When a parent is informed of the decision to refuse their child a place at a school for which they have applied, they have the right to lodge an appeal. This is the case for admissions after national offers day (1st March) and for In-year admissions applications.
Parents wishing to lodge an appeal must set out the grounds for their appeal in writing using the school appeal form. Appeals must be submitted to the school within the following timeframes:
Appeals lodged after the deadlines will be heard at a later convening of the appeals panel.
Once appeals have been lodged the Appeals’ Administrator will provide appellants with a time and date for their appeal at least 10 days before the appeal is to be heard. Appeals will be heard within 30 days of the appeal being lodged, unless dependant on exam results, in which case the appeal will be within 30 days of confirmation of exam results.
Appeals for the normal admissions round, after national offer day, will be heard across a number of dates in May and June
Parents will have time between submitting the appeal form and their appeal date to compile evidence. The Appeals Administrator will provide clear guidance on the requirements for collecting evidence for an appeal, the procedures followed during the appeal and the names and roles of the panel members. The School cannot guarantee that evidence presented will be returned, so it is advisable to submit copies of children’s work and achievements. All evidence should be sent to the school no later than 5 working days prior to the appeal date.
The appeals panel will decide whether to direct the school to offer your son a place and will write to you following the final appeal date to inform you of their decision. Please read the FAQs Appeals document to find out more.
Before commiting to an appeal for a place at Gravesend Grammar School, please read the Allocation of places and case for the school document, which is linked at the bottom of this page.
For this admission round (September 2025) Gravesend Grammar School received 246 first preferences from parents seeking a place at the school and 679 total preferences, where the school is named anywhere on a child’s common application form. This means that the school is heavily oversubscribed. When considering whether to lodge an appeal against the refusal to offer a place or not, please consider the information in this document carefully
Should you decide to seek an appeal, evidence to support your case is important especially if you are trying to overturn the results of the 11+ and/or convince the Panel that your son should be given a place. With your appeal form, therefore, it would be helpful, and advised, to include, if possible, some or all of the following:
· Headteacher/Class Teacher letter of support,
· recent assessments,
· a copy of the Year 5 annual report,
· details of any mitigating circumstances, which might explain underperformance in the Kent test (11+)
· tracking sheet, (optional but advised) which shows your child’s progress over time.
Work samples are not required as the Panel will not be in a position to assess their validity or context. In addition, it is not necessary to provide numerous certificates of achievement.
Below are the details of appeals heard during the normal admission round 2024. This information only includes appeals for entry at the start of year 7 for September 2024. The additional places directed by the appeals panel reflect the school oversubscription criteria, which prioritises eligible students living local to the school. The direction of places over PAN follows a similar pattern to that in previous years.
|
Number of appeals heard |
108 |
|
|
Number of additional places directed by the appeals panel |
7 |
|
|
Of the places directed, the priority area the child's home address is situated in (see admission arrangements for priority area map and further detail) |
Priority 1: Gravesham |
0 |
|
Priority 2: Civil parishes (Ash-cum-Ridley, Bean, Fawkham, Hartley, Longfield and New Barn, Southfleet, Swanscombe and Greenhithe and Stansted.) |
7 |
|
|
Priority 3: Wider civil parishes (Stone, Darenth, Horton Kirby and South Darenth, Cliffe and Cliffe Woods.) |
0 |
|
|
Priority 4: All other students |
0 |
|
| Key Dates | |
|---|---|
| 3rd March 2025 | National Offer day - Kent as the local authority sends Secondary school offers to parents. |
| 28th March 2025 | Deadline for appeals to be made to Gravesend Grammar School. |
| 24th April 2025 | KCC Reallocation. Places rejected on national offer day are reallocated by KCC from the school waiting list. Gravesend Grammar School maintains the waiting list after this point. |
| 1st - 21st May 2025 | Appeals take place - These will take place at the Appleyard in Sittingbourne. |
Allocation of places and the case for the school - please read before continuing to an appeal