Another school fraud thread

[namechangedschoolquery]

The thread in active convos has prompted me to post something I've been wondering what to do for a while.

I live in an area of London that has one incredibly sought after school. Houses in the catchment are literally millions of pounds but there is also some social housing and a lot of people in catchment send their kids to private schools. I know of two families in my dd's year who have rented in catchment to get their oldest kids in. Local schools are ok but nothing special.

As far as I am concerned this is cheating. I always thought I would report this if I saw it and yet I haven't.

Would you?

If LA staff get wind of it they will act and will do surveillance on the properties and that's how they've found out that Parent x and parent y are not separated as they said and are very much together and live in the same household whilst claiming parent x loves in z house. All they need is someone like op to report it

20 I take your point but the house rental is definitely unlawful whereas tutoring is permitted. I think you are right though, you do end up with pupils struggling in grammars who have been tutored to pass the exam

It’s much easier where I live. You pretty much can only go to your catchment school unless it’s a large year or you want to go to private or catholic school. If you move out of catchment you can stay if you are in your last year or apply to stay as an out of catchment student but no guarantee. If you did stay your siblings would have No priority to get in and would have to to apply as an out of catchment (and would only get in if their catchment school was full)

I got a reply from the school admissions office saying.

Thank you for your email

So it's out of my hands now.

I've been thinking about doing this for a long time. I'm glad I don't have to think about it anymore

funnylittlefloozie back in my day it was still called Creighton School and was PROPER rough ! .

It would be better for all schools to be of a high standard so this did not happen. You get what you vote for unfortunately.

Well unfortunately school in rich areas get a lot more additional funding from parents who want their kids to go on nice trips abroad and get the best coaches etc

Not going to happen in inner cities is it?

Sadly, many wealthy folk cheat the system (schools, tax avoidance schemes, etc...) because they have no moral compass and genuinely think they’re more entitled than the rest of us.

They also invariably vote Tory. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I don’t think it’s fair that money talks. But it does. If I lived in an area with school A and lived there full time. And someone rented house next to me but never lived there and then further sub rented it, then if my kids couldn’t get a place but the non resident kids did, yes I would be extremely angry. I see your point. It’s unfair. And it puts an even bigger gap between those with money and those without.

RandyLion whenever anyone says this I think of Michael Marshall MP.

Lol @RandyLionandDirtyDog, I would put money on these two voting Labour what with them being creative types and all.

@namechangedschoolquery

Lol *@RandyLionandDirtyDog*, I would put money on these two voting Labour what with them being creative types and all.

Even Labour voters want the best education possible for their children. If all state schools were equal, these problem would not arise.

It does amaze me the lengths some people go to, in order to secure places at good schools for their children. I couldn't do all those gymnastics, frankly, far too complicated*. I just relied on mine being clever and ambitious enough to achieve whatever they wanted for themselves.

*I don't sit in judgement on those who do, in a way they are being quite enterprising.

They also invariably vote Tory. 🤷🏻‍♀️

The only family I know who did this were Liberal voters. The mum also ran the church Sunday school for a year. I think she failed to mention that she is heavily into astrology and uses tarot cards/angel cards/runes/etc.

Super sneaky and wrong !! But You should adjust your post because it was very unclear what you meant

Of course it's fraud, and I'm surprised at some of the pissy MYOB replies you have had.
Guess it may be even more widespread that you thought!

definitely fraud - not sure why everyone on here was so anti OP to start - Mumsnet usually very hot on this kind of thing?

Not admissions fraud or benefits fraud. Those issues you should stay out of for some reason!

Wandsworth has a big issue with this, the catchment of my primary was 200 metres.

@QueenofmyPrinces

When my sister went to Secondary school my mom told a white lie on the application form in order for her to get into the “good school” that was out of our catchment area.

At the time our parents were divorced and had been for about 10 years. Me and my sister lived with our mom and saw our dad on weekends and holidays. Although our mom lived way out of the catchment area for the good school our dad only lived a 2 minute walk away from it - so my mom put down our dad’s address on the form where it asked for my sister’s address.

My sister’s case did get reported by another mother - the mom of a girl in my sister’s class who had also applied for the good school but obviously didn’t get in because of not being in the catchment area.

The school informed my mom that an accusation had been made and I remember my mom then packing a suitcase for my sister and sending her off to our dad’s house for about two months to make it look like she actually lived there.

Nothing came of it, my sister remained in the school and then I got a place the following year due to me being her sibling.

The good school was in a very affluent area whereas we lived in, what could have been considered to be, “the wrong side of town.” All the schools in our actual catchment area were not high achieving schools and I guess our mom just wanted better for us and did what she could to make it happen.

My mom is normally such a goody-two-shoes that I can’t quite believe she did it.

I taught a y6 who was in a similar situation. Lived with mum, wanted to go to the school near dad. She actually did move in during y6. Someone (the council, the secondary school - not sure who) called the primary and I was asked to log who collected each day for a while, presumably to check she was actually mostly living with dad and not cheating the system.

It is wrong ,I know
But then again I paid (a lot) to get into the catchment of an excellent school
I suppose that's morally wrong,so I find it hard to judge

The council could unearth this if they bothered. On that basis I'd leave it.

Fortismere, innit???

Oh and the "they vote Tory" - lol. You been to Crouch End? They seemingly don't. Yet this doesn't out many off these machinations.

Amused and not surprised to hear these north London locations suggested, as they were exactly the places I had in mind when I wrote my post upthread. There's a certain fashionable and sought-after primary school in Crouch End which I would toss into the same bag too.

I wrote: Perhaps [people] aren't aware how widespread the practice is in certain London schools. I was shocked to find out that it's really quite common in certain schools / boroughs

Haringey Council need to get a handle on this. It's basically an open secret amongst the middle classes and I suspect most people get away with it.

Starts with "C" @ParisCactus ?

If it is against admissions policy I would report. Others are missing out.