OK so what would you REALLY do to get your kids into a 'good' school?

[shimmy21]

If you had the money or the opportunity would you...
lie about where you live?
practise a religion you don't believe in?
move house?
buy a second investment property?
bribe the panel?
appeal on spurious grounds?

or any better ideas?

Who do you write for, DominiC?

It must be a lot les competetive where some of you live!
Round us, home visits are the norm for application to any over-subscribed school, and you have to show proof of ownership, or a lease for a minimum of a year. Kids have been pulled out of the playground and sent home when dodgy adresses were discoverd. And making an appeal on the grounds of SEN is highly rigourous process, and not guaranteed. And you have to attend mass or church for 3 weeks out of every four for the two years prior to the application date to get into a faith school!

But this is in an area with not enough school places per se, never mind places in popular schools.

Home visits????

Good grief!!!!

I've done the one thing I'm prepared to do, which is make sure I live in a small, friendly town with a mixed community where none of the schools is 'the sink' or 'the good one'.

Having said that, there was a time when the CE faith secondary was highly favoured over the other 2, but the non-denominationals are just as good these days. Making assumptions about what schools are going to be like based on their self-reported 'ethos' and/or their exam results is something I would steer clear of anyway. I was miserable as sin at my highly-regarded grammar school but perfectly happy at an infants school serving a big council estate.

is sleep wiht head an option?

Wouldn't lie about where I lived
Wouldn't go to church/whatever
WOULD Move house
Would buy a second property but would prefer to live in area properly anyway
Wouldn't bribe
wouldn't appeal on spurious grounds, non spurious, yes
and absolutely WOULD pay.

lie about where you live? no
practise a religion you don't believe in? no
move house? yes
buy a second investment property? yes
bribe the panel? no
appeal on spurious grounds? probably

oops, my post was supposed to say I probably would not lie.

re last one - it depends like what. I can't think of an example.

I'm rubbish at lying and can't sleep at night so I'd go for the legitimate options like moving.

I could absolutely not pretend to be Catholic - all that asking forgiveness business and children going to confession - er, no chance.

Would definately move or buy a second investment property. Don't think I could lie for fear of being found out.
Wouldn't practice a religion I don't believe in but I know I will bump up my church attendance and end up joining/helphig in all sorts of groups the year before school applications. Just because the village vicar has a massive amount of input into the very few places at the village school.

We moved. The extra mortgage is less than private education, we all benefit from a nicer house/garden & hopefully it will be an investment.

DD got into the school we wanted, but DS wanted the Grammar, so we spent last year giving up evenings & weekends working through past papers - & he got what he wanted too :)

Would NOT lie about address, religion, or anything else.

I would move even though I think it stinks as an option (would have to be other reasons for moving)
I have(sort of) lied about my dds address for an over subscribed primary school already!! shes living at granmas
wouldn't practice a religion
would buy second home (yeah right!!)
if I cant buy second property can't afford to bribe anyone!!
Would appeal on any grounds poss.

BTW, we go to church and DD has just been accepted into nursery. But, I don't attend church under false pretense. I genuinely believe. It is a nice church. Vicar is lovely. And I'm thrilled to death that DD will get a COE education. yippee!!!!!!

morue... you pinched my line! lol

I am fully planning to move house before secondary schooling starts... but I wouldn't lie. I'd have to do it legit!

i would not lie about where i lived. it's VERY easy to find out.

i would not practice a religion in which i didn't believe

i would move house, buy an investment property (LOL - can't even afford one) or bribe

we pay a VERY high price to rent where we do b/c of the school here.

it is a faith school which is oversubscribed, but i do attend the church attached b/c it is across the street and i am a catholic. it's also pretty liberal and God doesn't care that i go to Mass in jeans.

no

I would work harder and pay. Atm I am lazy and don't pay- must do better.

don't be so sexist - a lot of schools round here have female headteachers

I would move house but only if it was affordable and would pay for education again only if it was affordable.

The rest of them no way!!

The one thing I would do is take a good long look at myself and make sure that I was giving my child the best education I could, speaking correctly, reading together and encouraging lively debate when ever possible etc etc, the list could go on.
It doesn't matter which school a child gets into if they are getting the wrong type of education in there homelife then they will do no better than the next child and quite possibly worse.

I would move house or pay

Have read and enjoyed 'May Contain Nuts', very amusing! Of the list, would move house, in fact did that when DS1 in Yr 2, but now both going to independent. BTW, programme on C4 at 7.30ish tonight about State vs. Private debate

i used to drive up to an hour each way to school for an entire term before we moved house to where we live now. the house & moving costs amounted to an extra 100k on the selling price of our old house. we now have our first mortgage in 7 years the school & area are well worth it though. & its much cheaper than private school