Education Appeals Panel

Education Appeals Panels have been set up to hear and determine appeals for the admission to, and exclusion from, community, voluntary controlled, voluntary aided and foundation primary and secondary schools within the area of Wolverhampton City Council.

They are independent tribunals, supervised by the Council on Tribunals, which must be independent of Governing Bodies and of Local Education Authorities. Panels rely on a voluntary membership and their decisions are final and binding on all parties to appeals.

Frequency of Meetings

Meetings are held as and when required and , as far as admission appeals are concerned, tend to be concentrated between March and September, although they may arise at any time of year.

Membership

Admissions Appeals Panels consist of 3 or 5 members and are appointed from the following categories:-

(i) People who have experience of education; who are familiar with educational conditions in the LEA's area; or who are parents of registered pupils at a school. At least one Panel Member must fall within this category.

(ii) People who are eligible to be lay members. This means people without personal experience in the management of any school or the provision of education in any school (disregarding experience as a school governor or in another voluntary capacity). There must be at least one lay member on each Panel.

Exclusion Appeals Panels consist of 3 or 5 members and are made up of three categories:-

(i) The Chair must be a lay member, defined as someone who has not worked in a school in any paid capacity.

(ii) One (or, on a five member Panel, two) must be, or have been, a Governor of a maintained school (but they must not be, or have been in the last five years, a teacher or headteacher).

(iii) One (or, on a five member Panel, two) must be, or have been within the last five years, a headteacher of a maintained school.

Every 3 years the Council publicly advertises for new members to serve on Panels and all new members receive appropriate training before hearing appeals.

Further Information

For further information on Education Appeals Panels please contact the Democratic Support Officer:-

Martin Fox

Phone: 01902 555047

Fax 01902 555044

E-mail martin.fox@wolverhampton.gov.uk

Admission Appeals Process

Any parent whose child is refused a school place in a maintained school for which they applied has a legal right to appeal to the Education Appeals Panel.

For foundation and voluntary aided schools in Wolverhampton, the responsibility for appeal arrangements rests with the school and parents wishing to appeal should contact them directly for details.

For community and voluntary controlled schools in Wolverhampton, the responsibility for appeals rests with the Local Authority. Parents wishing to appeal for a place at a community or voluntary controlled school can do so by completing an appeal form. This is sent to parents by the admitting authority if the authority has not been able to allocate a place at the requested school.

The completed appeal form for community or voluntary schools should be returned to

Martin Fox

Democratic Support

Performance and Development

Civic Centre

St. Peter's Square

Wolverhampton

WV1 1SH.

Exclusion Appeals Process

Parents have a right of appeal against decisions by Governing Bodies to permanently exclude a child from school.

Once a Headteacher has made a decision to permanently exclude a child, parents have the right to appeal against the Headteacher's decision and, for this purpose, a committee of the Governing Body must be established to deal with parental representations.

If the Governing Body supports the decision, then the LEA must be informed and, at the same time, the parents must be advised of their right to appeal to an independent Appeals Panel.

Appeals must be submitted to the Clerk to the Appeal Panel at the Local Authority no later than the 15th school day after receipt of this letter.

The Appeals Panel must then meet no later than the 15th school day after the day on which the appeal was lodged.

Further Information

For further information about the exclusion appeals process, please contact the Clerk to the Appeals Panel:-

FAO Martin Fox