Education

Parental preference - admission refused - failure of appeal - child bringing judicial review proceedings - powers of appeal committee

R v Richmond upon Thames London Borough Council and another, ex parte JC: CA (Kennedy, Ward and Mantell LJJ): 31 July 2000

C's parents expressed a preference for special reasons for him to attend a particular infants school which was oversubscribed.

He was refused a place.

The parents' appeal against that decision failed.

C's application for judicial review of those decisions was refused.

C appealed.

Philip Engelman and Adam Solomon (instructed by Teacher Stern Selby) for JC.

Jonathan Swift (instructed by the Head of Legal Services, Richmond upon Thames London Borough Council) for the local education authority.

Held, dismissing the appeal, that a parent's right to appeal against the refusal of his preferred school to admit his child had been curtailed by para 11A of sched 33 to the Education Act 1996 as amended, because of the restriction of class sizes in infant schools to 30 from 2001/2002 by the School Standards and Framework Act 1998; that local education authorities could take into account class sizes when admitting children for 1999/2000, and where a place was refused on that basis, an appeal committee's powers were restricted; that the burden of proof was on the parent to satisfy both the admissions and appeal committees that the child should be admitted to that school; that para 11A(1)(b) was a slip clause empowering the appeal committee to put right any error made by the admissions authority, whereas para 11A(1)(b) accepted that original decision and applied to it a rationality test; that the appeal committee could have regard to any information currently available, but the original decision would stand unless it was rendered irrational; and that, on the facts, the appeal failed.

(WLR)