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).

How awful

Jesus Christ.

Did it make you feel good doing that?

Tell tale titty mouse, never get to God-ys house.

Well done for doing the right thing.

Hoping for the best for the little boy who was so easily manipulated by an adult he trusted and for the Ukrainian family looking for housing refuge

To set people’s minds at ease - it’s pretty likely that the LA would be looking closely at this even without OP alerting them, given the recent change of address. And it is FAR better that - if there is a problem - it is discovered before the boy is offered a place rather than a place being withdrawn.

Years ago someone reported me when my son got a grammar school place. I had recently remarried and my husband's house was out of catchment, he lived over the border in a different LA but was actually closer to the school. So school busybody reported on the basis we lived our of catchment in a house "we" owned. I still had the house id been renting in the catchment area, I had joint custody with exH and he had a house in catchment area. Son kept his place.

I still feel sad for the mother I think it was, she had spent seven years resenting my son doing better at academic stuff than her son, better at football than her son (captain of the team) better at swimming than her son (always picked to swim in the local schools gala.). It must be hard being so jealous that you'd spite a child.

It’s really not

If that were true there'd be no need for OP to involve herself in her friends housing arrangements.

well people have different moral standards not they. This sort of behaviour definitely doesn't fit mine.

As I said - pretty likely

As I also said above - engaging with you is pointless - I would prefer you not to quote me again, but if you do, I shan’t respond.

Jealously and spitefulness is a nasty trait, but there’s a special breed of arsehole that would direct it towards a child. I’d just feel pity that she was so bitter.

Exactly! The hypocrisy is astounding 😲

Yep. It’s almost like two mothers wanted to try and do the best by their children and went about it in different ways.

I can’t get over telling the school like a little perfect prefect. Let alone questioning the child about it. I’d have kept to my own business. If it’s any consolation, I used to work in a school office and we’d sometimes get parents calling about similar things (it was a popular but heavily over subscribed school), and honestly, we’d think they were absolute dicks for doing it. Some of them would be so gleeful about it as well.

It’s done now though, and obviously the OP feels that she’s done the right thing, even if it’s something I wouldn’t have done.

That's an early life lesson for the boy, avoid any discussions with your friends Mum in future.

ok 💁🏼‍♀️

O do wonder how many people would be so blase about this if it was their own child who hadn't got a school place then found out someone committed fraud. Would they just shrug it off then, think its all fair?

Anyway... the council will now decide whether it is fraud or not. Same as verifying all the other addresses.

LOL
High horse#
They are doing the best for their kid
It is not a big deal in the great scheme of life

It is NOT fraud they rent the property

Jealousy is the strongest human emotion.

Well, the council will decide, and if the council agree, then that's cool.

Honestly, I’ve got bigger problems. And actually, I wouldn’t know, because beyond asking if my 11 year olds friends would like anything to eat or drink, I don’t go questioning them about their lives.

I keep to my own lane and don’t go digging. My life is far more peaceful that way.

It is fraud.

Exactly.

There will be one of three outcomes:

• The LA will decide it is fraud, and the permanent address will fall out of the effective catchment, so the child will not get a place (and a child who has applied for a place honestly will get it)
• The LA will decide it is fraud but the permanent address will be in the effective catchment, so the child will get a place.
• The LA will decide it is not fraud, and the child will get a place.

Whichever happens is independent of the OP’s child, who will get a place if their house is in catchment.

Despite those throwing around ‘moral equivalence’ of purchasing / renting a sole home with an eye to schools vs renting a short term second home for the specific purpose of school admissions, only one of these is fraud.

All of us have a point in the ‘continuum of concerns or potentially illegal behaviour’ when we would report it to the authorities. We know from eg child abuse cases; people found in houses long after their death that many people don’t report when they perhaps should, and the cry us then ‘why did nobody tell anyone?’ As it happens, the OP’s point in that continuum is ‘where there is a reasonable suspicion of the crime of fraud’. Others may have different points eg only theft, or only GBH, or only violent offences towards someone they know personally. It’s ok to have different ‘thresholds for reporting’ - the OP, in common with many other posters, would report fraud, and that’s ok.

Great post @cantkeepawayforever