No judgment please — has anyone actually been checked and removed from a school for being out of catchment?

[Uptownmom]

Hi all,

Please no judgment — I’m just looking to hear real experiences from other parents.

We own a flat in a good catchment area, which we currently rent out (it’s an HMO). At the moment, we’re living in a different part of the city that we really love and that works well for our family, but the local schools near us aren’t as strong as the ones in the catchment for our rental property.

Our baby is only 1 now, so school is still a few years off, but I’ve been thinking about the possibility of using our rental flat address to apply when the time comes — even though we won’t be living there full-time. I know it’s not the “correct” way to go about it, but like many parents, I want to give my child the best education I can without uprooting our lives unnecessarily or putting strain on us financially.

That said, I’m nervous about what could happen. Has anyone actually been checked and removed from a school for not truly living at the catchment address? Are councils really investigating this kind of thing? If so, how common is it, and how do they check?

I’d really appreciate any honest insight or stories — again, no judgment please. I’m just trying to understand the real-world risks and how this plays out in practice.

I did say within towns. Back in the 90s before population levels were so high and catchments were naturally wider, we used to walk a bit further to school.

And if school in the local community is rubbish?

And you can't afford to move out?

Its so idealistic to say that kids should just go to the local school. The local school sounds poor. Nobody would choose to send their children to a poor school when they have an alternative.

ETA The local (excellent) secondary has a warning on their website that they will remove kids if they find out they lied on their application form. As so many rent for the length of time it takes to apply and get an offer of a place, they can't declare that people can't move house after accepting the offer.

They have amended their policy now to say that the rule where a sibling is automatically accepted, will no longer apply if their family moved outside the catchment.

So Child 1 stays in the school. Child 2 will not be offered a place under the sibling policy.

If you only have one child, this won't be a worry for you OP.

again, no judgment please.

I'm judging you.

In my area the teachers come to your house to meet your child a few weeks before school starts so they see a familiar face when they do start

Our form was sent electronically on the basis of the address we paid council tax/ are on the electoral register for. I'm not sure how you'd receive an application form for the rental address if a tenant is registered at that address for council tax and/or listed on the electoral register as living there? You would have to, illegally, use the address. If you have a tenant at that time how would that work? You take over their council tax bill? For how long? If you mess them about and they know why they'd have a very easy way to get back at you.

Even if you did go to all the effort of committing fraud you're not guaranteed a place at the school you want. If there were 30 applications for siblings for example, your kid still wouldn't get in even if they lived next door to the school gates. Besides which, do you really want to travel across town every morning and evening through rush hour traffic to get your child to school? That'll get old quickly.

The vast majority of primary schools are good. Visit your local ones nearer the time and see what you think. They'll probably be fine.

It's not good for your child to travel that far.

I would be very careful about this.

I have heard of kids being removed from secondary school after their parents lied to get them in from outside catchment, but not primary. However the checks are thorough and I would be surprised if you managed to get your child in from outside catchment.

Also bear in mind how you are going to arrange play dates etc with other children in your child’s class. If you invite them to your house, how are you going to explain how you managed to get your child into the school from where you live? You might find that the parents you have become friends with report you to the school themselves if they know of families who didn’t get in and they feel very strongly about it. It will be very stressful if you get into the school after being dishonest and asked to leave.

When I was Nursery manager for my school I did checks including home visits, paperwork checks etc. We didn’t hesitate to rescind places because it’s fraud. You say you want the best for your child but so do all the parents of the children who actually live where they say they do.

Honestly, it’s a stupid system. Why should your child suffer just because the school near you is crap. People always give you warnings about all the bad things that can happen as they don’t want people doing it and stealing their precious child’s place. I’ve known hundreds of people do it and not one child has lost their place. Just forego the tenant for 6 months before application and have council tax, bills etc. registered there. Apply in your name and put the council tax on your current house in your husband’s name. It will just look like you’ve split up and you live in the rented house with your daughter. Honestly, councils do not check is long as all the documents add up - they are pretty much incompetent at the best of times! You honestly think they are going to go all Miss Marple over school places? Very few schools do home visits now. Make the shit system we have work for you…and I say that as a teacher!

In our area we had to provide
Council tax statements
Bills in our names
Child benefit statement
And they did a home visit

Maybe it will depend on area but the schools near us are very good and over subscribed and the council checks then the school themselves check
You can end uo without a school place anywhere near you at all if they find out and yoj get removed from the list
We moved into the catchment for the schools specifically.
People can also report you, so if other parents or teachers suspect you then they might report you. Especially if they have friends that didnt get a place and they find out you did. Its a risky game to play.

You can also get into a school out of catchment if you fit one of the other criteria, sibljngs, echp, etc theres a bunch of reasons that ait above catchment.

Its so idealistic to say that kids should just go to the local school. The local school sounds poor. Nobody would choose to send their children to a poor school when they have an alternative

If there wasn’t an alternative there’d be a wider range of kids in the school.

l used to be a teacher. Kids belong in local schools, not one an hour away.

Brilliant idea - just throw your tenants out of their homes so that you can cheat the system.

Yes, you are allowed actually live there! And you are allowed to move slightly further away once your child is at the school.

You don't get extra brownie points for having lived there 20 years.

The child is one, there doesn't have to be any throwing out.

I am judging you. Everyone wants the best for their child. Imagine the world we’d live in if everyone lied and cheated to get it. Don’t be that person.

For this to work (and I'm NOT justifying it) you could either

1. Separate. You move into flat with children, moving child benefit, council tax doctors, bank statements etc the lot, for at least a year before the child starts. Dont spend any time with your partner, they stay 2 or 3 nights a week.

1. Rent out family home over sell it, and move into rental flat.

Us it really worth the financial implications or the upset to the child to do either?

No they don’t! We actually applied for school places that were 70miles away as we were moving house. We thought it would be really difficult and we’d need to provide all types of evidence. We didn’t - we just gave the new address a we’re moving too and the expected date we were moving!

This might sound harsh OP, but you've no right to ask for no judgement on this one, when what you're doing is potentially stealing a school place.

Ours checks the council tax records themselves, so we don’t need to send proof (just add a ref number to the application if we have it).

How can they? What about people who genuinely move house?

To be honest OP, if you do this, I hope you get caught. In our area you’d be caught out at the home visit, unless you’re planning on instructing your tenants to be out, and then dressing the living room to make it look like a child lives there full time.

You can't ask for 'no judgement'. People can and will judge you if you lie. Many schools perform checks and many other parents would report you if they know.

I've always had to show council tax bills for my daughter's school places.

It’s area dependent. I recently applied for my son’s school place and had absolutely no checks; it was all done via email so nothing even came to the home address. However, friends of ours who fell into the city rather than county for address purposes had council tax checks.

I understand wanting to do it, it crossed my mind to use my parents address as the lovely school next to them was also nearest my work so just far more practical over anything else. But it was only a brief thought - why do I/my child deserve that over anyone else?
I don't think you can ask not to be judged when it's something that would directly impact another family that didn't get a place because of it.