Is age fraud really prevalent in schools?!

[sallowmarshmallow]

My dd attends a private school. I've noticed some of the girls there are very eye developed and yet come from a country where the girls generally develop more slowly than the western dc. I am not from a western country so this is not against any person or race it's just this particular race that happens to be more obvious that genuine dc of this age are much smaller than western dc but these girls are fully developed and acting and looking much much older than the year they attend school in.

I spoke to my friend who is from the same country as these girls and she said it's quite common for parents to send their dc to foreign/international schools and lie about the dc age (within a few years)
I was quite shocked tbh and wondered how prevalent this is. Particularly curious now as I see them succeed in sports teams and academically take all the top spots and this is all very well now, but obviously when it comes to official exams, surely they will also skew overall results that dc the 'correct' age will then be competing with.
Is my friend right?!

Not private school but we had at least 10 in our year group that were actual grown men. Beards and all sorts. They joined in year 10 I think. Found out after I left we had a sympathetic head of year.

They were refugees.

In international schools it's common to have kids a year out.

For example, a new teacher is hired & arrives with dc in tow aged 15 & 17.

It would be standard for the 15yo to go into year 10 (even if they've already done year 10) to avoid the embuggerance of a different exam board etc.

Equally, the 17yo has completed a year of A levels, but we do IB - so they join y12.

They won't be alone, as it is absolutely routine for parents who know their dc to be academically weak, to remove them for a year, tutor them to within an inch of their lives & then re-introduce them as younger than their age.

I've got an absolutely lovely y10 student who attends roughly 20% of the time. She's 19. We are both hoping she cracks igcse this time around...

They don't have the right. They can ask. It's up to the headteacher who can agree and admit or say no.

Yes, you're absolutely right, it's the right to ask. It's the admissions authority (governors for example) who make the decision, then they have to have regard to the head's opinion.

In any case, the 'oh, they must be lying' stuff from the OP and 'her friend' is nonsense.

Why on earth are you posting about school girls 'mature' bodies?

Seriously!?

This isn’t true, I moved from abroad in year 11 and just sat all my GCSEs in one year, although I only did eight.

This does happen a lot in UK boarding schools. There is a public school near us with lots of Chinese students in their early 20s.

There are many reasons students are taught out of age group. Some countries start school later, different schooling system so makes more sense to join at different entry points, extra time to brush up on English and acclimatise to new syllabus/country. There is no need to lie about it. Public exams and uni entry don't have age limit and are not age-weighted. Being older also doesn't mean you will do better in exams at secondary level, or better at sports.

Just because you weren't able to doesn't mean it isn't true.
Both my DCs at private schools had children out of year attending.
Some down a year to catch up or redo a year, some up a year or two if very bright.

I went to an English state school and I remember a boy in my class had a really full bushy beard and looked at least mid-late 20s. Had the figure of a grown man, not a mid-teenage boy. Other boys of his race had a smooth hairless face or maybe the tiniest bit of stubble, which is what you’d expect of 14 year old boys. This was around 10 years ago. I do think faking ages is a thing.

Isn't it lucky how every child of the same ethnicity hits puberty at exactly the same age with no variation in beard growth at all?

I used to teach in a school where it was believed this was happening, however it wasn't a private school. It was a primary school and the children who it was believed were much older really struggled socially and emotionally, it was very clear that they were at a different stage in their lives to their peers.

I'm not in the UK but have been auditing school students as part of my job. The record so far is aged 22 and in grade 12 (year 13)

It happened at the school I went to as well but it’s not fraud as OP claims

I do think that safeguarding could be an issue to be honest. Do the parents of the 11 year olds know there are adults well over the age of 18 in the student body? Quite possibly not. 6th form only, I’ve no issues. 11-18 boarding, I would.

True. You can get a fake passport for £10 in Pakistan.

I’ve literally never seen a 14 year old boy with a really long bushy full beard. A lot of us thought he was much older. An adult.

DD is 14 and has a very womanly body, boobs and hips and is taller than me now. Her firend who is 1 day older and we have known since they were little, is a good half a foot shorter, skinny and no obvious womanly attributes. To look at them you would place them a couple of years apart.

Similarly DS2 age 12 some friends at school who are about 1.5 foot shorter! they look so funny together as they are on the shorter side for year 7 and DS has really shot up so is on the taller side. again they look years aprt in age (but not maturity 😂)

They are in state school and all british so no suspicions of playing the game and faking passports.

I was at a private school. My best friend was the eldest in the year with a September birthday. My other good friend was 1 year 9 months younger because the school took out of normal year applications.

Other good friend was actually closer in age to my younger sister who was in her correct age group and also had a September birthday than she was to me or best friend

FWIW I have a DS who sports a full beard aged 15. He is often mistaken for older.

There was a headline about someone having a man in their maths group and he had slipped through the net by lying about his age. It was only one guy and he was caught fairly early on. I would be surprised if any school allowed a number of people lying about their age to join schoolchildren for any length of time.

genuine dc of this age are much smaller than western dc

I hear the Home office are currently looking to put together a team of race scientists if you're available OP!

It definitely happens but not sure how prevalent.

I’ve literally never seen a 14 year old boy with a really long bushy full beard. A lot of us thought he was much older. An adult.

I have 🤷‍♀️ And known the kid since pre-school so genuine. If he was an adult trying to pass as younger he'd had a close shave every morning. Some kids develop early.

It is a thing. I worked in visa fraud and it is absolutely normal in some countries to alter birth certs to change years of birth. Sometimes to improve horoscopes, and sometimes for education. Sometimes it gets picked up, but if the local authorities are complicit then it will be a genuine birth certificate and passport but with fake DOB.

Bing!