Cheating the System

Sorry, two 'a's when there should have been one. No edit button!

All systems are open to gaming by savvy and keen parents who, naturally, want the best for their children. As a parent in a grammar area and a retired teacher I have seen the mild and the extreme ends of getting children into a desirable school.

For myself, I let my kids do the eleven plus and they both passed. I was berated soundly by my leftward leaning sister who thought grammars were unfair and who then moved fifty miles to a a town (with the second largest Conservative majority in the country) just as her eldest child was about to be given a place at a poor secondary school where she lived.

All three of her children then hoovered up places at very good schools, about which she boasted loudly. She used her economic clout to take school places which local children, whose parents had been paying the council tax for years, would have been allocated.

Which was fairer? Who's to say?

Personally, I don't really blame parents who do their best for their own kids.

Sorry...and, taken.

If said child was offered a place abd subsequently had an accident at school where she was tamen home by a teacher or some similar incident, then the scam would be found out. Likewise, letters being sent to the grans address etc.
I don't hold with lying as there is nothing to hide with the truth and it makes things so much simpler.
I'd not interfere it had nothing to do with me but if I was asked, I would tell the truth.

I was lucky with DD, when we moved to live with OH who became my DH we managed to get DD into local Primary School which his 2 DC had attended, from there she went to Secondary School which we could see from home. Her Secondary School didn't have the best reputation when she started there but with a new Headmistress coming in when DD left it was a sought after School with a waiting list.

When DGS1 had to go from Part-time Nursery School to Full-time Primary School he was offered a place at a different school. DD did appeal but lost, however she is very happy with his present school (much better suited to DGS than previous school).

It's a lottery regarding school places, luckily DD went from feeder Primary to Secondary & then onto College as her school was a feeder for the College (she applied for 3 Colleges & was accepted at all but chose the nearest one)

I would not 'grass' on someone cheating the system. Nobody has the full picture of anothers family life do they?
My dgd won an appeal to go to the school shes in. This was for several reasons but probably the main reason being she was a looked after child, living with me.
The catchment system however does seem to be very confusing. How can one side of a street be included but not the other? I don't have a solution though ?

Talking of Ofsted reports, in the library where I used to work a childminder was a regular visitor - a lovely person minding 2 little boys of 2 as well as her own 2 year old.

She once came in asking for books on disability and something else, probably multiculturalism, for children that age. Reason being, the Ofsted inspector had ticked her off for not having any, and was going to mark her down for not having any.
For 2 year olds, I did think it a bit daft.

On similar tack, when my mother was well into her 90s with advanced dementia, and long past being able to enjoy or participate in the care home's activities, I once had the staff tell me apologetically that they'd had to cart her off to some activity she didn't want to go to, because the CCQ inspectors were visiting, and anyone 'just sitting' would mean a black mark.
Never mind if the person was way past doing anything else - talk about a tick-box mentality.
I told them that in future would they please leave her in peace, and refer the box tickers to me.

Witzend - you are of course quite right about the OfSted judgements.

One local tiny village school has a cohort of 3 children in one year. Two of those have special needs, so the stats that OfSted will base its judgement on will say that 2/3 of the children in that year are failing to meet national targets - instant failure in OfSted's eyes - now if that is not barmy I do not know what is!

Barmeyoldbat, the current system allows for exceptional needs although not always terribly successfully.
Foxyloxy, I certainly would not, I would however use whatever legal avenues I could.

My gd went to the local school near our home. She lived with us from Sunday night to Friday. The reason being her mother had mental health problems and couldn’t cope with a hyper active child. The school was also far better than the failing school she had been attending. She started at Easter, they had a place available so I didn’t feel any guilt.

Also, how many of the people getting into a two and eight about it, would not do the same thing if the boot was on the other foot.?

I'd hate to have to go through all this now. A nephew's 11 year old recently missed out on all 3 first choices of secondary school and was allocated to one a long way away, where none of her friends would be going. They were all devastated, though thank goodness their appeal was successful.
Around here, because we have some excellent primaries and two very highly rated grammars, house prices (and rents) in the catchment areas are that much higher, which is naturally going to exclude a good many.

So often IMO the desirability of the school will depend a good deal on the parents. Dd has very good reports from friends of the primary where she's hoping her two will go.

However, the only reason it just missed an 'outstanding' Ofsted report is apparently because of a very few 'problem' families whose children are so often late.
What is the school supposed to do about that?

Clearly the system is a failure. Integrity never is.

School choice is extremely emotive. Last year, before my GS’s parents had even stated their choices, work began on a new Academy school only minutes down the road from where they live. It fed all sorts of fears and insecurities in the parents at GS’s school, who immediately thought that they would automatically be included in its catchment and not that of their desired school. There was a rash of applications to sit the entrance exam for nearby private schools, and several people putting their houses up for sale to move nearer the secondary school of choice (an expensive option but not as expensive as private education). The head of the existing secondary assured parents that there would be sufficient places for all pupils from its feeder schools, and so it has proved. The new school’s facilities and equipment will be enviable and absolutely state of the art; the school day will be longer than most other local authority schools, and the ethos statement, on paper at least, is praiseworthy. Reading it, who would not want to get their child in there? But the thing that worried the parents was that it would have no proven track record. It has a huge catchment area, but the initial intake will consist of 120 year 7 pupils who, it was felt, will effectively be guinea pigs. And no one seemed to be prepared to make that leap of faith.

