Is this admission fraud? AIBU to report it?

Which is kind of the point. They child may get in anyway and if he gets in that way it will at least have been as fair a process as it can be and the children who should have got in will get in. If he wouldn’t have got in then he has taken the place of the child that should according the rules have had that place.

I think it’s dependent on how much competition there is for school places and the extent that parents have tried to game the system before. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in ours. When I went to look for example last night I picked a few LAs that I know used to be really oversubscribed when the peak birth rate years were applying for reception.

Interestingly the first one I picked didn’t explain it clearly even though I know we had a very long thread from a parent who had tried this and been informed by the LA that their application had been considered fraudulent and they were going to use the previous address a month before allocations came out.

There is a good chance that, if you report it, the LA will disregard the address for the purposes of admissions. If they do so, they will - I think - act as if the original house is the address. In which case, this kid might get in anyway, as that address is close to the 'furthest distance admitted'

What his score is, whether or not the refugees are leaving in a year, which school is right for him - all that is noise.

I'd also be wary of acquiring the reputation of being that parent who mines youngsters at sleepovers for information they can then use to incriminate the child's parents in some wrongdoing in order to benefit their own family.

If they are from Ukraine they are not refugees with the same refugee status in the UK. The last government gave the temporary visas instead so that they couldn’t stay permanently and make the immigration figures look bad.

They THINK they are playing the game according to the rules. The OP does not think the same, and it certainly looks from the document I have linked that there is a reasonable chance it will be judged to be fraud.

Just report - the LA can then do their job and make the judgement.

Reading ‘address of convenience’ protocols is interesting:

https://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/media/ggxfyjcy/address-of-convenience-protocol.pdf

It is interesting to note that the evidence to show that a permanent residence is not being lived in (rental / uninhabitable) is NOT sufficient to show that an address of convenience is not being used - that remains a judgement on the balance of probability.

So always worth reporting and letting the LA make the judgement that it is their job to do.

It happens all the time, they played the game following the rules.

It IS fraud if that renting is short term for admissions purposes and they still own a nearby house outside the catchment.

Many LAs, for example, will use a permanent house address, if it is still owned, not a rented address. The onus is on the applicant to prove that it us a genuine move eg across the country for a job or because the original house is uninhabitable under renovation.

Obviously there is no issue with a family renting a house as their only home.

This makes my piss boil. This happened to my daughter being robbed of her grammar school place many years ago ! She was the only girl in her class that passed 11+ who didn’t get a place at local grammar school! Historically this had never happened before miso a real shock.
We ended up going to the ombudsman and one our case but not before the beginning of the school year. Turned out that 5 people had lied stretched the truth about their home circumstances! The damage it did to my daughter confidence and obviously the children who then lost their places were immeasurable.

Wanted to add - the school I have experience of is a leafy comp, with house prices and rents rising closer and closer to the school. The victims of admissions fraud were children who had been living in cheaper housing, including social housing, on the fringes of the catchment all their lives. The head and LA were absolutely adamant that such children were not going to miss out in favour of those who could afford temporary addresses of convenience close to the school - some properties near the school that were making a killing through annual renting to parents committing admissions fraud simply had their addresses blacklisted, for example.

It's not fraud if they are renting inside the catchment area. They can't have a blanket ban on renting and only allow admissions to home owners.

https://youtube.com/shorts/yJkk9YDJhYs?si=2WIuBtGsRNlMX85S

This Simpsons sketch covers the identification people's attitude.

Being an immigrant doesn’t automatically insulate you from prejudice.

Ime of a ‘desirable’ school with its fair share of admissions gaming, the school and LA do care, and will investigate carefully. If no wrongdoing is found, the child gets and keeps their place. If wrongdoing is found, the child isn’t given, or loses, their place.

It is potential fraud - so there is nothing whatever to lose by reporting it.

If it is fraud, the investigation will prove it.

If it is not, the investigation will prove that it is not.

The OP doesn’t not have to be judge and jury - just a witness.

The school won’t care. Mum’s rented the house and the bills are in her name. The children also stay there a few nights. In their eyes, she’s adhering to the rules 🤷‍♀️ You’re within the catchment area anyway so if it’s meant to be then your child will get in.

Agree. I kind of admire her dedication to the cause.

I can't actually see what she's done wrong.

I wouldn't report this based on the fact that its not actual fraud.

Hope your child gets into a good school OP. Its extremely stressful.

Nobody knows if the friend has committed fraud unless we know the specifics of the schools acceptance. Both mothers seem particularly unpleasant in their conduct to be honest. And frankly their kids might turn out to be no better people in life either... Hopefully they'll be lesser twunts. But who knows 😅

Apparently you can indeed not have everything in life OP, and if you'd bought a crappy house right next door to the much coveted school. Then your children would be likely to go there. Rather than the crappy comp down the road. However you'd have lost out on the nicer house...

To be fair you're bitching about a school that's half an hour travel away, which is a fair old distance in anyone's book. So did you genuinely think it'd remain within reach as apposed to the kids 5mins travel away?

My advice to OP would be to report it and forget about it. Get rid of the ‘what if’s, and move on with life.

OP has not committed fraud. Her friend has, if the information is correct. By reporting it appropriately, the veracity of the information can be tested to see if fraud really has been committed.

While there may seem some ‘moral equivalence’ between buying a house with catchment in mind, and setting up a short-term rental with a cover story specifically for the period of school admission, the fact remains that the ‘fraud’ line is drawn between the two.

@grammarmom says straight out the gate in her OP:

We live in a grammar school catchment area that gets smaller every year.

I think, knowing this, it was a seriously risky move buying a house in that area several years in advance.

The friend's actions, whether 'fraud' or not, make more sense to me and I wonder if, on some level, OP is kicking herself for not having done the same.

Not all schools include siblings in their oversubscriotion criteria.

It would appear that OP's desired school does, as she was bemoaning the potential impact of her ex friend's conduct on sibling priority and what it would mean for her younger children.

I understand the rationale in some cases (eg, rural schools) for sibling priority, but this sort of unearned privilege will still play out very unfair for some/many children.

I think it's Glasgow Academy (very prestigious private school) who says bluntly on their website, we don't care how many generations of Cavendish-Spencers your family has sent to this school - if little Maximilian doesn't pass the entrance exam, they ain't getting in!"

Yet OP thought she'd resolved it by spending £££ buying her original house in the catchment area, no? It then turned out she's wasted her money by not buying a crappy house that's not 30mins travel away... Her friend has got past this issue by renting a crappy house that's next to the school.