Is this admission fraud? AIBU to report it?

I should imagine she thought the same.

True!

I haven't read all the replies but I get the impression I'm going to be a minority view - I would report it because you're clearly angry and I think you'll be doubly angry if you feel like you didn't do everything to give your dc a chance. Sure maybe it won't change anything but at least you won't be kicking yourself.

If the story is true, and you are not missing any important details, she has done everything in her power to improve her dc's chances. I don't see an issue with you doing the same.

Worth a try, though, since various posters on this thread have told OP the other mum has played the game better. So maybe the game’s not over?

Do you realise how vile you sound ?

I think that if they move in (ie as a family, with all their stuff) before the cut off date and live there for a good length of time (no idea what that would be) then they would be fine. If they claim to have moved in before the cut-off date, but have not actually moved in then, or they don't actually move in at all, or they only half live there briefly, then it would be fraud.

I would be seriously tempted to grass them up if I were you. Not least as we live 10 mins walk from a great school, with other nearby schools a horrid busy drive away and much worse, or a horrid busy drive away and about the same and impossible to get into... and we were worried that we might not get in based on how close we were to the boundary.

Sorry, but everybody does it with the schools, no matter the ethnicity.

It's really annoying but legally I don't see what she's done wrong. Life is full of annoying people doing annoying things.

I can only see bucks, London and tiffin. All who prioritise high scores then everyone else based on distance, like every other grammar school?

She hasn't done anything wrong though. She was able to rent a house to be closer and give her child a better chance so she did.

Morally its wrong but so is buying or moving house to get in. So are many things parents do like this.

But so what - they are finding and can afford loopholes to do this.

Sorry this may push your child out OP but its the game and shes just playing it

@NewCushions we ruled it out. DS was exceeding etc but it still would have involved lots of tuition & even if he did manage to get a place he would be in the “average” cohort. Luckily we are catholic so had lots of other options.

Is it unfair? Yes
Is it immoral? Yes
Is it going to be hard to prove? Yes
Is anyone going to bother unravel it? Probably not
What are you likely to achieve? Nothing

As others have said, if it is a popular grammar then the admission policies may cover this scenario eg if you have a property you own within a certain distance and you rent closer they will take your original address.

I would report and let the admission authority decide.

You can rent your main residence out and move house, that's perfectly legal. We did it.
But we moved permanently to the new area with no plans to go back to the old house.
If they have rented another property but are not actually living there then yes, this could be fraud.

It was a steep learning curve for us 😂 there were children that had been in tutoring for 2 years, summer holiday school programmes etc and an awful lot of pressure from some parents.
When I collected mine after the exam he came out and said it had been hard but he thought he did ok. Some of the children came out sobbing which I think showed the amount of pressure they had been under. We got the info to say that ours had passed the exam and we could apply for a place but until March /April when everyone finds out what high school they have we don’t find out if he’s actually got a place.
Part of me is hoping he doesn’t, because I love the local comp that our other child attends, really nurturing and they are excelling but I’ve always let mine look around all the schools and put their choices down and this one was determined to take the 11 plus 🙈

Whether it’s fraud depends on how the school’s or admission authority’s oversubscription criteria are worded. Many - but not all - require evidence that, if you are living in a rented property, you have sold any other property you own. If not, they use the owned property as the address for admissions purposes.

It’s far from certain that the set-up OP describes would satisfy the admissions authority.

I think you are ONLY bothered because your nipper may not get a place? No?

Bexley Grammar schools work like the OP says. The top 180 chose their school, otherwise its siblings then distance for those who have passed the exam.

The school my DCs go to would investigate and probably (almost certainly) not offer a place to those children, unless they fell within the admission criteria otherwise. But they also require you to have been at that address and have documents to prove it for a period before the cut off date - including in the childrens' names so they wouldn't get in. I would report and see what the school do.

Haven’t read the full thread. However I know of a family that did this (but moving town to be really close to a school). In fact they actually bought a house near the school, but did not sell their house 10 miles away. They fully moved in to the new house and drove back daily for primary school.

the grammar school investigated (as far as I know no one reported them so I think it was standard to investigate) and withdrew her entire application. They could see this was clearly an address of convenience, the fact the original house was sitting empty was irrelevant, they owned a house in the general area and had conveniently moved close to school weeks before the deadline. They knew they'd be moving back on 5th September of year 7! She had to reapply as a late applicant in January/February and did not get a grammar school place.

(Before anyone questions how I know the detail, I was the child’s teacher and saw the email chain between the parents and school because the parents asked our advice on what to do.)

I would report it to the admissions authority, and then forget about it. Just be very careful how you word the email, as the parents might do a SARS request, and whilst your name will be redacted, the circumstances around how you found out the information will not.

Some councils have very specific criteria for how address changes and rental properties are dealt with, and will rescind the offer if not satisfied. I know primary schools are often asked for information too, when there are recent address changes.

My own child spent hours helping this kid with the more challenging non-verbal reasoning topics.

Sure😂 he did

Your child who scraped a pass?

So it's fair for you to have enough money to buy within the catchment, when others don't, but it's not fair for someone else to have enough spare money to move even closer?

Oh dear OP, you've been out manoeuvred 😆

So it's ok for you to buy a house in the catchment area to give your kid an advantage, but not for other people to rent a house in the catchment area to give their kid an advantage?

You know you're a hypocrite, right?