Admissions Appeals

An appeal can only be upheld if a Tribunal finds that the admissions criteria were not applied or not correctly applied and that if the admissions criteria had been correctly applied the child would have been admitted to the school.

It is advisable to make contact with the school where your child has not been selected for admission to discuss the reason why a place was not offered.  This will assist you in deciding whether to appeal the decision.

There is;

• No right of appeal against a voluntary playgroup or private provider which participates in the pre-school programme;
• No right of appeal if you have been offered a part-time afternoon place in a nursery school/unit as opposed to a part-time morning place or vice versa; or
• No right of appeal if you have been refused placement to a school outside the Dickson Plan where no places are available in Year 11.

An Admission Appeal also:

• Cannot consider domestic circumstances such as childminding, work or transport arrangements to and from school; or
• Cannot consider your eligibility to receive a benefit as defined under the ‘Socially Disadvantaged Circumstances’ criterion when making application for a funded pre-school place. Your eligibility to receive a benefit as listed would be considered by your local Social Security/Jobs & Benefits Office which is a separate process to the pre-school admissions procedure (e.g.) if you were on tax credits and not as yet transferred to Universal Credit. Information on the benefits as defined under ‘Socially Disadvantaged Circumstances’ can be accessed under Pre-School - General Information.

The opening and closing dates for submitting an Admission Appeal for each sector are listed below.

If the Clerk to the Tribunal does not receive your appeal form by the dates/times outlined, your right of appeal will lapse and an appeal will not proceed.

You can add further documents and additional parent representatives up until 5 days before the appeal hearing, however, appeal forms must be submitted before the closing date.

If you had submitted your admissions application on EA Connect, you can submit your Admission Appeal through EA Connect.

1. Contact School: Contact the school to discuss why your child’s application was not selected.
    
2. Prepare your appeal documents: Before completing the appeal form you should ensure that you prepare a document stating the reasons you wish to make an appeal.  Save this document where you can easily access it and name with your child’s name in preparation for uploading to the online appeal form.  You can also attach any other supporting documentation to the online form that you want the Tribunal to consider. 
    
3. Log on to EA Connect: Log on to EA Connect with the username and password used when making your application. On the application tile click ‘Review’, ‘View Outcome’ and ‘View more information’ to begin the Admission Appeal Process.
    
4. Submit Form: Complete and submit the online appeal form by the closing date.  You will receive an email confirming that your appeal form has been received.
    
5. Check Status of Appeal: You can log on to EA Connect and click ‘My Appeals’ to view the status of your appeal at any time.
    
6. Appeal Hearing: You will be the contacted by the Education Authority when your appeal has been scheduled and will be given five working days written notice of the date, time and arrangements of the hearing.

NB:  Some post primary schools have provided a short explanation on the point of oversubscription this year which can be viewed by clicking on ‘View School Criteria’ on the ‘More Information’ screen on EA Connect or via Search Admissions Criteria.

A paper Appeal Form is also available on request from the EA Admission Offices – contact details below.  Please include your child’s name, date of birth and the name of the school(s) you wish to appeal against in any correspondence.

Note: For post primary schools only

The Exceptional Circumstances Body (ECB) processes applications from parents/guardians for admissions to post-primary school where it is claimed that a child is deemed to have exceptional circumstances which require them to go to one school and one school only but an application made through the normal admissions process has failed. 

Things parents should consider

• the Exceptional Circumstances process is not part the normal schools admission process
• your son or daughter must go to a particular school only because of their exceptional circumstances rather than parental preference
• academic ability or type of education offered by a particular school are not circumstances that can be considered
• pupils with a statement of special educational needs cannot not be considered

There is no deadline for applying to the ECB.

About exceptional circumstances

When considering an application the ECB will focus on the following three tests that are considered under the 'exceptional circumstances' process:

• are the circumstances that are claimed exceptional
• are the circumstances that are claimed personal to the child
• do the circumstances that are claimed require the child’s admission to the named school, and only that school

A case for admission under the exceptional circumstances process will exist only when the applicant passes all three tests.

Circumstances that aren't exceptional

The ECB may not find the following circumstances exceptional:

• type of education provided at a school
• a child’s academic ability
• availability of transport to a school

Further information is available on NI Direct in relation to the Exceptional Circumstances Body including the application form to apply to the ECB.

If applicable, you can apply to the Exceptional Circumstances Body as well as submitting an Admission Appeal through the EA.