Renting to get into a school

[twee1]

So by my reckoning I think this is the fourth professional working couple I have heard of who has rented to get their child into a school.

I do not know this latest couple well at all but was introduced to them in passing by some local friends so my sniping is about a true case I am not making this up.

Latest example just seems so blatant, they move to a new road, rent a new place in a street that now locals can not afford, put their home out to rent and voila - right before the school year suddenly they manage to get a place in one of the outstanding primary schools in Greenwich.

I have friends who live further out than where they are, but not by much we are talking about the next street away and for the last two years these existing homeowners just can't get their children into their most local school in part due to the high demand for renters closer to the school. My friends have accepted schools further out.

I fire I just really wonder how do people have the cheek? I don't believe it is a case of their not being a decent choice either but obviously you need enough money and cheek to mobilise and fake moving house for a while without being caught.

Do council rules not apply when schools become academies? It is just that in Greenwich it seems so prevalent.

How do you stop this sort of thing?

Also my children are not impacted so I don't really know why I find it so annoying - I think it is just the injustice and the attitude that goes with it - like the spouting of people along the lines of "oh little johnny or Jill got in thankfully we had to pull some strings otherwise we would have had to pay private etc etc "

Rant over...maybe I just need to accept the inequality and move on ....

There was a programme about school admissions a few years ago that covered this issue... in some cases places were rescinded

www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34014556

Come to Scotland.
Kids go to their nearest School.
If the nearest school is shite, they move.
If the whole Curriculum is shite, then you have problems (a diff story).
I moved 50m to rented to get my kids into a better school (English).
12 weeks later, they closed it.
Parents are just trying to do their best for their kids.
If Schooling was less patchy then it would be less of a problem.

But what a start to school life -mummy and daddy deceive to get their child a particular start in life while taking it off another child.

I sold my old house btw. Rented is because cant buy in new area,
I am not 'taking a place'. There are 40 kids in my (new) rural school.

what makes you think scotland is much better? Set catchments mean lots of people around us move in a few months before the school year starts.

Ah, yes, if children on FSM get more funding then that might be the reason for giving them priority. However, the school has a reputation of being very middle class (lots of floppy haired children wearing Polarn O Pyret) while another school across the road definitely isn't.

I wonder if part of the reason for giving the children on FSM priority is to make the school population reflect the general population a bit more? When we went to the open day, I thought the head was getting a bit fed up with all the "So what will you do to make sure that my child gets into Westminster?" type questions.

Having said that, I have met people who said things like "Oh well, our family go to {Other School}, we don't go to {That school}, it isn't for the likes of us" which makes me think that quite a few people are put off by how middle class it is.

CruCru yep we must be talking about the same school, throw in Boden wearers too - and yes it has a reputation for being very very aspirational middle class and lacking in diversity.

I think this is on reason parents may choose the school - so they are not burdened with different children from different backgrounds and another thing I have heard people mention is that the accent developed at this school is less south east London - iykwim.

I did check greenwich council and I can't see anything about not being able to rent it just seems to speak about primary place of residence.

pinkingshears I do understand your position - the situation I am speaking about is renting to move a few streets away while keeping your original home in order to get your child into school.

Is it morally different to buying a house in catchment then selling up when you've got the place?

Lots of people do that here (home counties).

Bromley seem quite hot on renters if they have another property according to their blurb.
Am
Sure you can beat the system but they seem to be aware. Not sure what the academies do.
However what happens if you rent a family home and say rent out your starter
One bed?

i think it's a fine slicing - plenty of people move into catchment for a year and then move out in Scotland here. It's hardly vastly morally superior to keeping your own home and renting somewhere for a year.

people still mind about this around me in Scotland - the debate is that rolls are rising and putting pressure on schools (because they have to accommodate all the kids) and some of this pressure is unfair because the people moving in to get a p1 place aren't long term community members, the schooling equivalent of carpet baggers.

Yes, in England they could deprive someone of a place which is worse, but otoh, Scotland's catchment system means overcrowded schools with little general purpose place.

I'm sorry for your friends but I would do this in a heart beat. How is it fraud? If you pay the council tax its all legal. Now is it moral? I guess along with a million other things we do each day then maybe its not moral.

Thanks again but I could not find anything about this on the greenwich site if I was to contact the council how would I best do so ? i would not want to leave my contact details.

Thanks everyone I am going to contact the school or the council - I bet nothing happens but it is the decisiveness of it all.

Of course it is not fair, but life is not fair! But I totally understand why people who do it. People do it or used to do it all the time at my dd school, until they changed the rules to a lottery system, which annoyingly means we did not get in, even though we bought a house that probably would have been close enough to get in or at least top of waiting list...but instead it changed to lottery and we had to take the paid option to get into the school (two ways to get in school, paid and not paid...all confusing). Its annoying to pay for same education that half kids get for free and one that we own a house close enough to the school that our kids would have gotten in if it did not change to lottery! And no, we did not buy the house to hope we get into the school, we actually bought the house because we liked it :)

consequences definitely different between England and Scotland - I'm just not sure the Scottish system of shovelling however many kids into the same school works that well either!

It's clearly morally dubious - it's one of those things that's right for your family, wrong for someone else's family. Right vs Right dilemma don't they call it?