School wants to see child's passport to prove their right to education

[coffeedregs]

Has anyone been asked to take their child's passport to school (to be photocopied for the school to keep) to show evidence that they have the right to be educated in the UK? School says it is a recent Home Office Directive. Never heard of this before, so curious to find out if others have. (A quick look on the home office website was not helpful.)

We had to do it.

Really? What if you don't have a passport, they're not exactly cheap. Can you use a birth certificate instead?

Hostile environment. They assume you're not a citizen until you tick their boxes.

The school are stuck in the crappy position of now being immigration officers. Failure to prove your child's right to education and they have to report you. What a friendly country we are!

That is completely wrong- all children under 16 are entitled to education, regardless of their parents' status, or their origin.
The DfE have removed Nationality and Country of Birth from the census, and will not share with Home Office.
Look up the funding documents for maintained schools on DfE site to see it in black and white.

Employers have had to do this for years (obtain proof of the right to work) just another devolvement of work but this time to schools by the sound of it. They probably have to obtain proof of the child's eligibility for school but it won't have to be a passport as not every child has one.

We had to bring a birth certificate.

Isn’t it to prove their age so they get put on the right year group so parents can’t unilaterally decide to put them a year ahead / year behind?

@Haskell Not everyone is entitled to a state education in the UK.

www.gov.uk/guidance/schools-admissions-applications-from-overseas-children

Yes. The school I work in requires passports.
The school my DC attend required a copy of BC.

There was a massive kerfuffle at a local primary school here where every child who looked like they weren’t white, or had a ‘forrin’ Surname was asked to bring a passport in- this was y5 by the way.

I inadvertently blew the whistle by asking a parent if I had missed the letter for passports because I’m scatty, and we slowly realised it was because DD is white, blonde, and has a Smith style surname.

That was an interesting term.

Is it really likely that children from abroad, who have been sent to board in UK, would switch to a state primary? Do you really think those are the OP's circumstances?

Or that they're here visiting?

Those are the only exceptions.

We had to provide original birth cert for 2011 start. This is nothing new.

Yeah we had to provide a birth certificate (no passport) & council tax bill.

Many thanks for all your replies. I'd not heard about this happening before and didn't want to blindly do it without checking things out.

Datedandold - my toes are curling for you. My child is blond with an English sounding name too, so at least my school is applying the policy across the board...

Bombardier - yes, it seems like schools are now having to be outposts of the Home Office. Sad.

It will undoubtedly only get worse with Brexit too....

@Haskell - The vast majority of people in the UK who are not entitled to remain overstayed short-term visitor visas. A recent estimate was there were over 600,000 of them.

These may or may not be OP's circumstances but your statement "all children under 16 are entitled to education, regardless of their parents' status, or their origin" was factually incorrect and Bombardier's link perfectly relevant.

It was an addition to the census but the HO had to quickly backtrack when it was publicly queried. Your school is out of date.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/708550/2017_to_2018_School_Census_Guide_V1_8.pdf

Check out page 67

Birth certificate would suffice if the dc doesn’t have a passport

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/744938/2018_to_2019_School_Census_Guide_V1_5.pdf

This year's guidance, check out page 13.

From EllenJanes link:

1.4.3.2 Pupil nationality
The collection of pupil nationality is no longer required by the department and, as such, it is removed from the school census collection with immediate effect. Schools must no longer request this information from parents, or retain the data within their system, for purpose of transmitting to the department via the school census.
1.4.3.3 Country of Birth
The collection of pupil country of birth is no longer required by the department and, as such, it is removed from the school census collection with immediate effect.
Schools must no longer request this information from parents, or retain the data within their system, for purpose of transmitting to the department via the school census.

We did birth certificate. He has no passport

Even when they were collecting pupil nationality and country of birth, schools were not allowed to ask to see passports and parents could refuse to give any information about nationality.

EllenJanesthickerknickers - thank you, I will show this to my school.

This reminds me of an article from a couple of years ago, interesting read:

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/sep/26/parents-boycott-requests-childrens-country-of-birth-information