Lying on school application

[strikemehigh]

School mum friend told me yesterday that she's used her NC DM's address for her child's high school application.

Her DM lives in a different county (the one I live in) and friend lives just over the border into a different county. Both our DC are at primary school in her county but obviously I'm applying to my county for high school place.

We are quite rural. Her fake address is middle of nowhere and her real one the same but miles away. Hence the distances to schools.

Anyway, this would be bad enough but she's put 2 schools that as the crow flies from the fake address her child is unlikely to get into. First choice school A, the furthest please given based on distance last year was 3.3 miles and address is about 5. Second choice school B is almost ten miles from fake address and already oversubscribed. DC has no other factors such as EHCP which might help.

She has not put a third choice so 'they'll have to give me one of the choices'. When I explained that isn't how it works child will likely be allocated school C which is the nearer fake address she said she would just appeal.

AIBU that this is short sighted and bonkers? Also fraud - which if she wasn't so unlikely to get her way based on the choices I'd be thinking of reporting.

Let her get on with it.

Obviously I'm letting her get on with it- it's the complete belief that it will work that baffles me.

Also, had her mum lived nearer the chosen schools her child could take a place off another which would be out of order.

It will be flagged when the council tax and primary school records don't match.

The child will be allocated the nearest school with space after everyone else.

Unfortunately its rhe child likely to see the real effects

If she's going to do this she needs to learn not to be a blabbermouth about it.

You aren't letting her get on with it. You're thinking about reporting it. Keep out. You can disapprove of what your friends do but you can't sneak behind their backs reporting it. It's a stupid rule , anyway, especially by a couple of miles. And I think she'll come unstuck here all by herself.

I've done something relatively similar for primary school.
The nearest school, I didn't want to even consider (bad rep) so I left it off entirely.
We got our first choice.
I didn't mention it until people started to ask why when we lived out of catchment did we manage to get our place.
It's a dog eat dog world out there!

No need to report. Her plan won’t work. Civil servants don’t just look a the application and take the address for granted - a computer system will cross reference addresses by residency (proven by council tax) and that’s before all the rank ordering systems.

It's absolutely nothing to do with you.

You lied about your address?

I doubt this. There is no such thing as catchment. Some years you can be awarded a first place school miles away, the next the distance could be less than a mile. It depends on so many factors - number of vulnerable children, siblings, population growth.

I’m a teacher so know how this works.

If you lied about where you lived, then shame on you. If you got the place using your correct address then you’ve done nothing wrong.

With primary schools it isn't as much of an issue, and most can take out of catchment. But secondary school places are often in short supply and really become a dog eat dog World.

The whole idea of choosing your school is unrealistic in most places. In my city you could put any school you want, those schools will still only take the catchment children and then be full. We've had people placed miles and miles away because they didn't want to put the catchment school so just ended up dumped wherever there is space. Our council recommends one choice should always be catchment.

OP, your friend is likely to find out the hard way especially when the council tax check is done.

The LA I live in checks you actually live at the address you say, so you can't just put what you like. I've also been involved as a school governor in checking questionable addresses out of county after allocation day where there were mismatches and one place was withdrawn. Some had ehcps so it was fine, but the stray one was chancing it like your friend.

Her strategy re "they'll have to give me what I want" obviously won't work, unless you're at a linked/feeder school (like ours was infant linked to junior so all kids automatically got a place so long as you filled the form in). Most people I know who did that ended up at exactly the schools they were trying to avoid in fact! A lot of people miss the fact that you've a right to express a preference but not a right to choose your child's school.

I am baffled though when people say you're in the wrong for thinking about reporting the rules being broken.

If one child gets a place based on using a false address, that will likely mean another child won’t get a place based on their actual address. Fraud is illegal.

@MrsMurphyIWish some areas do have fixed Priority Admissions areas. For DDs school living in catchment comes over having a sibling but out of catchment for example.

Yes, it’s wrong and she’ll probably not get the school she prefers. I would leave it, she will get caught out as pp said with council tax details but also DCs new friends- where do you live Newbie? Oh I live in X county, where do you live? . Teacher / other staff hears that and checks.

My BIL did this. The LEA found out, we don't know how. If it was one of their procedures or if someone reported it. He got a letter asking for evidence he lived at MILs house, he couldn't provide it as he didn't.

The place was withdrawn and he had to go back to admissions and apply as a late applicant as my niece had no school place.

Is that for LA school? I only know schools that have fixed postcodes would be selective (not grammar). I live by several ex independent schools that are now free schools. They do take from fixed addresses but not LA so you apply directly to the school.

With the OP is sounds like it’s the portal system where you apply for LA schools/academies.

Poor kid as this will get found out eventually

i know a kid removed from primary school in year 1 when it became clear the parents had lied about address. Not sure how it was discovered

Presumably you’ve been asked to provide evidence? Post acceptance in Kent asked to provide evidence ie a utility bill

As a point of information, there is nothing in the legislation or guidance about parents "choosing" a school. The term used is "parental preference."

Our local authorities have been know to turn up at the door and stop check. Lying on a school application just makes you selfish and irresponsible.

I hope she gets the only school with space in the county , that has an inadequate rating and is 25 miles away. ( that’s what happens here when you don’t put all of your choices) hilarious she thinks she’d win an appeal when she has fraudulently applied in the first place!!!

Its every school nursery, Primary School and Secondary school (and a lesser extent Sixth Form college) in the LA. Especially in the villages where there will only be one school bus running to the allocated school.

Its not uncommon.

We are in wales and our county still has fixed catchment areas for LA schools. It’s not equal in every direction from the school due to being quite a rural county. For example we were out of catchment of the primary school mine got into but were actually much closer to the school than people in catchment in the opposite direction from the school and in fact the school was closer to us then our allocated catchment school.

In more rural areas consideration has to be taken for where the nearest school is and also travel etc. likewise siblings still have priority here even if our of catchment. They tried to change it a few years ago but as schoolsmas so far away from each other it’s not practical to drop to different schools as you could be half an hour away from each other even though they are the closest schools.

It depends on the school. RC schools here most definitely have demarcated catchment areas. Others don’t, but there is a pretty consistent pattern over several years of who gets in according to address - only slight variations at the outer distances depending on how many siblings etc.

I suppose lying about your address is not much worse than claiming to be a Christian and then stopping church attendance once all your DC are at school. Plenty of parents do that.

Sounds exceedingly foolish on her part. She may well be caught but even if she isn't, she's applied in another county to two schools her child is unlikely to get a place in. Won't she then be allocated a place in the nearest undersubscribed school in the other county, based on her already miles from home fake address? Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen!