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?

I have reported. Don't suppose I'll know what happened until September now.

You got it, @OVienna !

@user1487194234

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

Who said it is morally wrong to move house to an area with good schools? Of course it isn't!

Give it a bloody break @jessstan2

For the millionth time it's fine to live in the catchment if a school, it's cheating to rent out your house, move to a flat and lie about living there full time.

I checked the admissions code for the school and it couldn't be clearer about this.

What's the point you are making?

I wasn't making a point at all, namechanged, just responding to user1487194234 who moved house to be in a good catchment area. Not the same thing as buying somewhere, not living there and renting it out, at all.

Sorry if you thought I was referring to you at all, I wasn't. I merely felt user148 was wrong in thinking she might have done something morally dubious. Unless I have misunderstood.

What's with the 'give it a rest', have I posted a lot on this thread? I'd almost forgotten it until I just came on here and saw user's post.

'give it a b..... break', not 'rest'.

Glad you reported OP. We had this with my eldest - her year was a bulge year and the very entitled parent told everyone that she was renting to get her kid in. Lots of us reported it as we all knew someone who was affected and in some cases without any school place for the year initially (a bulge class was eventually created in a different local primary) - the place was removed, but the parents had "good" legal advice and were made aware that the council had a policy not to waste money on court cases after a certain point. They had the money to push for a second court hearing at which point the council dropped the case and reinstated the place. The family then had lots more kids, so there are now 5 kids missing out on local school places by the time all their kids have gone through primary.

Very amusingly though they tried to do exactly the same for secondary. Over 50 people apparently reported the family to the school. However, the place that they rented wasn't close enough to the school so they didn't get in. A rare case of karma winning!

It is fraud, and I wish our council were more pro-active about it. A neighbouring council requires huge amounts of proof if a family is renting and also owns a property- they have to show long rental agreements, proof that they're on the electoral role and bills in their name dating back to the start of the rental agreement. The school will also visit the property to ensure they actually live there and will remove the place if they're not satisfied.