to consider reporting this family for having lied to the school?

[mnbvcx445566]

Two parents and one child. They live nowhere near the primary state school they applied for and got into. I think - am pretty sure - they used a different address to the one they live at.
School very sought after. Shall I report them?

I've looked carefully into myself and this is what I think:

1- I am not jealous. If I had the chance to do the same I would not. I would like my child to go to a great state school so they are lucky for that but I would not play the way they did.

2- If I report them the child will have problems at school (? don't quite know what happens in those cases). The parents might have a breakdown or something having to face the backlash. Obviously they have brains and made their choice and would only pay the consequences of their actions but - I - would have precipitated the situation by reporting them. Maybe the system is so fucked anyway that what they did is not that big of a deal. Surely the school should have done 1000 checks before awarding places so there might be something I do not know. What I do know is that they live miles from that school, which has a very very small catchment area.

3- I should report them because if my child did not get into that school 'legally' I would despise people who took advantage of a loophole and took 'my child's place'.

WWYD?

I am a long-time poster/user but I have opened a different account as I do not want to be recognised. (If I do not want to face them and tell them that they are committing an illegal/immoral action does it mean that I am in the wrong thinking of calling the school anonymously?)

She has no evidence they are cheaters, why are people so quick to jump to the worst possible conclusion and then attack people in the off chance?

If the school give the child the place i doubt they would then take it off the child as their second, third etc choices wont have considered them as a place was offered at first choice.
They're the ones who will have to get up get child ready and to school on time, if they're willing to do that then i don't see the issue.
Catchment areas, faith etc should all be done away with, just applywhere you like, and draw at random til places are full.

I wonder if those in the MYOB camp are actually mumsnetters wanting to protect their middle class capital and have the ways to game the system protected. I have witnessed the fall out when a faith school decided it was fed up of their churches pews being used to that end and make their admissions inclusive and during the stand off between the schools adjudidicator and the Catholic Education Service who wanted priests to be the sole deciders of who was holy enough rather than the fair and transparent system required by law........

She's not attacking anyone ffs. Everything the La needs will be on file. The only time they will even contact the parent for proof is if something didn't add up in the first place.

AlmostaJillSandwich they certainly do remove places. My Dd gained a place after 4 months when fraud came to light.

Spite? For thinking that someone who is prepared to kick kids on the side to make space for hers should be made to understand at some point that it shouldn't be like that?

What exactly did you did you find online? If this year's stuff isn't published maybe last year's was you can get an idea of the previous distances that way

Op, just go and do it, ok, stop fucking around with all the morality and teaching her a lesson, making her understand crap. I strongly doubt it will bring you the satisfaction you think it will.

Almost Fab idea, really fab. So you lose out in the lottery of all primary schools within ten miles, not all parents have the luxury of time and a 4 by 4 you know. Distance is the fairest solution because it optimises the chance of the majority of 5 year olds being able to get to school easily. Even in this borough of oversubscribed schools if you did away with the faith selection criteria for 40% of school places every 5 year old could get a school place in walking distance. As a direct result of those criteria parents are faced with eight bus journeys (change of bus each way) a day with buggys and young children to access a school place. Just as well that the loophole that has parents moving temporarily to gain places in the inclusive school has been closed and is very actively policed. No parent in this area would hesitate in reporting a suspected instance because the scale of the angst and stress around schools admissions is bad enough already.

Yes I found last year's and it was 10 mins walk from the school, at most.
This year I only found the entrance requirements that were published early in the year.

What about years before that?

Has it ever gone above a 10 min walk?

Honestly if the usual distabces are that shirt and you have reasonable grounds to think that the rest of the criteria don't apply then report.

If there are any circumstances you aren't aware of they will he on file.

It's possible of course, as is them.having moved after accepting the place and I think that's ok in certain guidelines.

But it is also possible fraud and only the LA will be able to find out

We live in an area with one brilliant junior school and another great grammar. People do this all the time. Rent in the area. Keep using addresses after they move out. It feels like a way of doing things nowadays, sadly.

No the catchment area has 'always' been this small.

So

We have: not adopted
: no siblings
: very small catchment area and im.assuming many in catchment don't get in?

And you are certain they live 3 miles away?

I'm not an expert but either there are SN you aren't aware of, they moved after place had been allocated or shes lying basically.

Medical info will be on file.
They will also be able to prove the moving time scale

There's basically what a 1 in three can be she is lying?

I would uod be suspicious too op

I'm a bit confused how you hardly talk to them OP but know for definite there's no SNs. Like I said. Only 3 people knew DS had SNs at his previous school, and ir was a huge one with lots of gossipy types. Like the ones who used to slag X's Mum off every morning for using a taxi to get her DCs across town so she could still go to this school. She was a foster carer. She couldn't place them in the town she lived in because the idiot council had housed the druggie parents who didnt have access in the same borough.

Report them. And don't lose any sleep over it.
If their application is legit then they will be fine and no harm is done. If it's not, the place will go the child who should have had it in the first place.

Exactly what Balloon said. She beat me to it

Okay OP. As long as you're prepared if nothing is done too given you'll probably find out through the grapevine shes been reported.

For context. DD was badly bullied for three years. We couldn't get her moved. Not even into the school her brother with SNs was in. The sibling rule doesn't always apply now. We finally won on appeal after much heartache later. About a year later. A mum was bragging in the playground that she had refused point blank to put her DC in any of the 'shit local schools' (their words not mine). They did in effect, take DDs place from her (she was always top of the list - I know because I'd ring admissions up every week begging for an update). Even so, it was all done perfectly legitimately. Had I known this before and reported her, her child wouldn't have lost the place. She had not cheated. She'd just taken advantage of the system.

it comes down to are you the sort of person who sees the worst in people and will get all up

Now that's a real sermon there. The parents won't even know they are being checked. I suspect some posters have played with rules in their time and trying to ease off the guilt.

If it was my kid, yes of course I would report, we all do the best for our own kids, but I certainly would not involve myself in someone else's business when it had no impact on me and I had no understanding at all if the kid was even there wrongfully. I couldn't stand there and watch a child lose their place as a direct consequence of me reporting.

Can you seriously not see the contradiction in your own two sentences. This is 'I'm alright Jack' and double standards on a whole new level. You can stand to see someone else's child lose their place if it benefits you, but not if it benefits someone else. Selfish ain't the word

I suspect some posters have played with rules in their time and trying to ease off the guilt.

Precisely!