can you do this?

[tostaky]

Rent a flat super close to the school you are interested in 6 months before filling out the application form, and then once your DS/DD is in, move out of the area?
Is it worthy?
is it only for primary schools that one needs to be located close to the school? or does it work like that for secondary as well?

it's not very ethical and probably a very bad idea.

Dunno about worthy, but it's dishonest. They will ask for evidence of how long you've lived at the address, and people have already been prosecuted for pretending to live at an address when in fact they've just rented it for school catchment purposes.

They might even use a private detective to watch you.

dishonest, that was the word I was vainly searching for, thanks cogito.

Just asking bc the thought of it crossed our mind. Schools around here are "below average" according to OFSTED and house prices near the good schools are prohibitive...

the private detective will die of boredom if he follows me around for a day....!

Lots of people do this in our borough - the council know it and don't do anything about it. I was very angry about this practice when DD1 didn't get into our first choice school precisely because of people doing this. It means that most of the children can't walk to school because they live too far away. We would have been able to walk to this school, but have to drive to the school we were allocated.

Some boroughs have used private detectives to check up on people and there is always a home visit prior to your child starting school, and the teachers are often primed to ask leading questions of the child if there is any doubt about this being your real address.

In some boroughs they've closed the loophole and you have to prove that you've lived in your rented property for a certain period of time (as much as a year) and that you don't own any other property in the borough.

Be careful as schools are clamping down on this now and there have been instances of school places being withdrawn after a place has been offered.

As mentioned by cogito, there was a high-profile court case which resulted in the conviction of a mother who did something similar last year.

it's very common round here (outstanding secondary/tiny catchment) - many of the houses in the two roads closest to the school are 'school rentals' - people live there for a year, apply from there and then move back to their 'proper' house once the kids are in - all subsequent children get in as siblings under the distance ruling as the first child was within the catchment area at the time of applying. I personally know two families who've done this and know of several others parachuting in from more expensive areas a couple of miles away

But as the families are actually living there at the time they apply there's nothing the LEA can do ...

"Schools around here are "below average" according to OFSTED"

Interesting. That's not an OFSTED judgement I recognise - what are the actual ratings?

Yes unfortunately there is not much the LEA can do if you go and actually rent somewhere and live there for 1 year.

I also know one person who genuinely rented just a few months before the admission date as she had separated from her husband. I would be loathed to think they would argue she wasn't able to send her kids to the local school as she had not been living there for x number or years or that she also owned another house in the borough. People do own more than one house for all sorts of reasons....

very common round here (SE london) - as long as you are at the address at the time of application and offer then no problem - totally unethical imho but i've found its dog eat dog nowadays and would have probably done it if we could afford it!

I know of at least one person round here (SE London) whose child had a Reception place withdrawn due to a 'fraudulent application'... if you do choose to go down this route be prepared to be the pariah of the playground (if you get that far - you may end up in court between the time that your child is offered a place and s/he starts Reception).

Deception is not something I would use in order to get my child into a preferred school and yes, I would most definitely report someone if I knew for certain that they'd rented purely to secure a Reception place at a specific school. Why? Firstly because I think it's unfair on those who do play by the rules/don't have the money to consider doing anything but and secondly because my child missed out on a Reception place at the school where I teach due to the aforementioned fraudulent application. The knock-on effect of the fraud was that my child, another child and the child of the fraudulent parent all ended up changing schools; 90 children (3 classes across 3 schools) were affected by friends leaving and moeing elsewhere.