Oversubscribed school catchment areas - how does your school prevent fraudulent applications?

[nameymcnamechange]

You know, the sort of thing where people apply from a false address, or use Granny's address.

What forms of proof, if any, does your school ask to see?

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I am not planning to make a fraudulent application, btw.

I think we had to provide a utility bill.

One utility bill?

Gosh.

IIRC, we needed proof of child's age (eg birth certificate - handy for me as my surname is different and it showed I am the mother), plus something from approved list showing address - I used Council Tax bill. The application form included an authorization for them to make further checks.

I don't know what would make an application seem odd to a school and what would trigger an investigation.

Some authorities send round inspectors to the addresses of any suspicious applicants.

We were at a school like that, and in addition to the i.d. (birth cert./passport, utility bill), I think they cross-ref'd with electoral register.

We also received a home visit.

Sadly, it didn't stop the "legal" cheating, ie. people renting and changing that rental address to their primary residence, when in fact the parents owned a very nice house a little further away, which was their "second" home. But that is legal.

Is it animula?

Someone locally is doing that, although they've actually bought the second home. They've moved there for the next few months and left their real home empty. They've no intention of staying there.

When we were going to move to an area with a sought after school, even though there were places in the year, we would have had to show a birth certificate, council tax bill and tenancy agreement before they would let DS in the school. When I explained that this would take 3 months (knowing how long the council takes to process new ctax bills) they said 'tough' .

ds's school is oversubscribed but I can't remember being asked for any proof of address. Some parents do use the renting for three to six months while having a perfectly good main residence out of catchment trick but I'm not sure how you could stop that.

What slightly irritates me is the sibling preference even if the family has moved out of catchment - so places are filled by people who don't live near the school because they did when they applied for their eldest. Seems unfair to me especially as there are often only a few places left after the siblings have been accounted for.

I don't know where you are Edam, but around here the siblings only get entry AFTER all the catchment children if there are spaces left. They only get preference over other out of catchment families who don't already have a child at the school - which seems fair to me.

Where siblings come in the priorities varies from area to area. Indeed, some schools don't give sibling priority at all. I understand Edam's point of view, but I also understand parents who want both children to go to the same school to ease the school run even though they have now moved away from the school.

Parents who try to manipulate the system by renting or buying a house closer to the school purely for the purposes of getting a place are acting fraudulently. If the LA finds out what has happened they can take the place away even after the child has actually started at the school. It happens, of course, but the parents who do it are taking a huge risk.

Council tax reference number for us.

One local school not only asks for utility bills for your current home but also asks for evidence that you are no longer liable for the bills at your last address.

brain, that does sound much fairer.

prh, yes, I understand it is easier for the school run if all your kids go to the same school. I don't think, however, that the convenience of people who have knowingly chosen to move out of catchment should outweigh that of people who live in catchment and have children who need a school place but don't have older siblings already installed. Siblings out of catchment should come after catchment as in brain's example.

For e.g. there's a family with a dd in ds's year and an older ds. They are very nice. BUT they applied for ds's school when they were living with the granny (in our road as it happens). As soon as they got places for both kids, they moved out into one of the nearby villages which has an entirely different catchment school. It's not fair that other children have lost out due to them exploiting the system.

There was no evidence needed when we applied for ds's school place - it wasn't that popular a school, but with the birthrate surge plus a distortingly bad Ofsted for the school down the road in recent years, I wonder if they will start asking for it. As far as I know there are two children at ds's school who are listed as being at their grandparents' address, but tbh it's not my business - maybe they do spend more hours at their grandparents' than at their own home, for all I know.

I suppose it would be simpler still if ds's school got a bad Ofsted. Maybe we should work for that. When I first lived round here it had classes of 18 or so, having had a bad Ofsted a few years back. In some ways it would be great to have that back again [forces ds into rammed classroom]

• birth certificate
• council tax bill
• home visit

The one school round here with a bad ofsted and bad reputation has eight children per class. So you are right, if you want small class sizes, go for the ones Ofsted doesn't like!

Mrs Daffodil - a home visit for everyone?

We had a home visit for everyone - don't think it was to do with checking the address though, it was more to do wih helping the child settle in.

In our area, siblings have priority over distance, which does mean that people rent for 6 months to get the oldest in, then move further away. This makes it really hard for new families, legitimately living close, to get their foot in the door. I think that if you move further away than the address you initially applied from, then you should lose your sibling priority and take your chances on getting in on distance.

In answer to your question, not much checking seems to go on.

Head of a school round here pays regular visits to the estate agents to check out rental lists.

If I recall, we needed a council tax bill, a utility bill and something to prove we were paying the mortgage or rent on the property.

With regards siblings, in catchment siblings have priority over in catchment non siblings and out of catchment siblings have priority over out of catchment non siblings.

A popular school north of London have this year published a list of Red Flag things that will trigger an governors' inquiry into applicants' addresses. These include:

The address having been used previously by another applicant in the past two years (presumably excluding siblings!)

The address appearing to be uninhabited at any time up to the December after starting

The addresses held by primary school, medical card, electoral roll etc not tallying

Electricity/gas usage for the property being below the expected level (!)

The address given is more than three miles from the applicant's primary school

If you have moved in the previous two years you have to show that all ties with previous address have been relinquished, ie. document of sale or termination of tenancy agreement.

It's all pretty hardcore, but it's a very sought-after partially selective school, so I guess it must be necessary.

Mybe it should be based on how long you've lived in your property (with longest serving residents getting priority) rather than how close you are to the school. It might discourage people renting for just a few months.

Primary - birth certificate, couple of utility bills iirc, plus the home visit, which I know is for other reasons, but I'm sure if it looked wrong they would investigate it.

Secondary - That years council tax bill or child benefit letter/CTC letter plus

This is all very informative, thank you.

I am asking because our nearest state secondary is very over-subscribed, but has a reputation for being lax on checking on the home addresses of the applicants. I am trying to find some ideas for how the school can make sure their admissions policy is actually credible and fair. Even tonight I have been at a party and a friend told me that a friend of hers who lives outside of the school's usual catchment area has sent her child there because they own a flat (which they let) in the catchment area and were able to use that address to apply from .