Yorkshire's parents top school appeal figures: Hear informed debate

YORKSHIRE had the highest number of parents who were unhappy with their children's primary school placings across the country last year.

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The level of appeals was greater in the region than anywhere else in England while the number of parents unhappy with their children's secondary school was the highest outside of London.

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Government statistics published yesterday, for the 2008/09 academic year, show almost eight per cent of the region's parents, 6,090, appealed against primary school decisions to refuse their children places while 9.1 per cent, 3,370, appealed against secondary school rulings.

And just over a third of those appeals that went to hearings, a total of 6,290, were successful.

Bradford had most the appeals against primary school decisions of any education authority in the country outside of London, at 13 per cent, while Leeds was the second highest in the region, with about one-in-ten parents appealing.

Almost one-in-five parents appealed against their children's placings at Bradford secondary schools, at 19 per cent – again the highest in Yorkshire.

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The East Riding had the lowest level in the region at both primary and secondary level.

Parents currently have the right to appeal to independent panels if any schools they applied to refuse their children places.

About two-thirds of the appeals went to hearings according to the Department for Education figures.

The system allows parents to argue if they believe schools have broken official admissions rules or whether there are "compelling" extra reasons why their child merits a place, such as a disability.

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Campaigners have long argued the admissions system should be overhauled because it is too complicated and where schools are oversubscribed, some families, faced, for example, with the risk of having siblings placed at different schools, have even resorted to deception or even fraud to ensure their children get places at the "right" schools.

Ministers said yesterday the figures showed increasing numbers of parents were unhappy with school choices and repeated promises of reforms that would make it easier for people to start their own state schools.

Nationally, the number of primary school appeals has almost doubled since 2004.

Overall, 88,270 appeals were lodged against primary and secondary school allocations, up from 86,020 the previous year.

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Of these, 63,720 were heard by independent panels and parents won 19,060 of these cases, forcing schools to accept their children – a slight fall in the number of successful appeals from the year before.

Schools Minister Nick Gibb said: "The level of dissatisfaction underlines why it is so important we change the schools system so providers like teacher groups and charities can open new state schools wherever parents want them; and give outstanding schools the freedoms they need to help improve those in more challenging circumstances."