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).

sorry-can't even recall what i said

By super selective I meant schools that rank by score rather than distance (I might have used the description wrong!)

I might have it wrong, I thought super selectives were the sort of school you needed 100% or close to get in. I'm pretty sure the first thing was score but I was still surprised that you could take it in another country although I don't know why as I knew quite a few kids from HongKong got in at 13 or 14 and then stayed as paying guests with local families. I was told they came over a few years early to avoid overseas fees at university. Cheaper than boarding school perhaps? Or maybe boarding school doesn't count as living here.

It's all very complicated isn't it.

no saying "kids called John/Jane" or "kids with a blue front door" get preference - now that would be arbitrary!

but it exactly is like this!

How is it exactly like this?? Show your workings.

ETA do you just live to contradict people, or summat? Gah, have broken own pledge not to engage with you. Forget it.

You can take the 11+ transfer test for any school from anywhere. This right is enshrined in law by what's known as the Greenwich Judgment.

It's on parents to ensure that they or their DCs meet any other criteria which a particular school might chose to apply. Despite what some posters on this thread think, schools do have the right to set their own criteria, and one which is considered perfectly reasonable is that of distance from the school. Of course some schools chose not to use distance as a criterion; that too is considered reasonable.

I live in a grammar school town. I know how frustating it is and depressing to see parents lose all their moral compass with their children picking up on it, actively playing along (these are young children so it often involves dragging their siblings into the scam) and learning the ropes. Then they go to school with my children and yeap that's right surprise surprise grammar schools have surprisingly distruptive and disturbed kids with very little community spirit because their parents doing things like this changes them. My eldest is just finishing up at one and there are times when we've wondered if it was worth it. Yes great results but at what cost. The sharp elbowed social climbing type of parents who actively involve their kids in these scams really do change the atmosphere and fabric of a school long term. If anything has turned me against grammar school it's been the rampant catchment area fraud. I've been lucky my children passed without being tutored intensively and we happen to live in the catchment where my children were going to school locally for a good few years before even considering the test. I have a neighbouring house that's a constant turn over of catchment fraud families and their children even go to school locally mid year for a few weeks for show, with uniforms etc and then disappear, children gone once a place is confirmed and the lights left on timers. These families don't live "just outside" the catchment but the other side of the country. We have a great community spirit having gone through covid and berevements together, we have christmas drinks and summer picnics, and hope one day that the house will get sold because for my very elderly neighbours their life here and their neighbours are their whole world now and there's something unsettling for the older generation who used to give my children ice creams or sticker books to have to avoid these families as it's all a sham.