To ask if you've ever been guilty of 'grannymandering'

[patchworkquilt1]

.... to get your kids into a certain school.
To accommodate your child minder / grandparents?
How did it pan out as your kids got older?
Did you get caught out?
If so what happened?

I used to work in education management and if we suspected someone was doing this we would investigate. If we found it was true your child would lose the place at the very least.

It used to happen quite a lot (this was in the late 1990s/early 2000)

It's fraud and it's wrong. What an example to set your children.

can you rent your home out and move in with your mum for awhile, then be able to clear your arrears, get some savings then move back and retain your school place?

How many children do you have? Because if you have more than one check the sibling link criteria very closely as, if siblings in catchment are given priority over siblings out of catchment, you may get the first one in due to low numbers that year but then not a second.

Do NOT sell your house. You are on the housing ladder, do NOT jump off it.

I think you should rent your house out for a year, move in with your Mum and agree to reassess at the end of the year. No hard feelings if one of you feels you don’t want to do another year

If you're in mortgage arrears you're going to lose your home eventually anyway. Either move out and well or move in with mum,get kids into that school and rent your home out. You've got to take this situation by the horns and face it. See citizens advice if you need help.

Can you rent your house out and live with your mum for a year or so and once established at the school you could move home again. Might allow you to save a bit too.

I really struggle to get the state school admissions process and why it’s so rigid. Is it like this because it helps to maintain class divisions? Or are people really lazy and feel entitled to a place at their nearest school or something?

Any chance your mum could move? Maybe she could come live in your house?

Based on what you've all said I don't think I could take the stress of not doing it above board.
I really don't want to sell my home.
My marriage broke down and I hung onto everything I could for the sake of the kids.
I'm not sure how feasible renting it out is... it needs sprucing up and I just don't have the cash.
Maybe down the road...
To the pp who asked about our current arrangement, I drive the DC to her before going on to work. My work isn't far from her house

How far is the school you’re after? What was their actual catchment area in the last couple of years? Actual as in how far from the school was the furthest living child? For example our schools official catchment area is let’s say 500 meters but realistically children living 300 meters within the school radius got in.

You don’t know if it will be a problem. Check schools near your mum. If not oversubscribed you will most likely get it. Look at the options close to your mum in case your first choice is not an option.

Don’t lie.

My son had a classmate who lives a few miles away but the school is near her dads work. They use a local to school childminder and it works. They are well out of catchment.

Where you are those distances might be longer, we’re in London.

As a pp said, all your DC’s friends will be 15 miles away. All parties and play dates will be 15 miles away. Your life can easily revolve around school, assemblies, nativities, after school clubs, fayres, picnics, parents evening, sports days, all 15 miles away. Do you local schools not do any wrap around care?

Also what if your Mum decides to move or falls ill or goes on holiday?

Or are people really lazy and feel entitled to a place at their nearest school or something?

How on Earth is that lazy?

Your DC can always go in the waiting list.

I work in eyfs, we already have someone on our 'radar' who is definitely going to attempt it (our nursery dc have to apply for full time place and we have a child who lives 5 miles out of catchment but who's granny lives across the road )

What do I think of it? I think it's a despicable thing to do. Year after year children don't get a place at our school (massively over subscribed with a teeny catchment) who live locally but not as local as someone's Gran/Auntie etc
Why is your child more important than anyone else's? Of course you have a choice, you will have a local school and that's where your dc should attend.

And yes, you possibly will be caught and rightly so, the consequences will be dire for you and your child

I really dont think you have much choice but to move.

From a purely practical pov, it would make everything so much simpler.

Chuck everything you can at your arrears (how much are we talking?), move into your mums and sell the house. Any equity you get, put into savings for a deposit when you are able to buy again. Your kids can legitimately apply for the school as you will be living at your mums, you will have a much shorter commute and your outgoings will be much less as you will be sharing the bills etc with your mum rather than paying them all yourself. She will be better off too with you sharing her costs.

I cannot see a single reason why you wouldnt sell up apart from pride. And pride dont pay the bills

My DH did briefly wonder if it was possible to do something like that (as we're officially not in the catchment for any secondary schools at all), but I told him they do check these days. He even, albeit briefly, suggested we let out our place and move somewhere when applying for schools but I said a) I couldn't be arsed to live somewhere smaller, as we'd have to, on the chance of getting in somewhere and going to all the faff b) you'd probably have to do it for at least two years before to be convincing and c) I gather they do also sometimes check you're not letting your former address out as well.

I really struggle to get the state school admissions process and why it’s so rigid. Is it like this because it helps to maintain class divisions? Or are people really lazy and feel entitled to a place at their nearest school or something?

Any chance your mum could move? Maybe she could come live in your house?

You may have already thought of this, but is there anything you could do to bring in an extra few quid? One evening shift stacking shelves somewhere per week while your mum looks after the DC may be enough to cover the cost of wraparound care for the week, depending on your area? Or is there anything you could do in your current job which could advance your career and get a pay rise? At least it sounds like your mum could do holiday childcare, leaving you only with termtime wraparound care to worry about.

I work in education so I'm sure of what I said.
You can apply for a place at the school openly from your address explaining why you want your child to go there.
If the school is undersubscribed you are likely to get a place, if it's popular then not.

My friend did this.

Her kid was removed from the school after the first half term when they found out, and ended up in a much worse school than he would have gone to had she been honest

Have you looked into whether schools near your mum’s are usually oversubscribed?

If a school is undersubscribed and has spare spaces then they will take a child living 15 miles away who wants a space there. (Although you should also check where your younger DC would come in the oversubscription criteria)

I know my council has a stated policy of checking the details on the school applications against council tax, electoral roll and other council records to confirm the child lives at the address given, and they say they’ll withdraw a child’s school place if it’s been obtained fraudulently.

Hi OP, as PP have said, you can apply from your address, stating that school as your preferred choice.

They are likely to allocate you another school. The initial allocation is done by check list according to the criteria set out by the school, which is on their web site.

But at that point you appeal, and here you can provide all the evidence about your mum's address, your place of work and how you will struglle to manage if you do not get the school of your choice. Appeals are looked at on a case by case basis.

Never did it but know some who have. My view is that if kids are able enough they will be able to get into a good school even if not in their immediate catchment area. That was certainly true of the ones I knew, who moved to almost the same street as school of choice - the children would have been accepted anyway.

However you can't blame parents for doing all they can to help.