What can you do if your child is refused admission to their preferred secondary school, or been unplaced?

This weekend, excited and anxious Primary 7 pupils will be opening their letters to tell them which secondary schools they’ll be attending in September.

For the vast majority of them, thankfully, they’ll get a place at their first or second preference and they’ll begin looking forward to a summer preparing for ‘big school’.

However, for a number of children and worried parents, this weekend will begin a scramble to find a place at a local secondary school. For those who don’t get their preferred place or, worse still, find themselves unplaced altogether ahead of September, this can be a deeply stressful time. However, it’s important to remember that there are options available for families if you are challenging a school’s decision.

Over the past number of years, the number of families appealing against post-primary schools who did not offer children a year 8 place has risen by more than 200%. Figures from the Education Authority in 2021 showed that there were over 800 appeals.

There are three options available if you are challenging a school’s decision: the School Admissions Appeal Tribunal; the Exceptional Circumstances Body; or a judicial review of the school’s criteria.

The first option means an appeal can be made to challenge the Board of Governors’ decision not to admit a child to their school. However, the Tribunal’s powers are limited under Article 15 (5) of the Education (Northern Ireland) Order 1997. The Tribunal must ask themselves two key questions: 1) Were the school’s admissions criteria applied, or applied correctly; and 2) If they had been applied correctly, would the child have been granted entry into the school?

If the Tribunal holds that the criteria were not applied correctly, and if they had been applied correctly the child would have been granted entry into the school, the school must make a place for that child in the school. However, the Tribunal might find that even if the criteria had been applied correctly, the child would have been refused admission, and if this is the case, the appeal would be dismissed.

The second option, the Exceptional Circumstances Body, is a separate entity whose powers are governed by the School Admissions (Exceptional Circumstances) Regulations (NI) 2010, and who consider applications that a child must attend a particular school.

The ECB applies a three-stage test:

Are the circumstances claimed exceptional?

Are the circumstances claimed personal to the child? And

Do the circumstances claimed require the child’s admission to the school, and only that school?

The ECB cannot consider circumstances which relate wholly or mainly to the kind of education provided at that school i.e. grammar versus comprehensive; circumstances related to a child’s academic ability; or circumstances related to the availability of transport to that school.

Finally, you can also launch a judicial review of the school’s criteria. However, this is a much more complex (and costly) process and legal advice should be sought as to the merits of any such application.

As we move to a new single, post-primary transfer test system for Northern Ireland provided by the Schools’ Entrance Assessment Group from next year onwards, the hope is that these issues will be ironed out. However, parents and children have avenues for recourse if they find themselves in this unfortunate position this weekend.