Moving into rented accommodation in the catchment area-when can I safely move back?

*that posh

To clarify when we moved I had a visit and several phone calls checking up on the address etc.

Quite drastic given we had moved from the midlands, apparently I'm that post no other schools would have done!

Personally I find the distance system quite unfair when the distances are very short say less than 1km.

Really there is no good reason for a child who lives 450m to get into a school more so than a 600m child. It's bollocks to say otherwise.

This is what is happening in the borough we are in.

I think a fairer system would be that children who live in one borough or say within a 1km radius (possibly what is considered a good walking distance) are included and there is a lottery on the places.

OP I feel sorry for you. You've just been honest enough to write down what many people do in secret or wish to do. Now you're being attacked for it.
I fortunately know nothing about complicated admissions into state schools for yr 7 but I do hope you sort it out.

With regard to appeals etc....my son is autistic and as such we dont have to go through this. His sxhool is 3 miles away but he will gwt a place. Likewise if I choose the extremely over subscribed school two miles away he would take some priority. ...providing the schools concerned can meet his needs.....or are considered the best place for him.

So yes sometimes there is real need for a child to attend a particular school.

On the application forms does is come out and specifically ask if you have another residence?

Do you know the basis of the appeal ? It may have been allowed on social/medical need, for example.

OP what explanation will you give your DC for moving house? Will you lie to them, or tell them the truth and expect them to maintain secrecy or lie to friends?

OP I think trying to justify your potential fraud by drawing a comparison with an 'unfair system' created by private schools is outrageous.

The parents sending their children to private school pay a heavy price for the privilege many of whom sacrifice nice cars and family holidays etc.

It's ironic that you're moaning about a system where the same schools stay shit and its the same ones everyone wants. Behaviour such as you're suggesting exacerbates the problem as if the schools represented a true mix they would probably all be good. (Excluding the parents who pay private of course).

I work for an LA . other parents whose child's place has been denied because of this will complain to the LA . We would investigate and if you have moved temporarily simply to obtain a place by fraud we would withdraw your child's place even if they have started at school and you would end up in whatever crap school still has places at that stage and well deserved IMHO .

Some near me did this (although I am not sure they lived in the rented accommodation just rented it for an address) and they were kicked out.

BTW lots of people near me walk 2 miles (or nearly) with their 4 year old, and with younger siblings in the buggy.

OP you need to: be in the new address when you apply, still be there on offer day, still be there when your child starts school, be paying council tax there, have rented out/sold your own house. Then you should be okay. However to do all this you need to be really really sure that this is the right school for your child, and be willing to put up with how awkward their social life will be for you, as their friends will all live in another community.

Whatever the individual schools admission arrangements may say, you also need to know what the LA's say. It has been known for LAs to employ private investigators to "stalk" suspected fruadulent applicants.

It sounds like a risky plan to me. I know people who have been in the fortunate situation to be rich enough to up sticks and buy on the doorstep of their chosen school and walk in. I can't think that's much worse than renting, its still playing the game.

It is a bloody minefield and in London the number of kids getting into first choice school is what, one in 3?

Of course they were puzzled by the question- if people commit fraud they don't tell people first and ask the advice of the person/institution they are defrauding!

It is fraud. I would hope that you have to stay there for the entire school career.

If all the parents who could do this put the same money and effort into improving their local school there would be no 'bad' schools.

It's fraud. You are teaching your child to get ahead by cheating.

IMHO if this is found out the child and any siblings should be removed even if they are half way through GCSEs.

There's a boy in my dds class who lives about eight miles from our primary. His initial application was turned down, his mum was furious and appealed and he got in. There's three other primary schools between our village and theirs. A little girl who lived about a mile down the road and literally just over the village border and therefore technically out of catchment, didn't get a place. Her mum appealed but was turned down. Now that is wrong. The boys mum should have been made to take him to a closer school. Takes the piss out of the whole catchment selection process and in this case really did mean a local child missed out on a place at her nearest school. (Her catchment school was actually further away than ours, down lots of narrow lanes).

Just so we are clear, the LA that I live in has a nice long list of houses / flats / apartments that are rented out and are in the catchment for "wanted" schools. In effect there is a great big red flag on that application as soon as it is inputted to the system, as it is known to be a residence rented out on a short term basis.
The LA will look with a jaundiced view point at any such application and if they have any belief that you are trying a fast one and have another property then you will lose that place in the school.

When we accepted dd2's place for September we had to send three utility bills inc council tax and a recent letter from Child Benefit bods.

Haven't read the whole thread, apologies, I usually do.

Most schools in London have cottoned on to this scummy practice, so I would live in your rented house for 2 years at least.