local school checking pupil's addresses

[evenhope]

I've just got back from M&T. A mum there has a DD who has started school this term. Initially she didn't get a place at the local school although it was her nearest one, but they rang her one week into term to say that her DD could now go.

Her DD is now at the school and apparently got a place because there had been a large number of "fraudulent applications" discovered- by which they meant people not living at the address they put on the forms. Presumably that means they have ejected a number of reception children? Where do they go?

Is that happening everywhere this year or just here?

(Just hoping they keep it up because I want a school place DD can walk to this time!)

They always check don't they?

When ds1 started we'd only just moved to our house so weren't on the electoral roll that was checked and the head turned up, unannounced, on my doorstep to check we were really there.

This year, when ds2 was offered his place, everyone was asked to send in 3 pieces of evidence to prove residence. They specified exactly what had to be sent and which date it had to be from (so child benefit letter had to be from 2007, no earlier) and originals had to be sent.

It's probably standard where schools are over subscribed.

But shouldn't they check before term starts?! Far less trauma turning down an application than telling a 4 year old that they are no longer welcome at their new school?

Maybe they didn't check before term started but someone has alerted them to it? If they find out later they will withdraw the place.

We had to show a copy of the lease when we moved here, however they may be mroe strict for a more local move into the village- our move was from far enough away that the chances of a daily commute are slim to say the least LOL! And it probably helps that we're so close to the school, all the staff etc walk past to get there.

I feel some empathy for the kids who have lost a place, but ultimately the blame is on the aprent not the child for fraud.

I think that is makes a bigger impressions if it is done so publicly - part of the aim will be to serve as a lesson for future applicants.

We had a classic case locally a few years back - the parents couldn't decide which of 2 schools to send their child to so he started at both! One of the schools soon picked up that he had an odd attendance record.

i think its a good plan, and it does catch those people out. local school here is very heavily over subscribed. as soon as a child leaves there is another to take their place straight away.

Better to check before start of term, certainly, but agree family may have been dobbed in.

Publicity-hungry headmaster of our local (very oversubscribed) high school was all over the national press this summer talking about how he spies on parents to make sure they are within catchment. Turned out he had only found three suspicious cases in the past five years, and two of those were actually OK. So why he made such a big deal of it, I don't know.

Same man expelled a handful of older kids for smoking cannabis in the park. But blamed kids from a nearby v. rough town for coming into our 'desirable' area and selling drugs to his pupils. Seemed a bit snobby to me - I'm sure teenagers in 'nice' areas are perfectly capable of getting hold of a spliff without blaming working class kids.

My DH went to that school Edam. Didn't do him that much good examwise, though he is doing what he wants to do jobwise. The impression I get is that they think they are a private school really. We had a letter from their 'Old Boys' network asking for cash for fundraising .

Tbh I think they sometimes have to wait to the start of term when the families show up

1. to have proof they intend to take the place up
2. because thanks to them giving a false address in the first place, the school can't actually get in touch with them Round where we are it's not a snobbery issue I think edam - paradoxically it is people from neighbouring "nice" suburbs which are curiously devoid of good state secondaries, pretending to live in the rather drab and socially insignificant suburbs where these schools are to be found It is RIFE in parts of London and the families who do this get all they deserve. I feel deeply for the poor children though

Where we are they check before, I have just received the forms for DD1 and i have to take to the 1st choice school with her Birth Cert, my child benifit statement and a recent bill. All this to prove she is in the catchment area.

I thought this was standard practice, have just filled in forms for DD to go to pre school and school.. have to submit a copy of her birth cert and the form is sent to LEA for address to be verified.

mine have never been checked?

In the neighbouring borough to us two children were removed from school premises in the middle of the school day, thier applications having been found tobe based on using other people's addresses.

There is a highly comptetitive school in our boroough where people regularly take year-long leases on flats in order to apply for the school, and pretend to live there. They must go to great lengths to get the paperwork in place - you have to show bank statements in your name sent to that address, I think, as verification, but since there are numerous middle-class several-sibling families alledgedly living in one-bedroom 3rd floor flats, I would ahve thought the school would visit! Someone I know used to live in the road the school is on, and had parents knocking on the door asking if they could pay to have his flat used as a base for thier correspondence etc!!! Meanwhile children on the small council estate on the school's doorstep can't get in - so i wish this school would do door-to-door checks.

I would feel terribly sorry for the children, it must be so unsettling and humiliating for that to happen, and so angry with the parents for doing this to them. surely if you use fraudulent means to get something, you have to be prepared if you get caught out.. too big a risk to take IMO

Everything's changed since my last DS started school in 1996. I was told then that there was no such thing as a catchment area and only had to provide birth certs.

The school at the centre of this furore isn't a particularly outstanding school, just an ordinary county primary. BUT it's in an area where 3 huge housing estates have just been built so demand for places is understandably high.

I'm wondering where these other people actually live now.

Skyler, are we both talking about St G***s? Yes, it does try to give the impression of being a minor public school. You have to have a letter from your vicar to get in, too.

Your dh's experience sounds like my dh - he went to a very sought-after boys' grammar. Always in the top ten for exam results nationally, etc. etc. Dh is very clever (possibly cleverer than me in some respects but don't let on I admitted that) but he hated it and didn't do well at all. Made life-long friends, though.

Thankfully there are plenty of excellent senior schools round here to choose from. And ds doesn't even start reception until January so I don't have to worry about tossy headmaster anyway.

Don't know what happened there, should have been more asterisks. St G***s.

Ooh, it did it again. WTF am I being so over-cautious, anyway, it's St George's, damnit.

Marina, I didn't mean snobbery WRT school admissions (although I bet that goes on) merely head's ludicrous comment that could be summed up as 'it must be down to kids from [nearby dog-rough town] travelling into [edamtown] to sell drugs'. As if teenagers living round here are too middle class to do drugs unless they are led astray by common children. WTF?

In our county (Essex) it is standard procedure to provide this yrs' council tax bill plus other address ID to confirm where you live on all applications. Makes no sense why this isn't across the board.

A bit 'off topic', but I sniggered about the idea of local 'nasty' children corrupting one's youth. I live in Romsey, Hants. Due to falling rolls (no one with young kids can afford to live here any more!)there was talk of school closures, amalgamations etc. One of the 4 'primaries' (one's Inf/jun) was run by a proper dick-s**t. He actually produced a map of where he was prepared to take his catchment from! It looked like a spider, thin arms of affluence stretching out amongst council and ex-council estates. Personally I think a state school primary head should be sacked for that sort of conduct, but I'm a voice in the wilderness here!

Dd has just started at a school that is always oversubscribed. We didn't have to provide any proof of address, but her teacher and TA did a home visit a week before she started.

Yes Edam, St Georges. DH had a great time there playing lots of sport and actually boarded for a bit when he was older and his parents moved away (how does the catchment work then hey....oh no I get it you can PAY your way in there through boarding fees .) But academically nothing even though he is bright and smarter than me in some areas (tho like you I would never let him know that) then there is me with my state school comp ed and a degree from a good uni at the end of it all .
Don't think DH struggled to get in as MIL is very pally with the head, though they were in catchment then too.