About Us

During his time in local government, Matt trained over 50 admission appeal panel members (the people that sit on the hearings and decide appeals) and managed over a dozen clerks servicing 100 schools, it is fair to say that his experience in this area would be difficult to match.

On leaving local government, some twenty years ago, Matt is now a skilled and trained legal advocate, equally at home in any tribunal situation, Matt has represented over 500 parents who have been successful in securing the school place that they wanted.

Matt also has considerable experience of being a Chair of Independent Appeal Panels for a large London borough and this has enabled him to have an unparalleled insight into all aspects of the admission appeal system.

Matt has appeared regularly as a guest on BBC Breakfast News, BBC News 24, Radio 5 Live, LBC Radio Breakfast News and Nick Ferrari programmes to talk about school admission appeals. He has also been acting as the legal consultant to the BBC who have been working on a documentary relating to securing school places.

Matt no longer works for the above-mentioned borough and is now available to share his expertise and experience with parents to attempt to help them successfully appeal for a place at the school of their choice.

Matt mainly covers appeals in the South of the country and specialises particularly in cases of bullying and Special Educational Need.

Matt is also the legal advisor to the anti-bullying charity, Kidscape.

So successful has School Appeals Services been, that to meet the demand of parents who want assistance, Matt has two highly qualified Associates working with him (see below). This now means that School Appeals Services has national coverage the length and breadth of England and Wales.

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He has detailed knowledge of the framework which Appeals take place within and has trained both Panellists and Clerks. His personal experience of hundreds of appeals is supplemented by having also overseen thousands of others in a managerial role. He has 20 years’ experience in local government and 9 as a private Consultant. Jeremy has consistently brought these dual experiences to bear, with proven success and an outstanding winning record at appeals hearings.

Jeremy is our lead Associate for the Central and Northern area of England (and when we are snowed-under occasionally helps out further South). He is equally familiar with the whole range of Appeals – Community, Grammar, Voluntary-Aided, Faith, Academies and Primary.

Having gone through the process of an Appeal on a personal level as a parent recently, he is more aware and sympathetic than ever of the stress that parents go through at this critical time in their children’s upbringing. By means of a well-established and thoroughly professional service he will help ease you through the process to facilitate the school of your choice.

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In the past 12 months he has been able to help 40+ families get their preferred school including a number of families appealing for places in infant classes.

David is also a parent and has two children who have been through the state education system, so he understands exactly what parents go through in terms of securing he right school. David has superb customer service skills, and you will be able to rely on David to get back to you when he says he will!

David is based in Suffolk and covers both the midlands and most of the Southeast / East of England.

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We are particularly proud of Nabil’s achievements over the years, including winning two appeals for St Clement Danes, arguably the most popular selective state school in Hertfordshire. He has also presented evidence in an appeal for a popular Surrey school, which persuaded the Governing Body to concede and grant a place BEFORE the hearing (very rare!)

In 2013 he was able to win a grammar school appeal where the child failed her 11 Plus by a very significant margin of 17 points.

Nabil is particularly keen to empower parents by helping them to understand what is usually a bewildering process of getting the right level of support for their children, including the appropriate school.

As well as working in private practice, Nabil has supported parents in their appeals to the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability) or ‘SEND Tribunal’ as a Legal Advisor for two leading children’s disability charities. These roles involved supporting parents of children with a wide variety of difficulties ranging from hearing and visual impairments to those on the autism spectrum. This experience extends to disability discrimination claims before the SEND Tribunal.

Lastly, Nabil has been a Contributor to the leading journal on education law in the UK (Education Law Journal.) This publication is read by judges and lawyers across the world, and cited by the courts. He regularly writes on school admission appeal matters.

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