School admissions and appeals poll — March 2022

Strong parental support for holding school admission appeals remotely.

Our poll on school admissions and appeals found that parents are overwhelmingly satisfied with the choice of schools available to them, with 37% being very happy and 39% fairly happy. This compares to just 6% stating they are very unhappy.

Similarly, the majority of parents are also happy with the school application process and most also stated that their child was offered a place at their preferred school (84%).

Key findings 

The poll discovered parents consider a variety of factors when applying for schools for their children. However, distance to travel narrowly proved to be the most important factor when choosing a school (50%). The reputation of the school was also deemed important by parents (48%).

The Department for Education has recently consulted on arrangements for admissions appeals. Previously, three panel members had to be present at appeal hearings, and appeals could not take place if the third panel member had to withdraw before or part-way through the appeal; this often lead to delays. In response to this, most parents agreed (66%) that appeal hearings should be able to take place with two people in the event that the third panel member cannot be present. 

Our research shows that the majority of parents welcome having the option for appeals to be held remotely. While 76% of respondents said that they’d prefer to use video conferencing software for appeal hearings, 45% thought that there should be a combination of in-person and remote aspects to proceedings. In contrast, just 6% of parents oppose appeals being carried out remotely. These results highlight broad parental support for the DfE’s proposed changes to the appeal process.

Our methodology 

Parentkind’s poll on school admissions and appeals was promoted on social media. It opened on 16th March and closed on 29th March 2022. 62 parents answered. 41 had children in primate school and 21 at secondary school.