I live on the doorstep of the best primary school in our town but the secondary school it feeds to is rated poor by Ofsted. A number of pupils go on to the local single sex church schools that retain their good name and some children go to independent schools or chorister school.
I don't understand their logic, there is an academy within walking distance but children from our estate have to get a bus several miles to school.

It must be galling for parents who apply who are borderline for the school’s local catchment to be told they are not eligible, when one single school five miles away is more or less guaranteed to get places for its children

This is exactly what happens at my DGD's school Greyduster . The children on the doorstep can't get in but they bus children from a very select village feeder primary that is miles away (passing other secondaries on their way).

The system stinks !

I don’t fully understand the catchment system either, but I can see why people try and cheat it. The school my GS will be going to in September is arguably the most sought after in the city. It takes its pupils from three local feeder primaries and one that is five miles away. It must be galling for parents who apply who are borderline for the school’s local catchment to be told they are not eligible, when one single school five miles away is more or less guaranteed to get places for its children. But the primary school in question is in one of the city’s poorer inner city areas so presumably part of the Academy Trust’s policy of inclusion, which is to be applauded. As has been said, if all schools were good schools, there would be no problem.

AS I have commented above, the catchment system would be fine if you could be sure your catchment school was good - unfortunately this is not the case.

I would not blame any parent trying to do the best for their child.

The catchment system does have merit icanhandthemback but only if it works in its own right. Children should be awarded places depending on how close they live to the school. In my DGD’s case there are children travelling from miles away who have places and children on the doorstep who haven’t just because of some mad (snobby) feeder school system where they take the children from expensive/upperclass villages first.

I can't help thinking that the "Catchment System" has merit on the grounds that children attending their Catchment School are more likely to have their friends nearby and 'education' goes much further than what happens in the classroom. I know how it feels to want the best for your child as we always tried to get ours into the best schools but we did it within the rules. I think parents should put their energies into changing the system, not cheating it but hey, ho, that's just the way I'm built. I'm the sort of parent who wouldn't let my kids eat the strawberries when picking them because it was stealing or be younger to gain entry cheaper then I am surprised when my children turn out to be very black and white thinkers.

My eldest DGD’s school is very popular and we were VERY lucky to win an appeal to get her a place as even despite living almost across the road she didn’t get a place on application. The reason being the popular secondary fills up from its 4 primary “feeders” that do not take distance into consideration when offering places, so the crazy situation is that children travel for miles to get to a feeder in order to guarantee a place at the secondary . The children living on the doorstep can’t get into the secondary . It’s a completely mad system . I wouldn’t report anyone cheating the system I would just consider them very lucky to have got a place. It’s the whole system that’s wrong and you can’t blame parents from doing everything they can to get their child into a good school.

My neighbours did this with their DGC - the reception teacher knew but said nothing but the HM found out somehow. However, the child did remain in the school.
The ridiculous thing was that the child lived near the school but his home wasn't in the catchment area and the GP lived the other side of the town - which was in the catchment area.
Barmy.

I agree the system is barmy and it is why some LEA's run a lottery system - not sure that it is a better system. I don't understand why it would be considered a "Lynch mob" mentality to report. If the person who is allegedly cheating the system hasn't done anything wrong then the LEA would take no action. If they have cheated, they would lose their place unless they had another form of criteria which would allow them to carry on attending. How is that being part of a Lynch mob? Isn't what they are doing "stealing" another child's place in an oversubscribed school?
If a child is going to a Grandparent's place before and after school, you can apply under "special circumstances". Whilst I agree it might be better in journey times but what if a child in the catchment finds itself having to travel miles because of the lack of places. This happened to my GD who lives yards from her catchment school and now she is being home schooled until a place becomes available because the journey became too much.
It is easy to say you would only act if your child was affected but you might not have that information whereas another unaffected person might.

My DGD's school required to see a council tax bill to prove residency.
Of course, if the grandparents have the same surname that would be easy to fiddle.

Of course I agree with those saying the system is barmy. Within that, yes I am angry at those who cheat the system. However, the full story can make a difference - such as how much childcare the grandparents do.
And just to make you smile:
My DGS could not get into his 'local' sought-after school because he lived too far away - 200 metres - the school claimed that the furthest away child was 190 metres. His parents decided to move out of that area anyway. However, I have been amused to read, in the local paper, about works going on at that school - not to worry - parents can still park their cars at a nearby car park by special arrangement. I charitably thought that there must be a lot of disabled parents at that school, oh and a few who have moved whilst their child was in the last year there maybe?

DGS is very happy at his'less sought-after' school in another part of town!