To be annoyed a friend lied about their address on a school application to get into an oversubscribed school

That's a very good point. And I don't know:. Our area doesn't have that stipulation.

No, the landlord can rent for however long. They like but the renters need a min 12 month agreement.

What if they don't? How do they access education? Does the LA have no responsibility to place a child if you have to take a shorter term?

No, the landlord can rent for however long. They like but the renters need a min 12 month agreement.

Incidentally, we live close to a top state secondary and top state primary and many landlords near by will only offer 24 month contracts on rental properties as they don't want to constantly have tenants changing every 6-12 months.

On the topic of this, we own a home. We need a bigger one but the way the market is where we live I don't see how we will be able to move within the next few years. We don't want to come off the housing ladder as I don't think we would get back on so we wanted to explore renting a bigger place but keeping our current home for now. Only it seems this could be considered fraudulent by our local admissions authority so it has put us off doing it purely for that reason. I don't know what we'll do it in the end but it is a worry.

Do you mean all landlords need to offer 12 months in those areas?

Your appeal needs to be based on the fact that XYZ got into this school and they live 4.7miles away, but you only live 1.1 miles away, so they have not followed their own admission criteria when allocating places. You don't need to say anything about the fact they're lied, the school will work that out themselves. (If the grandma's street is further from the school than you this argument is would even work with her address, and would avoid dobbing her in at all).
Also check that they've got the shortest walking distance correct and haven't missed any public footpath shortcuts.

My parents used this argument for an appeal for my school place back in the day, as they knew a friend who's daughter had gotten accepted, but they lived slightly further away than we did (but in the opposite direction). LA had missed the shortcut public footpath by our house which knocked about 200m off the walking route, and meant we lived closer than she did, so we should have been accepted over her. Both of us ended up with places at the school, as her offer had been given in good faith (no lying - which I get is different to your example here), but I was rightfully entitled to it.

Some LA's insist on a 12 month rental agreement

There isn't a simple answer in any of these situations. The question is whether the LA reasonably believes that the application was fraudulent or deliberately misleading.

What about six month leases, or living with family whilst trying to secure a private rental? It's difficult, getting a guarantor, having to save up to pay rent upfront. Landlord selling after six months. All not uncommon things.

A short-term rent to get a school place may also be regarded as fraud. However, a renter moving from one long-term rent to another is not fraud (although I have come across LAs trying to argue that it is).

Is it only fraud if a family owns a house? Renters may easily move house in that time.

Well, for the first time ever, our local council have told schools that if the new family presents with a different address to what was given in the admissions process we need to pass the information on to them, and they will investigate it. 😳

If they get in fairly, that is up to them.

If they commit fraud and then cry about how unfair it is that they’ve had to commit fraud to get their child in ahead of council estate kids, instead of just being ushered to the front of the queue (despite living out of catchment) for being posh and therefore more deserving of a place, I don’t have any sympathy with their whining I’m afraid.

It is the fraud I have the issue with!

Yes and VAT will increase the number of parents using funds to get top state

I’m not experiencing competition for state myself, no. My son’s in primary, lots of spaces in his year, and is five years off secondary applications.

I said I wasn’t sympathetic to people gaming the system and then whinging about it, and I don’t agree with the argument that it’s a victimless crime because they are only displacing richer people - certainly locally it is people in social housing who are being displaced, not rich people.

https://mediataylor.com/labours-vat-policy-for-private-schools-will-hit-every-homeowner-and-bankrupt-local-councils/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1CRmKvvW1LjAjs65utCwq6f6KXv6W4Y31qxsQabaXicqm-kH6oyAflJIY_aem_AdylAsTx9rKJomp8SXWDyAqbQIR6SUYyuPOH0JB-GZ-2XSzLISuW7EUFK1JvcAhYoWb5weQbQoNTN0UeUwKpjnri

What does how It looks matter, looking good or not it doesn’t shift the problem in the direction you’d like

,You’ve said you are experiencing high levels of competition for state. It will increase with VAT in place.

I live in Dulwich, I’m very used to it! As I said, my issue is the “boo-hoo poor me, I’ve been forced to have two houses I’m the squeezed middle” routine.

And since you mention it, “boo-hoo, I could afford 2x £30k per year for twelve years to send both my sons to Dulwich College, but 2x £36k per year is unaffordable and I’ll have to slum it with poor people at Kingsdale” is also not a great look.

Yep.

There will be more and more families like that, with the proposed changes for the private schools.

Better get used to it.

Same - the people in our area who lie to get in are well-off middle class people who can afford to both own their own house and also spent £3k a month in rent on a nice family house immediately opposite the school. After all, £3k x12 is a single year’s school fees if you send your child to the local indies, so overall it’s a good investment. Going to a bad comprehensive was never on the cards for these families.

The people they displace are the kids in the council estate 500 metres away. Of course the middle class people wouldn’t dream of renting there.

I have absolutely zero sympathy for people boo-hooing that they are forced to run two houses to game the system.

“Do what you can for your child” so what about the non-affluent family who scrimp and save, take on extra evening jobs etc to buy the crappiest house in the catchment area as it’s all they can afford but they’re desperate to do the best for their child. Then that child doesn’t get a place because someone who lives out of catchment lies about their address and gets the place instead. Sounds incredibly unfair to me!

Funding is not limited for schools in poor areas. Indeed, since deprivation and low prior attainment are factors attracting additional funding, they may be better funded than schools in more affluent areas.

If by "do what you can for your child" you mean that you should try to cheat the system, I disagree. It is likely you will be discovered. If you are, you had better hope it is before offers are made. If it happens then, you will get an offer based on your actual address. If it is after offers, the place you have been offered can be removed even if your child has started at the school. You will get a place at the nearest school with places available, which is likely to be an unpopular school some distance from home. Your child may well be in a much worse situation than if you had been honest.

When are we going to realise that LONG term this is not helpful.
Sending children who live in an affluent area to affluent schools isn't helping in the long term.
It just sets those families who don't earn as much and can't afford those areas, up to fail even more. And the children of those families, the gap gets bigger and bigger and the opportunities given are less.

OFSTED outstanding ratings actually increase house prices in those areas and is one of the reasons that Ruth Parry took her life.
Yet here we are again, as parents, using our fortune to look down on those who do all they can to get their child in a good school.
So this is where I can't get past it.

Should all children who live in poorer areas, have to attend schools where funding is limited and opportunities are limited. Because this is exactly what it all smacks of.
Postcode lottery right.

And the judgement! All because some can afford to move to the areas where there are good schools.
Absolutely ridiculous.

Happy to be flamed.
Do what you can for your child.
Even if you can afford the most priveledged of areas to live,

One of my colleagues did this and boasted to us all about how far she’d go to give her kid the best start, unlike other mums who don’t care as much as she does blah blah.

I reported her but nothing was done. I hope karma catches up with her eventually.