primary admissions - would you do this and is it ethical?

[benetint]

Our local school is labeled as "rough" by the parents who are from the area. I followed the advice of the lovely mumsnetters on here and had a look round for myself. I must admit I felt a bit intimidated in the playground and one of the dads put his fingers up at me when I got in the car. It might just have been a one off, but coupled with the reputation of the school this really put me off.

Anyway, I've had a look at some schools in other areas and I've fallen in love with one of them. The problem is its oversubscribed and you need to live within 0.2 miles to get in. With the market being the way it is I doubt we could sell our house, particularly with the revenue we'd need to purchase a house in this other area. So another option would be to rent out our house (long term) and rent another house in the area we want to move. I certainly wouldn't move in, get my daughter in the school and then move out. It would be with the idea of renting in the other area long term until we could afford to actually buy.

So I just wanted people's opinions on this. Do you think its an ethical thing to do or do you think the other parents in the area would hate us?? I would worry so much about tenants in our current house letting us down and us not being able to afford to pay for both - basically putting school above our family's financial security. Do you think I'm getting myself way too het up about schools and I just just relax and go for the local one? Or should I move heaven and Earth to get into this good school?

Thank you all.

Not sure if it is relevant, but me and DD are moving at the end of this month so that she can start at a junior school to be sure of a place at an over subscribed senior school.
The junior has accepted her verbally but I have a form to fill out for the education people. On it they want to know the last three addresses she has had if any have been for less than a year.

Thank you all so much for your posts, its great to hear other people's experiences. I really appreciate your good wishes, practical advice and you not thinking I'm an unethical pushy mum!

In my experience, I went to appeal, schools have to keep several places open for families that move into the area. So if all else fails, wait until term starts and then move.