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).

Kudos to the young Ukrainian pupil who passed the 11 plus despite taking it in his second language and being a war refugee

Op I think you need to consider the impact of any actions on your son and his relationship with his best friend

The system is unfair and those who can afford it (including yourself) will use money to give their DC an advantage.

There will be some DC going to the not so great school who would pass the 11+ and thrive at grammar school but their parents would never be able to afford a house close enough for their DC to even have a chance.

Life is unfair.

Ok, so you can chose to move to a different street or town or country but other people can’t?

Is this a partially selective school OP? Where there are places for distance, siblings, test scores (academic and music) etc.? If so I know the situation very well!

Sorry op they have tried to buy their way into a good school just as you did. The system is unfair and open to manipulation - we live in catchment for some of the top performing secondary schools in our country - the local authority are very clear if you move your place is revoked more schools should have this policy!

I was simply explaining the situation. It's actually unlikely that this grammar school is even a good fit for her DC, as they're not particularly academic and they were heavily coached for the exam. My own child spent hours helping this kid with the more challenging non-verbal reasoning topics. This isn't a case of a struggling single parent doing everything they can for their child, though some people here are trying to frame it that way. The mother considered going private as her main option, and has the money for it.

😆

I don't know who lived in the place before them. Is there a way to know?

Yes they do, I only know about the process because we’ve just been through it with one of our children. We don’t have a local one both grammar schools are about a 40-50 bus ride away, so when I looked around them both I asked what the over subscription criteria was. Catchment wasn’t really up there at all, both schools are over subscribed so one school literally gets a ruler, lists all the children who have passed the exam in order of score and draws a line where their last place to be filled is and that’s it.
The other school list them in order of who has passed the exam, if more people have passed then they places for they go back over the list and see if anyone is pupil premium/in the care of local authority and they get offered a place, then it’s done in order of score after those children have been catered for.
A sibling wouldn’t get offered a place if they weren’t in the top 1/3 of results, I was looking around them in a group and one of the ladies had 1 at the school already, 1 in a local comp because they hadn’t passed and she was showing around the youngest so they could decide if they wanted to sit the exam.
In our case a situation like the OP wouldn’t happen as scores come first, however it is ironic that she has paid over the odds for a house in a catchment when many people couldn’t have afforded to do so and she’s complaining about someone being able to move closer because they have the money to do so….
In our case we have one in a local comp, the next one decided to try for grammar because he had heard about the better sporting opportunities, so we put him in for the exam but there is no way I would have moved closer to get into catchment and paid more for a house.

Stay out of it. Your children have places.

Oh ffs. The kid is not a war refugee. The mum is British, the kid was born in Britain. The family she moves in are some distant relatives.

^ this. I'd much rather we had no 11+, no parental choice of schools, and decent schools for all. I find the contamination of state-provided education by class/money awful, to be honest. I'd implement random allocation of places.

I don’t know, OP, but I suspect if anyone can find out, you can

Another shining example of a thread where the OP completely ignores & avoids replying to anyone who disagrees with her 🙄🤣🤦‍♀️ and only replies to those who do 👏

No, i know. But I think the way property prices etc have gone, unfortunately there's a knock on impact on what grammars were originally designed to deliver - a very academic-focused education for children who are naturally academic, no matter their previous education/ social class/ financial position.

If you look at a school like Tiffin - I think they used to have a "top xx students who pass the exam and apply get in" policy and now they have a two tier (or 3 tier?) catchment zone approach but it's still very wide and much wider than any non-grammar school. which is great - more opportunities to go there for more children. BUT, inevitably, this particular part of SW London/Surrey is, of course, fairly well off and while there are pockets that are less well off, the ones that are probably have a better chance.

Plus there's logistics as well. We considered Tiffin but wrote it off pretty quickly as the commute was too challenging for us, even if we did manage to get in because we're within one of the accepted post codes - but it's one of the furtherest away! And if one of us was not working, that could work as we could drive her, but instead, she'd have to take two busses or two trains and a walk and it was impractical. And it was making those assessments and thinking about processes that made us ditch grammar school completely in the end.

No they live in the same street, just they are a few yards further on, it is still in catchment. The op is applying to a very unique grammar where no priority is given to high scores and it’s measured in yards instead,

I do see the difference because for some schools near me (comps) the renting rules are pretty strict.

I know someone who got caught up in exactly this situation.

Are you referring to me? I have no idea why 🤷‍♀️

It happens all the time. Not sure if anything could be done about it, unfortunately.
I think in general it's very unfair that the grammars have this distance admission rules, because it generally means that people with the money get in. There are like 4 grammar schools in our area but the competition is so fierce that it's incredibly difficult to get in any of them through the exam. Each school offers only ca. 60 places through the exam and there are like 10 kids per place fighting for it. So people who have the money here do the same thing - just rent an apartment close to school for 6 months or buy a house close to the school. The other alternative is spending 10k+ for tuition since Y3 and studying 5h/day after school in Y5. There is no other way unfortunately, the system is really unfair.

Can you link to the school? As this is not how grammars work in the uk and I think it is more likely the kids who didn’t get in last year was due to their scores and not they lived 10 yards or something further on.

It's actually unlikely that this grammar school is even a good fit for her DC

so you know better on that than the school and the kids parents do you?

If he met the criteria the school thinks he is a suitable fit and clearly mum thinks it's best for her child.

She’s already said their friendship will be over after this so not sure she really cares about that!

If you look at a school like Tiffin - I think they used to have a "top xx students who pass the exam and apply get in" policy and now they have a two tier (or 3 tier?) catchment zone approach but it's still very wide and much wider than any non-grammar school. which is great - more opportunities to go there for more children. BUT, inevitably, this particular part of SW London/Surrey is, of course, fairly well off and while there are pockets that are less well off, the ones that are probably have a better chance

Tiffin boys has a huge priority area, as a result one needs to score a very high score to get a place.

The op's children don't necessarily have places and won't find out until April. We had the same.

Some people talk of catchment meaning if you are in catchment then you are in. In other areas catchment fluctuates year to year.

Last year we would have been in catchment for our favourite, the year before we were not. It depends on so many factors - number of children in care who get priority, the banding tests we have here etc. So we work to last distance offered last year. And we hope there haven't been hundreds of new families with hear six children move in. So we put our favourite schools down and a few likely options but in fact no schools are guaranteed

It makes it very stressful.