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).

I've looked it up- highly unlikely it's true it would be a completely unreasonable rule.
The sibling rule you mention is , however, reasonable, if the family have moved out of catchment.

Neither of those things say anything like what you claimed.

If they are claiming the family are paying them rent, they need to pay income tax on this as well. It pull be a lot more expensive than they envisioned. (And maybe against their mortgage terms as well...)

No, that's the unbelievable part. A five-bed house worth over a million has apparently just been handed over indefinitely for poor distant relatives to live in.

Source?

Not necessarily. In many authorities you would have to have sold it. The admissions policy will prohibit owning a property or owning a property within a certain distance. Plenty of people moving quite innocently have fallen foul of this rule where it applies.

Reference?

I know. I was just showing other criteria at different schools.

as other posters have already demonstrated, plenty of schools have their own weird and wonderful admissions criteria to combat abuse of the system. I don’t know why you are so disbelieving when schools are trying to crack down on people trying to find loopholes.

my original post clearly states it’s to avoid admissions fraud, it wouldn’t apply in the case of genuine reasons to move, although these would all be investigated under the criteria.
Other schools have different criteria where even genuine house moves would work against them.

The case I’m thinking of involved a family moving 200+ miles for work and the local authority refusing to use the rented address. It was an absolute clusterfuck from what I remember.
I will try and find an authority with that policy but it may take a while.

You quizzed the hell out of that poor kid, didn't you?

I'm disbelieving because people are making all kinds of claims that would be wildly unreasonable policies if they were true. You said:

one of the admission criteria clearly states that if, at any point during the child’s time at the school, they change their address to a previous place of residence, they will lose their place at the school

This surely can't be true. The admissions policy may say that this may disqualify you or trigger investigation if they suspect fraud but that's very different.

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).
Rich people try to buy their children a better education? Color me shocked.

Well said! So sick of postcode school places - all kids deserve a good education, not just the ones whose parents can afford the nice areas! Been like this in my area for years - horrible system!

If it's any consolation kids at grammar schools don't do better than non-selective schools. And the brightest kids may actually not get as good grades as they might at a non-selective school.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/aug/28/english-regions-dominated-by-grammar-schools-do-not-improve-grades-study-says

Middle class kids will do well wherever they go because their parents are motivated to ensure they do well.

I think we should just do away with all selection and use the money saved on the exam system to invest in all schools in the area.

Surely private school is cheaper than buying an entire house 🤣🤣
I think if someone’s that dedicated you should just let them have it though

I have to agree with this. You're only morally affronted because it potentially affects you.

You "gamed" the system financially by buying a very expensive house specifically in the school catchment

She gamed it by renting... If she hadn't rented that property, maybe another family with a child the same age would have

Other parents game it by going to church for a few years

All as bad as each other, and all contributing to educational inequality

I say this as someone who sends one of their children to private school (not for academic reasons however but for SEN) so I'm gaming the system in my own way.

https://www.croydon.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2022-10/croydon-local-authority-address-of-convenience-protocol.pdf

@puppymaddness here we are. Para 4.2. Specifically the sentence about renting out a property that the child had formerly lived in wouldn’t necessarily deem it unavailable to the family.

Camden will also do further checks and need an explanation why your owned properly is being rented out when they investigate. They aren’t as explicit as Croydon but I’d imagine that if you own a house in the local area and are renting it out to family while you start a rental contract the day before the admissions deadline the explanation for why you needed to move and move then is going to have to be reeeeeaaaallllly good if you want to convince their admissions department that you aren’t trying to pull a fast one.

@WickedlittledancerI work in a grammar where the entrance criteria is pass of the local county 11+ test, then distance. Exact scores don’t come into it. This county is a pretty even mix of super selective (scores based entrance) and just needing a pass.

wouldn’t necessarily deem it unavailable to the family.

that implies it could make it unavailable just not "necessarily"?

Camden will also do further checks and need an explanation why your owned properly is being rented out when they investigate.
Sure. But further checks and explanation is different to saying you have to sell

This is a grammar school near me

It’s unfair but in the cold light of day tomorrow, read some of your posts - if this were read out (to work colleagues, for example) surely you would cringe? Reporting this off the back of information you grilled a 10 year old for is not becoming.

Surely if it’s a grammar school the 11+ result takes priority over the distance from school for all children within the designated catchment?

It goes on points first. If your child scored higher, they will be above their child on the list.

Is the house nicer than yours OP? Ahh well nevermind.

Croydon also state that where an applicant owns or rents a property where they previously lived they must explain and evidence the permanence of their house move: