Private school requiring a strict minimum period of residence in postcode

[susan1984r]

Daughter just misses it by a year. In their application form could we just write she started at the local state school a year earlier? What is the likelihood Private school checking? Would they be contacting the state school by phone or email? We think this is most unlikely. Or is there a written down record that all schools can see and may use?

Independent schools also have to make sure that the children attending are allowed to be resident in the UK. We had to provide photos of my children’s passports.

Presumably there is some system to allow overseas children to board in the UK but I don’t know very much about that.

Many private schools offer fee discounts, scholarships and bursaries specifically for local children. This is from the scholarship section of Rodean:

“Brighthelm Awards, which are a combination of both scholarship and means-tested funding, are available for girls joining in Years 7 and 12 who are currently in the state sector and living within a radius of 20 miles of the school. “

It’s not unusual for fee discount situations. It is unusual for regular admissions - only SPGS is one I can think of.

Dd's private school gives slight preference for admissions to local children: part of their founding ethos of serving the local community.

It isn't a strict limit though. Is yours? I'd have thought that your best bet would be to contact the school and explain the situation. Tell them anything that strengthens your ties to the local area (church membership? volunteering?). They have complete discretion over admissions.

Don't lie.

I think SPGS is unusual, to be fair. I remember the high mistress saying that sports teams start training at 7:30am and girls with a mad journey to and from school can’t sensibly take part in them. They have enough applicants to be able to restrict the journey.

I would assume that the school was once endowed by the worshipful company of Little Doddering shoemakers, for the everlasting benefit of village children, and they have to stick to it or the buildings revert to the Duchy of Lancaster.

Or something equally random!

I can understand a school specifying a maximum journey time, because that affects daily life at school. But I don't see what difference it makes how long someone has lived locally if it's a private school. Surely one of the appealing factors of private school is that you can get a place straight away upon moving house?

I'm reading this differently to some of earlier posters. I take it that OP now lives near to the school but in order to qualify for Bursary?, needs to have been resident in the area for a certain number of years prior to application. I assume it's to prevent people moving their kid to a local primary just for Year 6 and then try to claim for Local resident status. As the Primary school will probably be asked for a reference or at very least confirmation of years at the school, the OPs proposed lie will be found out.

I work in private, schools talk to one another. You can’t get away with shit.

A friend of mine qualified for a substantial bursary from a private school because she lived in a particular parish and the terms were set that only children who had been at primary school in the parish for the entire 7 years would be eligible.