022