Any real moral difference between a short term let for admission purposes or permanently moving

[OhDearConfused]

Question says it all really.

A short term let or a more permanent move, in either case to get you into catchment for admissions at a popular school, still has the effect of reducing the catchment area, increasing housing prices, disadvantaging the poor, and so on.

Is there a real difference?

Struggling with this at the moment, as in catchment for a not-particularly-attractive school, when many others are doing one or the other to get into another school a little further away.

Just wondering what other's views are?

Hang on, hang on, Abendbrot...you misunderstand.

My shouting parent scenario was a comparison...a bit of (what's it called in Eng Lit?) metaphor? something like that. I was saying, in terms of how the kids behave, these ones behave like the shouting parent while the other schoolkids I see (and I regularly see kids from at least four different secondary schools on our journeys to and from our primary) are more like the restrained parent.

I don't like the way you've insulted me on the basis that I am unwilling to report every episode of bullying I witness among kids coming home from a school that frankly is rife with it from what I see.

The problem seems intractable. I'm not sure why that is my fault for not reporting these incidents. Indeed I imagine the school must receive a lot of complaints, all the time, but have never been able to do much about the children's behaviour - they never managed it when my friends went there.

Some parents DO want their children to go there, I shouldn't have said no one. I have met people who did.
But they were people who encouraged this kind of survival of the fittest behaviour in their own kids. The ones organising the bullying probably, or may, (can't say for sure) have parents who condone it.

Thanks Slave. You've got it.

Abendbrot - I'm not assuming anything. I'm talking about incidents I witness daily.

Morally your loyalties should be with your children. You owe them the very best that you can muster.

I just want to point out that I am against the idea of renting temporarily in order to gain a school place.

My original point about not sending my child to a horrible school was made in conjunction with the statement that I would teach him at home, or something, if it came to it. I wouldn't try and nab someone else's place from under their nose/across their street.

Gallowees - within what boundaries? Easy to say that, but at what point would you stop putting your child first? Lying to get the best for your child? Stealing?

I wouldn't break the law.

I know this thread is a bit old but just wanted to lift it up to discuss my friend's story, as it made me think about this question again

As a background, my friend is a single mum with 2 kids. She is university educated but in the current economic climate she struggled to find a well-paid job. She did find a job, but her salary was really not that big. She was renting a flat in a cheap-ish area of London and all schools around her were not that good. She had a particular good school in mind where she wanted who elder child (and, eventually both kids) to go, but that school was in such an area of London where she would never be able to rent long-term on her salary. She was prepared to take a personal loan and rent short-term in the area, moving further out after the child gets into the school. Then she read this thread and all the discussions about this option being morally wrong, and having to move to the area permanently, etc?

She was thinking about it long and hard, she is a hard working women and she was prepared to continue working hard, but there was no way she would be to rent near that school long term. So she decided that if she had to live there long term, there was only one way for her to do this, and this is what she's done:

She has stopped working, terminated her flat rental contract (as she could no longer afford to pay for it), and, as a "homeless" single mother with 2 kids and no job, she very quickly got a council flat in the council estate very near her desired school. The child is now at school, she is sitting at home on benefits and is better off than when she was working as she has almost the same amount of money to spend a month as before (when she had to pay almost all her salary on private rental accommodation and childminder) and instead of working she is now spending all time with her kids.

This just made me thinking - by doing this, she had "permanently moved" into the area, but the result is the same as if she had rented temporary accommodation and then moved further - some other child still lost his place. At the same time, by doing what she's done, she has taken the council flat which may have been given to someone else, and she did not really want this, she was prepared to continue working and paying for private rental, even though she had little money left after that. But the rental prices were so high in the area, that she had no other choice that doing what she's done if she wanted her child to get into that school?

Really, I just don't understand where this world is going?

She was very, very lucky to be offered a council flat at all, let alone one right next to her school of choice.

I doubt many people are quite so fortunate

She has stopped working, terminated her flat rental contract (as she could no longer afford to pay for it), and, as a "homeless" single mother with 2 kids and no job, she very quickly got a council flat in the council estate very near her desired school

This does not ring true. If you terminate a rental contract you are not homeless and would not be rehoused.

Well yes, there's that as well creamteas.

HA/council flats are like unicorn plop in most places, let alone London. Seriously, everyone would be doing this and then going back to work - easier with a more affordable HA/council rent (although of course these days HA/council rents are far higher than they used to be, thanks to petty-minded numpties who fall right into the Government's politics-of-envy hands).

Well, I don't know the exact details as she isn't my close friend. I haven't even seen for quite a while. When I last saw her, she was complaining to me that she doesn't know how to get into that school, and that she was going to rent short term near the school but now read the thread on mumsnet and doesn't know what to do, and so on. That was over a year ago.

I then bumped into her this weekend and asked how was she, and she told me that she decided to stopped working and sit at home with kids, so she applied to council housing, and that she is so lucky and so happy that her child is now in that school, and everything is just so great now.

So I don't know if she terminated the rental contract or was kicked out because she couldn't pay anymore, and how she actually got that council housing. I never even looked into the council housing thing as I know this will never apply to me - I am a professional and hopefully will be able to find a job even in this economic climate. I know she worked in that area though before she stopped working.

To be honest, I am just envying her slightly - I always wanted to live in that area and I could never afford it, even though I probably earn 3 times as much as she did when she was working? I don't have kids yet, so schools are not an issue for me, but I do like the area and I was slightly annoyed when I heard her describing how she spends her days now doing nothing. Well, being with kids is not really doing nothing I know that, but she lives in that lovely area and enjoys this lovely weather spending the days in the park, and I work really long hours (from 8am until 9-10pm every day) and can't afford living anywhere near?

I realise she must have been extremely lucky to get that, but I just can't stop envying -(

Thanks NotFluffy, I agree completely and I do like my job a lot despite long hours. I shouldn't even complained, I believe I should consider myself lucky that I do have a job :)

When I read these threads I really do feel for parents who:
1 - GENUINELY separate
2 - GENUINELY need to move for work and CANNOT sell their house, so
have to rent
Because of all the cheating going on, they find themselves in a really bad place just because their circumstances appear suspicious and I find this really sad as at a time of distress they have to face investigations!!