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Original poster

IF you knew some people who have cheated on their registred address in order to get their kids in the best school...

99 replies

Summerfruitfullofscaryworms · 09/10/2007 12:18

Would you do report them or would you do nothing ? I know some people who have managed to cheat...they are "renting" a place just near the school where everybody want to put their kids (including me) but they are not leaving there..they are at least 1 mile from this school so not in the catchment...my dd is probably going to be refused a place because we are living at 547 m from the school and the limit is 532 m...I feel like crying, it's so unfair, I feel powerless. What would you do ??

OP posts:

3andnogore · 09/10/2007 13:33

cargirl, sorry about your bad experiences
LIke I said, I do realise just how lucky es was...and ms has now started there in reception, and I think we are very lucky again, his teacher seems absolutely fab...

ChippyMinton · 09/10/2007 13:34

Have i read this correctly - their son is already at the school? Was this legit or were they renting then too? Is there a sibling rule that would apply to their daughter?

If a child is already established at the school, you shouldn't shop them, for the child's sake. for you though, the whole admission system is unfair.

Gobbledispook · 09/10/2007 13:35

I'm afraid I would put my own child above someone else's ([evil bitch emotion]) - it's their problem if they lied. Unfair on the child, yes, but also unfair on yours and you should put your dd first.

PSCMUM · 09/10/2007 13:37

that is so crap! god you poor thing. That is just cheating on the part of those other parents, and it is all very well them thinking 'well we have to do the best for our child' but it is at the expense of other kids like yours, who now will not only get into the good school they wanted ot go to, but will probably have to travel to a further away one. oooo it makes me fume. I'd defo report, unless the child was already in the school, in which case you sohouldn't unsettle that child and risk punishing them for their irritating parents behaviorus.

poor you tho, you really do have my sympathy, its such a shite situation.

CarGirl · 09/10/2007 13:37

yes 3 I was gutted, pulled her from the best school in the area (i had to move house to worse area) and put her in that dump, anyway they are closing it this summer so all hell is going to break as the people in the "nice" houses will no longer get into the "nice" school (mine will get in on sibling rule) as the PAN is halfing to 30.

Absolute nightmare all around!

Freckle · 09/10/2007 13:38

Our infant school introduced a rule that, if a family moved more than 2 miles away after their child had gained a place at the school, then the sibling rule would not apply. So families are now having to find places for more than one child if they choose to move any distance away from the school.

Gobbledispook · 09/10/2007 13:39

I think that makes sense Freckle.

CarGirl · 09/10/2007 13:42

Freckle I do totally support that and think if it were introduced everywhere it would stop all the cheating! If people then moved to get a place then fine at least they would stay there for a number of years until their youngest was in the school.

Blu · 09/10/2007 13:44

Summer - if they have now given up the rental of the address they used, it is probably too late for the LEA to prove that they weren't actually living there at the time they applied. If they were doing that NOW somone could call round and see that they were living elsewhere, but as you say, now they don't need to be living close anyway because of the sibling rule.

3andnogore · 09/10/2007 13:45

sounds like a sound rule freckle...

car girl...that is so awful for you

edam · 09/10/2007 13:45

Makes sense, Freckle. I know of two families within catchment (well, it goes on proximity, but everyone else who lives in the same street gets in) having to wait for places at ds's school. While other families have moved out knowing that their younger ones will get into the school because the eldest is there. Seems very unfair.

Blu · 09/10/2007 13:46

The 'if you move away' rule penalises children of parents who have to move for 'genuine' reasons, though, doesn't it? I would rather my child stay settled at school and travel a bit further if i had to move to get somewhere bigger, or got evicted from a rental home or something.

Original poster

Summerfruitfullofscaryworms · 09/10/2007 13:47

But I'm not a bitch so I'll probably say nothing for the sake of their children ..I was just on the phone talking to DH and he said we'll probably move but I love leaving here and so does dd...

OP posts:

Gobbledispook · 09/10/2007 13:47

Will their child get in due to sibling only - is there no distance rule as well?

here it goes:

Sibling and in catchment
No sibling and in catchment
Sibling and out of catchment (done by distance)
No sibling and out of catchment

This year some people who are out of catchment with a sibling in already did not get in.

paolosgirl · 09/10/2007 13:48

I posted something similar a couple of years back. My friend who was a teacher in the school confided in me that she knew of a family of were doing just this. A lot of people who posted complained not about the family lying, but the fact that my friend had told me something that should have been confidential.

Nowever, much later on, the child came into school, complaining that she had been beaten by the teacher at the Mosque she goes to. SS and the Police were called - and guess what? They couldn't find her parents, because the address that the school WAS WRONG. So - major child protection issue, and it took a while for the parents to be tracked down for interviews. Oh - and even then she wasn't moved from the school because it was felt that she had settled, and had gone through enough. Tough on the many kids from families who gave their correct addresses who didn't get in.

It is so bloody infuriating when schools and the Council don't take a tough enough line, to the detriment of everyone else.

Freckle · 09/10/2007 13:49

I think there are always going to be losers no matter what the rules are, but I do believe that schools should cater for their locality and not force children to travel unnecessary distances in order to go to school.

In the scenario where a family moves away but keeps their child(ren) at a school, you could have those children travelling to school with other local children having to travel to another school further away. It's crazy.

CarGirl · 09/10/2007 13:49

In the long run what the council are doing is good, everyone will have to go their locla school but my children are going to put up with building work (infant school converting to a primary), portable classrooms, 300 children in a school that has little land and currently only houses 180 children. There going to go through a new junior school, uniform change for all of them etc etc etc etc etc

Plus I'll always have to walk them to school - too many roads to cross with blind corners etc

Nightmare all around!

Best of all they want to knock closing school down and build housing

elliott · 09/10/2007 13:54

Blu I have friends whose kids go to Sudbourne (legitimately, I should say!) Definitely the winner of the School Most Featured in the Guardian award....their tales of school shenanigans (esp the new Lambeth secondary) seem like another world to us (we have about 4 undersubscribed and perfectly decent primary schools within a couple of miles...)

pooka · 09/10/2007 13:55

Gobbledispook. That sounds like a much more fair way of doing things. We only just missed out on our preferred school, whereas about 4 or 5 (I reckon) siblings got in who live much further from the school than me. Their parents moved after getting child No. 1 in.

edam · 09/10/2007 13:55

We moved house a lot when I was little. Move house = move schools. Don't see why that's a shocking revelation. Unless you move within catchment.

dayofftomorrow · 09/10/2007 13:56

what about those who suddenly find religion as well and just turn up for a few weeks before applying, and quite often they are the first to complain about the number of prayers, church services and compulsory re gcse in secondary schools

one of the schools insists on seven years proof of church attendance

and you still get people who put down false addresses

Kaz33 · 09/10/2007 13:56

Just reread your message - your DD might get a place and might get in on the waiting list. So don't despair you might get in.

BOOndle · 09/10/2007 13:59

at our school you have to have utility bills & everything to request a place

no sibling policy

dayofftomorrow · 09/10/2007 14:02

the utility bill bit is getting harder especially as many of the companies are encouraging you to have online billing and direct debits so you end up without the relevant bits of paper

alibubbles · 09/10/2007 14:03

I wouldn't have though you could ask to check child benefit details, not everyone claims it, I know a few people who don't as they say they don't need it. Adresses with utility bill fine, or council tax bill and electoral roll.

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