Appeals

Year 7 – September 2026

Year 7 places will be offered, via the local authorities, on 2 March 2026.

Timeline for appeals:

• Deadline for submitting an appeal form:  Monday 13 April 2026
• Appeals received by the deadline.  The requirement for appeals to be heard is 40 school days.  This means that appeals will be heard by 16 June 2026 wherever possible.
• Appeals received after the deadline.  The Trust will ensure that appeals are heard as soon as reasonably practicable and, where possible, before the start of the academic year.

If a large number of appeals are received, the appeals will be heard in two stages:

• A stage 1 hearing which all appellants will be invited to attend together; during this stage the Academy’s case for not being able to admit any more children will be discussed.  If the panel agree that the Academy has made its case, it will then move onto stage 2. 
• A stage 2 hearing which is your individual appointment when the panel consider your reasons for wanting a place at the Academy for your child and the Academy’s reasons for not offering your child a place.

At both stages, parents will be given at least 10 school days’ notice of the hearing date.

Before submitting an appeal form, please read the information in the Appeals FAQ document (available from the Downloads section below) as this explains the appeals procedures and provides information about the admissions process, waiting lists, frequently asked questions, and statistics.

Please be aware that there is no advantage to submitting the appeal form earlier than other parents because all appeals up to the deadline will be heard as part of the same round.  We advise you complete the appeal form as fully as possible and list all your reasons for wanting a place at the academy.

To submit an appeal; please see the ‘How to submit an appeal’ section below. 

In-Year

In-year appeals are for children transferring between schools mid-year.

Before you can make an appeal, you must first have applied to the academy for a place and been refused one.  Details of how to apply can be found on our Admissions page under the heading In-year admissions. Once you have received a letter advising you that a place cannot be offered, you can then proceed to make an appeal for the academy.

The academy can only proceed to the appeals stage if the year group is full.  Places are not ‘reserved’ for those whose appeals are upheld, so any upheld appeal will result in the year group being over the admission number.

How to submit an appeal

To submit an appeal, please click here.  This will take you to the Appeals portal, where you will need to create an account.  Once the account is created, and you have clicked on the link in the verification e-mail (check your junk or spam folder if you don’t receive the message in your in-box), you will then be able to add the appeal.

We advise you complete the appeal form as fully as possible and list all your reasons for wanting a place at the academy. Supporting documents can either be uploaded when you complete the form or later in the process.  Please note if you wish to appeal for more than one Dixons academy, you will need to complete a separate form for each academy.

If you are unable to access / complete the online form, please telephone the number given below.  Our lines are open between 8.30am and 10.30am and 2.30pm and 4.30pm.  If you call outside these hours, or the line is busy, please leave a voicemail and we will call you back. 

Contact details

Telephone:  01274 089780 – option 7

E-mail:  appeals@dixonsacademies.com