The Big School Admissions Swindle!

[jojo28]

Eleanor Palmer's catchment area this year was 167 meters - roughly the length of Roman Abromavich's yacht and sadly for the local community the co-hort are almost as privileged.

The Evening Standard wrote an excellent article www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/revealed-the-legal-loophole-letting-pushy-parents-rent-the-best-state-school-places-8878941.html yesterday about the legal loophole parents exploit in order to bag a place at a so called 'prime primary'. I and other parents got royally screwed this year by Camden council's tacit acceptance of fraudulent applicants for Eleanor Palmer School.

Camden's current admissions criteria is one they sheepishly admit favours the well resourced and knowing.Councillor's and members of the admissions scrutiny panel wring their hands and point their fingers at their legal departments all but crying 'they made me do it!' whilst honest applicants get sent to the back of the queue. Other boroughs like Bromley, Hackney, Merton have stricter criteria in regard to address and temporary renting, unfortunately they are in the minority.

Our experience this year has made us acutely aware that this is a problem that effects parents and schools nationwide. Sadly there seems to be little will on the part of the Department of Education or the majority of council's to close this loophole and make the admission code for community schools as fair as possible. Is it time to push for a judicial review? The School's Admission Code states boldly that all council's admissions policies must 'fair clear and objective' is that your experience? Please add your anecdotes and opinions below.....

[Wibblypiglikesbananas]

Erebus - sadly, I think you're right there. Everyone out for themselves and all that. Partly human nature, partly pure greed and selfishness. Not nice though, either way.

[keepsmiling12345]

It would be fascinating to see the impact if a regulation were imposed which said that if you take up a place at a state primary school in London, you are obliged to walk to school (unless there are exceptional circumstances). Given the catchment areas, population density and numbers of primary schools, no-one would be required to walk more than a mile (and most people less than half a mile)...unless they had rented to secure a school place and then moved away. I know it is hugely simplistic but could solve the school place situation and the "school run" congestion in one fell swoop!

[Shootingatpigeons]

Alien attack except the in our borough firstly the prevalence of schools who select on faith means those who don't go through the motions often can't access any local schools and secondly they have long had a practice of deterring parents by offering them only a school far away. The two undersubscribed schools which are inaccessible and on the edge of the borough were allocated between them over 50 parents who had not made them a preference and almost none of them took up the places, going private, moving, home educating because the journey, often two or three buses and /or long walks, simply isn't feasible. Many already aware they were in black holes had already gone private /moved. This has been their strategy for decades. They just opened a new faith primary school too, with only 10 community admissions........

[keepsmiling12345]

I'm in the same borough shooting so I appreciate the difficulties, especially the prevalence of faith schools. My DD's school "catchment" shrank to 300metres this year...partly because of impact of bulge classes in previous years (so 39 siblings out of the 60places).some of those siblings no longer live within walking distance of the school. It isnt even renting for a place. People secure a school place and then sell their house and move to a bigger one in another area of the borough so they aren't doing anything illegal. My DD's school will expand to a three form entry which I support but eventually the same thing will happen...until you impose some kind of limit on sibling priority or maximum distance from school, catchments will inexorably decrease in size year on year (assuming no change in school attractiveness, of course)...

[newgirl]

in our area we were asked to provide 4 pieces of evidence showing we lived in the application address - two weeks before end of summer term before dd started - with 4 days to do it.

evidence included where taxes are paid, where doc is registered etc - two children left in first 3 weeks of y7 which i think may mean their places were withdrawn.

at least this means that someone renting needs to have moved every piece of evidence to their new address which might help?

[newgirl]

it was the same for all new families btw not just us! sibling families were not asked but a new rule is about to come in (its an academy now) saying sibs have to live within a certain catchment

[jojo28]

Shooting - I know about the problems with faith schools in Richmond. I assume you know about the Fairer Admissions Campaign fairadmissions.org.uk/? The greatest unfairness in out system at present is faith school admissions. We were affected this year in Camden as well by Kentish Town Primary unable to give 9 siblings places because they had awarded most places to church goers and yet Camden's Andy Knowles is allowed to get away with saying church school admissions has no effect on admissions in Camden! I have always said my children are at a great disadvantage in their schooling - their parents are not religious and they won't screw over their neighbours to bag them a school place!
We all have to keep chipping away - we deserve a better system the current one is so divisive.
newgirl - that is very interesting may I ask what area you live in? Two of the families at Eleanor Palmer moved back to their real homes before the autumn term even began! Camden say that it's fine because they were living in the address they applied from. It is farcical.

[SDhopeful]

AlienAttack - that is a brilliant idea! I wish there were creative minds like your making policy! Yes there would be bleats, but what a paradigm shift that would be!

[SDhopeful]

Also think it is perfectly reasonable to restrict siblings to a certain distance.

[SDhopeful]

tiggytape - agreed -this policy is being refined

[keepsmiling12345]

Thanks SD , I was hoping someone would recognise the brilliance of its simplicity Seriously, i know it is simplistic and i agree with tiggytape that it would have to be implemented in a way that didn't doubly penalise anyone who had had to accept a school further away for reasons outside their control. But somehow we need to find a radical solution. More of the same will simply deliver ever decreasing catchments even if councils tighten up "permanent residence" criteria. (By the way, I am aghast that Camden can have got to 2013 still allowing such a loose interpretation of the criteria that someone could secure a place and the. move back to the family home before term starts with impunity.)

[newgirl]

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[newgirl]

Oops!

I think if sibs at same address from application that would be fine

[pyrrah]

It wouldn't work...

Working parents often don't take their children to or from school but use child-minders or private nurseries that run after-school/breakfast clubs.

