Is this admission fraud? AIBU to report it?

[grammarmom]

Here's the situation.

We live in a grammar school catchment area that gets smaller every year. When we bought our house several years ago, it was very comfortably within the catchment for an excellent local grammar (very high in the league tables), and oh boy was it reflected in the price. Now we're right on the boundary. Among the thirty or so houses around us, some children got in last year and some didn't, literally a difference of a few yards.

Another child on our street, who is in the same class as my DC, only just passed the 11+ (a few points above the pass threshold). We live on the same road, but they are about 50 yards further from the school gate. Based on last year's distances, my child would likely get a place while theirs wouldn't.

Over the weekend, during a sleepover, the child mentioned that her mother has now rented a house much closer to the school to secure a higher priority for admission. The tenancy was apparently signed one day before the cut-off date, making it "legal" for admission purposes. She still owns their original home, but the story being presented is that relatives who were previously "homeless" will now live there free of charge, and all bills and utilities have been transferred into those relatives' names (I strongly suspect that the mother will in fact pay these bills as those relatives are penniless).

She's even moved the children's belongings to the rented property and makes them spend nights there (they hate it). There's no doubt that once the school place is obtained, they will move right back.

This effectively pushes my child down the priority list and means they may now miss out.

Would this constitute admissions fraud? It feels incredibly unfair that someone with £40k to spare for rent can effectively buy their way into a top grammar school, especially when their child didn't perform particularly well in the exam (despite being tutored for hours every day).

Should I report this? I have no more detail apart from what this child told me (and they obviously weren't too sure about some aspects of it due to age).

Report and let the powers that be decide.

That said, you were happy to play the game when you thought you were winning but not so happy now you think you might be losing.

I have a friend that lives in Sevenoaks and from what she has said the competition has been v v fierce this year. I wonder if that has anything to do with VAT on the private schools.....

and it wasn't sly at all of OP to get this information from a child who trusts her...

If I had a child in my care, I would run a mile with it away from OP and the friend.

I know we all want the best for our own children but this is some serious sour grapes and I feel sorry for your DC and their friend as their friendship will suffer due to a PAIR of sharp elbowed mothers.

She still is your friend. She’s looking out for her children. You are doing the same by wanting to report her. Leave it alone - she isn’t doing anything illegal.
You feel it’s morally wrong - if you could afford it would you do the same thing to secure your children’s spot in this school?

I would just wait and see what happens. They might both get in and you’d have ruined their friendship over this.

I very much doubt one person moving closer to the catchment area will be the difference between your son being in or out of the final area so it won’t affect your son’s place.

I also wonder whether, if you were the person on the outside of your predicted catchment area, you wouldn’t have been tempted to try whatever you could to get closer to get your child in.

Ultimately, your letting your panic about your own child’s chances make you angry towards this other mum when, realistically, it won’t make any difference to your son‘s chances of getting a place as he will still be within catchment area unless something changes significantly from last year which is unlikely.

This is classed as admissions fraud in most areas.
I don't know why so many people are so confidently telling you it's the same as you buying your house. It's lying to cheat the system and lots of schools and LA's no longer allow it.
Whether you should report it is up to you and your conscience, and it may not be investigated anyway. But it's likely to be against the rules.

It’s annoying, but it’s legal. The onus would be on you to ‘prove’ malfeasance, and that it’s not the child’s primary residence after they’re admitted to the school. There’s nothing to say that they wouldn’t move there if the child does get into the school; you’re operating on assumptions and speculation at the moment as this is a situation that hasn’t happened yet.

Grammar schools place by academic results first, catchment second, so the only way this would personally affect you and your family would be if your respective children both scored identical results in the entrance exam and were tied for the last possible place in the academic cut-off, at which point catchment area could be taken into consideration. And if your child was in the position of potentially only just scraping into the grammar school academically, you might want to consider whether pushing them through that system would be in their best interests anyway.

Focus on supporting your child to achieve their fullest potential, rather than creating issues for other people’s.

Gosh. Grammars in our county don’t have catchment areas, it’s all on ranked scores from the test. Kids choose to share their results with the schools they like and they’re offered a place (or not) based on their score. Allowances are made for FSM pupils (eg if they score above the qualifying score they may automatically be offered a place) but we have kids who travel from two counties over to attend school here. I think both systems have disadvantages (and grammars are inherently problematic) but ours sounds a bit fairer to the children than the one OP describes.

