New figures have revealed hundreds of appeals were submitted by unhappy parents in Bolton against decisions regarding primary and secondary school places last year.

The latest figures from the Department for Education show 581 appeals were made by parents and guardians in Bolton against their child’s school place before the 2022-23 academic year – up slightly from 580 the year before.

It meant 6.6 per cent of the 8,849 admissions were appealed. Of these appeals, 463 (79.69 per cent) were heard, with 93 (16 per cent) successful.

A spokesperson for Bolton Council said: “Every effort is made to offer children a place at one of their preferred schools and ahead of the 2022/23 academic year 98 per cent of primary and 95 per cent of secondary pupils received such an offer.

“Despite the continued challenge of high demand for school places in Bolton, we were able to offer every child a school place in the borough.

“For those parents who are disappointed with their offer, we have a clear, accessible, and transparent system where appeals are heard by an independent panel.

“Out of a total of 8,849 offers for the 2022/23 academic year, the panel ruled that the original offer was not suitable in just one per cent of cases.”

 

The Bolton News recently reported that £10m was being invested into expanding two good schools as demand for places rises.

Nationally, there were 53,000 appeals submitted against the 1.5 million admission decisions to send a child to a primary or secondary school, accounting for just 3.4 per cent.

Of these, 8,000 (15 per cent) were successful.

The Association of School and College Leaders said pressure is placed on certain schools by the Ofsted rating system, with those deemed ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ oversubscribed, while other schools do not receive the number of required applications.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the ASCL, said: “The underlying problem is that this pressure is created by Ofsted judgements with positive ratings driving parental demand and negative ratings leading to schools being undersubscribed.

“Ofsted ratings need to be ditched and replaced with judgements which give a more rounded picture and schools must be given more targeted support.

“This would reduce the pressure on places and provide a basis for sustained improvement to the benefit of children and communities.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We have created almost 1.2 million places since 2010, the largest increase in school capacity in at least two generations and we continue to work closely with local authorities to make sure they offer a school place to every child in the country.

“In 2023, 92.5 per cent of families were offered their first-choice primary school, while 82.6 per cent were offered their first-choice secondary school.

“The Chief Adjudicator’s most recent report shows that the admissions system is working well, and the level of appeals remains low.”

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