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.

This is so weird. I can’t imagine being such a committed enforcer of such a flawed system. It is hardly the parent’s fault that schools vary in quality so much.

If the parents want the school so badly they can get themselves into catchment through normal means without committing fraud, maybe?
Sad that you’d consider that weird.

Where local, non grammar schools are actually over enrolled and in a low socio economic area yet still a high achieving school, it's of priority to exec that kids who actually live in the area can go there! It's not as unreasonable as you would like to believe :)

You have to produce 2 years worth of bills as proof near us!

Yes, this is the case for pretty much all London schools.

I think some people forget its not a victimless crime. When children are displaced from their local school, the nearest school with space can be miles away. That could mean a 4yo child being sent of in a taxi alone. Or a parent having to walk 4 miles twice a day, with other children as there isn't a bus but its technically within the distance. Or children being separated from their friends for Secondary school.

You’re right (especially about invested parents improving the school’s results and reputation through tutoring) but no matter how much money is poured in there will always be some schools with a disproportionate number of the type of children who throw chairs at their classmates, bite their teachers and tell everyone to fuck off (because these behaviours are tolerated and defended by their parents, and teachers can only do so much - the children are only in school 30 hours a week, 39 weeks per year) and therefore most engaged parents will do everything they can to keep their children away from those schools.

Our council check

My LA don’t check, they stopped a few years back. I did work with admissions for a while and when I asked why and they said it was self policing!

My children went to an over subscribed and popular primary, there were a few instances over the years of parents trying this (using grandparents addresses) but everyone knew and TBH someone always grassed on them well before September. Resulting in kids losing their place and it being incredibly embarrassing for the parents.

Word gets round very quickly at primary school, it’s generally a small catchment area and most kids will be at the pre-school attached or know eachother somehow. Another child won’t get in if you do this, the parents will inevitably be upset and start asking around.

Don’t risk it, you’re unlikely to get away with it and it is unfair. You have time to move

Deal with it. Most schools are much of a muchness.

Renting the house out for the year would solve those problems.

There is no rule about owning more than one property. Who the bills and council tax is registered to is what matters.

It wouldn’t be a fraudulent claim if the OP switched which property she lives in full time and which one she rents out.

True. But op doesn't want to do that.

I have taught in many state schools. Some are like borstal and some are wonderful. They are really not much of a muchness.

A 'friend' of mine did this with her ds

They owned 3 houses-one they lived in and rented the other two out

When it came to applying for schools,they got one of their tenants to move out,moved in theirselves,got into the school and moved back to their proper home once he got in

They claimed they'd just moved as it was closer to her husbands work (which technically was true)

It caused problems when his sisters started two years later-my ds and another child didn't get in because of their children (we appealed and both my ds and the other child got a place in the end-i was told id have to drop my elder ds off at school,walk the mile and a half to the other school and then go onto work myself) but I know of other kids didn't get in (lots of other parents did the same as it was a lovely school)

Where they lived properly had some lovely schools but she didn't want her kids to go to them (she was very much 'I want,I get' and her husband was the same)

It was a joke-she used to laugh about it and how 'the pathetic kids didn't get in'

As it was,she would drive the kids to school from over 30 miles away and nobody batted an eyelid-if she'd been truthful,they could have walked the 5 minutes and the kids could have seen their friends after school-schools trips (if they came back a bit later) where a nightmare and she'd moan about it

We are no longer friends

What a horrible friend

It sounds like the desired school is not in a "naice" area from the OP, otherwise you could move to the new area (selling the HMO if you need).

Fwiw I think being the only one to commute is a bit rubbish. ds commutes to his infant school and everyone else walks/ lives close (DS has an EHCP amd they have a speech centre he attends). For juniors I've gone for a less SEN specific local school as he's missed out on so much of the social and community side, if I had my time again I think I would have possibly chosen a local school that is closer,

Afaik our school didn't check. You'll have no way of knowing really op if you'd get found out. Anecdotally, I have heard of 1 child via a friend who had to leave as they were caught out.

You can safely ignore the home visit stuff though, they aren't mandatory.

It’s not the schools that carry out checks, it’s the LA you apply to - your address is cross referenced with the Council tax records and also the Land Registry in certain instances.

Just as an example of how a council may treat an application such as the OP’s:

https://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/media/ggxfyjcy/address-of-convenience-protocol.pdf

Note particularly the section on address verification, which states that eg evidence that a house has been let for 12 months is not in itself sufficient to prove that an address of convenience is not being used.

Parents at some of the schools near me definitely would report this if they found out. People know where they are on the waiting list - if they are number 1 or 2 and they know someone is there fraudulently, why would they not?

OP, your baby is 1. Wait a couple of years and see how things are then. My local school was very desirable 4/5 years ago. New head is very unpopular and teacher leaving in their droves. It's not so popular now.
Also, might you have more children? You might have to go through it all again.

I reported someone for this once - I don't want to share the nitty-gritty details as I've name changed since but they owned House A and Flat B, had moved from B to A but were renting B out, and used B as their address for the school application. And were telling all and sundry about it and how it was fine because they still paid the council tax. It wasn't fine, and they ended up needing to apply for a place from their actual address once the initial round of applications was done.

What happened? was she made to leave?

Different schools have different requirements and our LA does require proof of address. They know some secondary schools will have fraudulent applications and have big warnings to parents that dc will be removed and they do pursue this. They don’t all home visit by any means. They cross check electoral rolls though. So bills and electoral roll.

Yeah right 😆

Pfft I can tell the type of area you live in.
I can assure you some schools are very much not the same as others which is why some parents will do anything in their power to get their child into a half decent school.
Much of a muchness indeed 🙄