This is how it works in our area of Kent. Anyone who passes then gets a place on proximity.

Again, not the same here. Pass then proximity.

They investigate when it is reported to them. They don't investigate every application, though.

I work in Admissions and my advice is to report it to the LA and the school. Give them as much information as possible and ask them to investigate it as a suspected fraudulent application.

There are a number of ways the application can be verified and you'd be surprised at the access the LA to information to verify applications.

If you don't report it, it won't be investigated, but if you do, the admissions authority and the LA will make the decision on whether it's fraudulent or not.

I've investigated two in the last 4 years and provided information for others when they were secondary applications from one of our primary schools.

Such as OP for instance? Who clearly stated in her first post that they'd paid over the odds to move to the well within school catchment area. Then has since been backpedaling over her claims this wasn't the case? In addition to slating her "friends" child and basically calling them stupid, and then again backtracking when called out on it? 🤔

Maybe people should just own up to who they are? OP is now stamping her foot that she might not get what she feels she's earned (paid for), and is now happy to throw another childs potential school future under a bus to benefit her own. Neither OP nor her "friend" come out especially well in this tale.

Apparently the old saying that money doesn't always buy you happiness is true...

OP is going to have to sharpen her elbows to keep up with the grammar mums anyway…just wait til the school year really gets going! 🤭😂

In my experience, although a few years out of date, local authorities do follow this kind of thing up. I had a friend who did the same things and the the local authority did pursue her. I guess someone reported her.

My point is that it's unlikely to be the child who is "imoral" so shunning her isn't very nice.

The whole situation sounds bonkers. If only every local authority had committed properly to comprehensive education in the 70s. A hybrid system seems to bring out the very worst in some people.

With all due respect how do you know you didnt "leapfrog" anyone? Reporting someone for this is petty, and as for grilling the kid - I think you need to grow up to be honest.

I’m not sure where you are in Kent, but Weald and Also Kent county council disagree with you. They say, and it’s published, it is a certain amount of places, everyone who is passed at a certain level is offered a place if it is the same amount of applicants as places and if in the catchment area published which is by postcode,

if there are too many pupils ie over subscribed v how many places , then they rank them and look at many elements such as pupil premium , care needs, family association, and also who has the highest score to determine that years intake in order of rank.

It's actually really manipulative , exploitative and deeply unethical to extract personal information from a child in your trust in order to use it against them.

Where do people get their morals? A combination of places one will be parents.

I think it's mean to have a child in the company of a family that will potentially harm it.

Let us say OP has a son named Kabir and the former friend has a child named Ivan.

It would be mean to Dave to be around Ivan and Kabir as their mothers would sound to me like the type of people who wouldn't give their son good morals and I wouldn't want Dave to be in the receiving end of their sharp elbows.

I don’t think you’re coming off well here at all.

First you mention you paid over the odds for your house because of the catchment area then you backtrack and say the local facilities and the commute were what made you buy the house and you didn’t even know if your DC would be “grammar school material” (horrible phrase by the way!). Also I don’t think anyone is convinced by this. We all know exactly why you bought this house.

You say this other family don’t deserve the place on the basis that 1. Child only scraped a pass, 2. They’re not academic enough, 3. They had to be tutored!, 4. They could afford private education, 5. The family moving into the bigger house don’t need such a big house so it doesn’t make sense for them to live there.

You’ve pumped a child (your DC’s BF!) for information (which you then want to use to report them).

As many others have said she is technically within the rules and you have massive sour grapes as it now looks as if the extra £££ you paid when you bought your house (for this very purpose) may not have been enough after all, and someone else has used their material wealth to put themselves in a better position than you.

The other option for your DC is a really crap local state school which presumably isn’t good enough for your DC (though it is for this other child).

Oh and you’ve said the friendship is effectively over. Bit of a shame for your DC and their BF, who have done nothing wrong here.

Honestly, I get you’re upset, but you sound pretty unpleasant.

I think it is dishonest and underhand

Are you planning to contribute anything to this thread besides constantly implying that immigrants ruined your quality of life? I’ve already let the first two comments pass. Both children in this situation are white British with very traditional British names, if you must know.

Many years ago, someone did this, thinking they would get away with it, it was reported and the local authority turned up at the ‘proper’ home and lo and behold they were all at home and not at the ‘residence’ on the application form. Place withdrawn.