School offers, revised applications and appeals
School offers
You will receive your school offer via email if you applied online. If you applied by paper form or telephone, we will write to you.
We will notify you of the outcome on the dates published on our school offer page.
If none of your preferred schools can offer a place and you live in Lincolnshire, we will offer the nearest school to your home address with an available place in your child's year group.
If we cannot offer your child a school and you do not live in Lincolnshire, your home local authority will be responsible for offering your child a place at an alternative school.
Reserve lists
If you are refused a place for intake admissions at a Lincolnshire school, your child is automatically put on the reserve list. This is unless you have been offered a higher preference. For example, if your second preference is offered, your child will be on the reserve list for your first preference school.
We will notify you if a place becomes available for your child from a school's reserve list. Schools must keep a reserve list until the end of the autumn term; some may keep it longer. You should contact the school for further details or look in their admissions policy.
Children who did not qualify for admission to a grammar school cannot be added to that school's reserve list unless deemed qualified at appeal.
Revised applications
If you wish to change your application, you can submit a revised application to amend your preferences. You can only make a revised application after receiving an offer of a school place. We must receive your revised application for:
- primary schools by 17 May 2024
- secondary schools by 25 March 2024
We will inform you of the outcome for:
- primary school's week commencing 27 May 2024
- secondary school's week commencing 3 April 2024
Revised applications received after this deadline will be processed at a later date.
You need to name any schools you wish to be considered for on the revised application. For the schools that could not offer a place, your child will not remain on the reserve list unless you list them again on your new revised application. If a place can be offered at a school named on your revised application, your previous offer will be withdrawn.
Withdrawal of an offer
Once we have made an offer, we can consider withdrawing the place in the following cases:
- where a fraudulent or intentionally misleading application has been made to obtain a place at an oversubscribed school
- where you do not respond to our offer or any of our follow-up letter
- where an error has been made
If an offer is withdrawn, we will notify you of your right of appeal.
Appeals
You have the right to appeal if a school you have named on your application has refused a place. Information on how to appeal a school place decision is available on our website and will be provided when you receive your offer of a school place. All admission authorities must post their appeals timetable on their website by 28 February each year.
An appeals panel is made up of three volunteers who are independent of the school and local authority. This panel will decide whether:
- the school’s admissions policy is lawful and has been correctly applied
- the school would be negatively affected by having an additional student in the year group
If they believe there would be a negative impact, they will then consider the effect on the school and your child. They will then decide which would have the greater impact.
The panel's decision is binding and can only be overturned in a court of law. If unsuccessful, you can only appeal again for the same school for the same academic year if there has been a significant change in relevant circumstances, for example, if you have moved address.
If you are appealing for a place in reception, year 1 or year 2 and the school is organized in classes of 30 with a single teacher, you should read the advice we send very carefully. There are very limited reasons why such an appeal can be successful, and we have a duty to inform you of this.