Renting in catchment area and owning outside it

[CauliflowerBalti]

We are moving to the catchment area of my son’s current primary school in order for him to continue his education with his peers at the secondary school within that area.

We were hoping to move there in 5 years’ time when I will have a lump of money to put into a mortgage, but the secondary school is getting more and more oversubscribed. The time apparently is now.

His application needs to be in by the end of October, so it’s all happening rather fast. I have no intention of committing fraud. We are moving to live there for beyond his education years. But renting for at least a year, if not more.

I do not want to sell the home we live in now. My husband and I had a big disagreement about moving at the start of the year. He wanted to, I didn’t. We stayed, and did some lovely renovations. This is a lovely house. I don’t want to leave it yet - but I will.

I want to rent it out for a decade or so, then gift it to my son. That’s my plan.

Does anyone have any idea how I can prove to the LA that I’m not cheating my way in? It’s so important to my son that he stays with his peers. He’s a very anxious soul. We need to move. But we’ve left it late. I may not have found a tenant for here by 31 October. I may still be paying council tax in two places. It worries me. I rang the LA to ask, and was totally honest, and she was very lovely and said I just needed to prove that my rented house is my permanent and only home. I will easily be able to do that - it will be. But what if I end up under the nose of someone less tolerant?

Has anyone experienced this?

[cantkeepawayforever]

Possibly also worth pointing out that if your application is judged to be fraudulent after places are allocated, you don't get the place you 'would have done' on allocation day instead (e.g. your second choice).

IME, you are treated as a late applicant - or an in-year applicant if the place is removed mid-term - and can only get a place in any under subscribed school which has a place available at that point. That can be miles away, and not one of your choices.

So choosing to commit fraud is not as 'risk free' as most assume: 'Oh, it's OK, they'll just give me my second choice anyway, so it's worth a try'. If the fraud is detected after allocation, you are in a MUCH worse position than if you had not attempted the fraud in the first place.

[cantkeepawayforever]

Sorry, X-post

[riceuten]

We are moving to the catchment area of my son’s current primary school in order for him to continue his education with his peers at the secondary school within that area

Translated - we have totally cheated the admissions system and are so desperate, we are prepared to spend thousands of pounds getting a school places.

As regards proof of address, so long as you're living there at the time you apply, most LAs will accept whatever proof you produce. They know the score and can do very little about it. The issue here is that 3/4s of schools are either academies or church schools, who may have their own take on admissions - have you actually sussed out the admissions policy of the school itself ?

[admission]

cantkeepawayforever, the situation if the poster does have the place removed after it has been given to them is slightly different than you say. Firstly the LA is required to consider the application again as if it was from the address of their deemed permanent home. If they would have got a place then they can keep it. If they would not have got a place then they are legally given the right to appeal to get a place at the school - though I have not had anybody who had the cheek to do that.
Assuming that the appeal fails then the situation that then exists is a bit "grey" because there is nothing in the code over this scenario. I know LAs who do check whether they would have got in their second and third preferences. I also am aware of LAs who just say this is what is available. Given the poster is in a very difficult position having been sussed out, it would be a brave or pig-headed person who went to court to get clarity on this point.

[cantkeepawayforever]

I also am aware of LAs who just say this is what is available.

I think I must live in one of these. I was definitely thinking of examples where families had no right to the place from their permanent address. Thanks for the clarification

[Charley50]

@Leesa65 - and me.
I don't know why you started this thread OP.

[foldingtable]

@admissions

If they would not have got a place then they are legally given the right to appeal to get a place at the school - though I have not had anybody who had the cheek to do that.

I do, they won the appeal and kept the school place...this was some years ago now and was part of a huge scandal which made the Borough tighten up their admissions wording.

[RedSkyLastNight]

OP - please don't base your school choice on your DS being with his "lifelong" (that's 10 year's long then ...) friends.

When DD moved to secondary school there were about 15 friends who she'd have been very happy to have had in her class? Guess how many were? yes, precisely zero. About 3 or 4 of the friends share some lessons with her; most she scarcely sees at all at school.

DS was similarly put into a class with no close friends.

If i'd gone to huge lengths to move, especially from a house I loved, purely to keep my DC with friends, I would have been very annoyed indeed.

[ScrubTheDecks]

"And honestly - he won’t be removed from school in the early weeks of school. He’ll either get in or he won’t"

In a neighbouring borough to me 3 kids were removed directly from the playground in the middle of the school day.

OP, why ever didn't you sell and buy earlier?

[Potcallingkettle]

If it’s DHFS, there were several children this year who did not get in after being at catchment Schools. Local Primary Schools are good at warning parents that there is no automatic progression but most parents ignore and then wonder why they don’t get the secondary place.
The DHFS head would admit everyone but the LA is keeping numbers firmly capped. In that situation, they’ll be checking rentals carefully and other parents will be quick to report in hopes of getting their own children places.

[CauliflowerBalti]

Sorry for disappearing - I was away. I haven't stropped off... ;-)

Thank you all for your thoughts and experiences, especially the posters with direct experience of admissions and appeals (@admissions and @PanelChair). I wasn't being intentionally complacent when I said he'll either get in or he won't, so he wouldn't be removed in the first week of term. I meant that, if the scenario looked dodgy to the LA, it would look dodgy from the very start, at the point of our application, and he wouldn't even be offered a place to have it removed. Other people wouldn't have to report us as potential interlopers. It wouldn't get that far.

All that said, we are putting the house we own on the market in the next couple of weeks. I suspect it will be as a previous poster said - it might feel like an emotional wrench, but once it's done, we'll not look back. Sentimentality is a pointless emotion right now, and there are other ways I can help my son out later on. The help he needs today is to have a clean run at the application process. The application might still fail, I understand that, but given we were going to move eventually anyway... What will be will be. I can't worry about things I can't control - just do what I can with the things I can control.

Again, thank you.

[nononsene]

I think that's the right decision Cauliflower. Your son's education is more important than bricks and mortar.

Good luck with the application process.