Parents who couldn't walk the distance would either develop a back problem or travel to a local childminder.

[keepsmiling12345]

I'm a single working parent and use a multitude of after school clubs, child minders etc. We/they all walk to school.

But you're probably right. Someone who cheats the current system would presumably go to the lengths you suggest and drive to a local childminder to get around the regulations...

As someone up thread said, has society really gone so mad that it is acceptable to think up clever ruses to maintain a place at a state primary school whilst wishing to live back in your bigger house outside of catchment...?

[straggle]

AlienAttack, like the idea but how do you police it? You can tell a school off for not meeting the targets in its travel plan but tailing 420+ children x 1200 community primaries in London as they walk to school is a job for MI High ...

[keepsmiling12345]

I do agree straggle. It may not be the best use of our security services or the police force to tail suspicious cars dropping children off outside schools! But perhaps there is something about making clear what the ideal situation is; children walking to their local primary school. (And yes, I do know the is a lot of inherent unfairness about premium for property within catchment for sought after schools but I'm deliberately not addressing that here...just trying to see if a single "regulation" could make a difference. )

Anyway, I've probably exhausted the suggestion so will let others get back to the main points of the thread.

[BranchingOut]

I do see Erebus' point. At the point when we bought our house, located to accommodate my husband's long working hours in a job which only really occurs in a specific part of the City, we did not want children. However, we then had our child...

We began looking at schools quite early and were pleasantly surprised that there were good primary schools nearby. However, we soon realised that we were cut off from most by distance and from others, some of our nearest schools, by faith - the faith schools in question having strict criteria around church attendance (we are a dual faith family and were just not prepared to go through the charade of church attendance when it was something that one of us had no belief in whatsoever).

We began looking into moving and were very close to offering on houses near to one of the most popular primaries around in North London. You can imagine the house prices! But then we were actually turned off by the frenzied competitive atmosphere and began looking outside London, where our house is cheaper and we are now likely to go private. So although it might be easy to criticise that decision on moral grounds, that educational option is actually open to more families than a place at that 'state' primary. Our commutes are a bit longer, but it is the choice we have made.

My view is that there are choices open to families and they don't have to involve fraudulent applications.

[jojo28]

Alienattack - I like we are talking about possible solutions! Sadly in our situation the cut off distance is so small that even the cheats real homes are only about 250 meters from the school! That is still outside the ever shrinking cut off. To get round it they rented 100 meters away. I think part of their justification for temporary renting is that they feel EP is their nearest school so they feel entitled to go there. But sadly particularly in densely populated cities it doesn't work like that, or you may have a church school next door to you but because you are a muslim you won't be at the top of list for a place. The whole system is unfair but once parents start gaming the system it compounds the unfairness and messes up planning for future school places. Instead of trying to game it lets change it!

[minipie]

I live in a different London borough with a similarly postage stamp sized (and shrinking) catchment area for the local Outstanding primaries, and daft property prices as a result.

One local school has recently introduced the rule that, if you have been in your home less than a year at time of application, you must show evidence that you have severed all ties to your previous home (ie sold it/terminated the lease). This is to get round the "rent a second home" gaming.

However, this does nothing to address the far bigger issue which is parents who get their first child in (legitimately by buying a house close to the school) but then move further away and can then get children 2, 3, 4 in on sibling priority. Personally I think sibling priority should only apply if you have not moved address since child 1 got into the school.

All of these issues however pale in comparison with the spectacular unfairness and discrimination of faith schools. I still cannot quite believe that we have state institutions, funded by all taxpayers, which are allowed to discriminate on the basis of religion. Can you imagine if there was a state hospital which only treated Catholics? Or if the local firemen would only attend fires if you were a regular St Olaf's attender? People would be up in arms.

[SDhopeful]

Completely agree about faith schools - they have no place in the maintained sector, shockingly divisive.

[straggle]

I think politicians have let us down so badly by obscuring the debate on faith schools. One in three primaries are CofE or Catholic (do you remember Alan Johnson trying to get an agreement on 25% open admissions?!). Now free schools are meant to be 50% inclusive but they aren't, if you look at the intake in the new Jewish or Muslim free schools. As faith schools they will still only appeal to one section of the community. Of course, free schools are a tiny proportion of the whole but for politicans to sit back and say 'look how we're making faith schools inclusive! but don't ask any more questions!' makes me want to throw pies in their smug faces. Meanwhile religious selection in existing schools affects many more pupils.

[BranchingOut]

Agree 100% regarding faith schools. Maybe the system used to seem fair enough when there were sufficient community places, or when families were less aware of league tables/inspection ratings. But it effectively doubles the choices of families who follow a particular faith, as they have a chance of a faith school place and probably a community school place too.

A family where one parent is C of E and the other is agnostic might be willing to attend church for a school place. However, in my situation where I could describe myself as CofE, but my husband is of a completely different faith altogether, it would be entirely wrong to put in the two years of regular church attendance required to get into the top-of-the-league-tables school which was just around the corner from my old address.

However, our local schools where we have now moved to are both CofE schools, but they take everyone who lives in the local area, which strangely enough seems a lot more consistent with the Christian faith.....!

If anyone is interested in this issue I think that the British Humanist Association campaigns against faith schools.

[straggle]

It's really complex - the church owns a lot of buildings. Historically they helped expand the education sector in this country. There's a tradition and the schools themselves provide a good education if you are eligible. But new Catholic and Church of England schools have opened or been rebuilt on council land too. It's a complete policy failure to pretend problems of unequal access and segregation don't exist, and even divert money for more faith schools, at a time when mainstream places are in shortage.