Would you lie to keep your child in the right school?

koolpc · 26 Feb 2011 at 21:51

ZG002 said:
Have the school actually told her that if she moves out of catchment area her child has to change schools? Seems strange to me.

No. She is concerned as she is moving home soon. She had to fill in a form with all details of address etc before christmas as places were going to be allocated to children for the next step up in the school in september (From Nursery to Reception).

Details given were of the where she is living at present. She didn't know at the time of filling in the form that she would be moving outside of the catchment area.

[FnG]magnolia · 26 Feb 2011 at 21:54

territt said:
Its wrong, schools have a catchment area for a reason.

Whilst I agree with this, I suspect that I would probably lie if it would be for the betterment of my daughter's education. It's a tough one.

Vanilla · 26 Feb 2011 at 21:59

deleted said:
Ever had to change schools? if you understand how horrible it is you'll understand why it's OK to lie. I'd absolutely do the same for my son.

+1

dante6491 · 26 Feb 2011 at 22:03

As said above, I am sure the catchment area is only for initial entry. As long as they live within a sensible distance to the school it should be fine. At secondary school I don't think it really matters much at all though, there was someone who travelled from Hammersmith down to Sutton and back everyday. Another from Chessington.

raikesi · 26 Feb 2011 at 22:23

i would lie. if he likes it there do it

OspreyO · 26 Feb 2011 at 22:29

Absolutely. Catchment areas in my experience seem to change at a whim. Often with no regard to the children or the parents. It messes up the local community to.

EdwardTeach · 26 Feb 2011 at 22:30

ajgoodfellow said:
Would she need to lie?

I went to school outside of my catchment area and I thought that once you were at the school they wouldn't ask you to leave?

Exactly you only have to be in the catchment are to get the place intitially. If you later move you won't get booted out. That would be totally unethical, and could result in kids moving schools all the time.

We are planning to move to get my daughter into a good primary. Our intention is to rent inside the catchment area, and then look to buy a place after she has started. The place we buy won't necessarily be in the catchment area (though wouldn't be far- in London the boundaries can be very tight).

[FnG]magnolia · 26 Feb 2011 at 22:35

EdwardTeach said:
Exactly you only have to be in the catchment are to get the place intitially. If you later move you won't get booted out. That would be totally unethical, and could result in kids moving schools all the time.

We are planning to move to get my daughter into a good primary. Our intention is to rent inside the catchment area, and then look to buy a place after she has started. The place we buy won't necessarily be in the catchment area (though wouldn't be far- in London the boundaries can be very tight).

You're moving your home to allow your daughter to get into a good primary school? Is this common?

EdwardTeach · 26 Feb 2011 at 22:55

I should think so.

Where we live currently there are two great schools ~500m from our front door. One of them was in the top 10 primary schools in London in the times rankings. Our daughter has almost zero chance of getting in as you have to be baptised & have regular church attendance record. The school she would get into is very poor by comparison, and has a much worse intake. It has a high % of kids who don't speak English as a first language, and I think the staff are quite stretched.

Therefore our options are to go private (~10k/yr) or move. Private would be affordable for one kid, but if you have 3 that is a sizable chunk out of your net income.

vicisthebest · 26 Feb 2011 at 23:07

koolpc said:
No. She is concerned as she is moving home soon. She had to fill in a form with all details of address etc before christmas as places were going to be allocated to children for the next step up in the school in september (From Nursery to Reception).

Details given were of the where she is living at present. She didn't know at the time of filling in the form that she would be moving outside of the catchment area.

Then I guess it'd be whether the Nursery/Reception unit runs as part of the school or as a separate Foundation Stage unit - not everyone who goes to a school's FS unit will automatically get a place in the school, as children don't have to start school until 5 (Year 1) - so if your niece doesn't live in the catchment area anymore, then her place could theoretically end at the conclusion of Reception year, and the place could go to a 5 year old who does live in the area, like I say if they run their unit separate to the school.