Afternoon:
14°c
Rise in families caught cheating for school places
Tim Ross, Education Correspondent22.10.08
THERE is growing evidence that more parents are lying about where they live in order to get their children into good schools.
In Richmond, 50 families were caught falsifying applications for places this year. Last year the figure was five.
Some councils have had to withdraw offers after investigators tried to visit families only to find their addresses were false.
One popular Twickenham secondary, Waldegrave School for Girls, accounted for 20 per cent of bogus applications in Richmond this year. The rest were attempts to get into primaries.
The details emerged as parents rushed to complete applications for next year's secondary places before Friday's deadline. The credit crunch is being blamed for increased demand for places at top state schools as parents seek alternatives to private education. Many oversubscribed schools give priority to families living nearest to them or within specified catchment areas. But applicants are trying a wide range of methods to beat the system.
These include pretending a child lives with a relative near the school; renting a flat inside the catchment area for a few months; and using a business address instead of a residential one.
Catchment-area cheating appears to be worst in areas with the most highly-rated state schools, such as Richmond, the best authority in England for primary results. The council's cabinet member for education, Malcolm Eady, said faking application forms was "despicable" behaviour. "We work extremely hard to check every single place and make sure the system works," he added. "We have to make sure this type of action is stamped out. It has got to be fair to our residents."
Waldegrave School recently received 753 applicants for 200 places. Ten were bogus.
An inquiry by the Local Government Association suggested a rise in catchment area cheating was taking place across England.
However, the situation is thought to be particularly severe in London, where competition for places is fierce. Barnet council withdrew two offers this year after parents managed to get through initial checks. Last year, there was no need for such action. In Redbridge, the local authority withdrew offers for six children and a number of other cheats were discovered before places were offered. A spokeswoman for Redbridge said: "We employ a residence officer who carries out visits to over 100 families per month, some of whom are visited more than once. Short-term leases are increasingly being used and we will revisit such addresses."
The Department for Children, Schools and Families urged councils to take a "hard line" with parents who cheat. "Every child should now have a fair, equal and transparent chance of getting into a school of their choice," a spokesman said.
Reader views (5)
Parents should not have to lie to get their child into a good school. Why are we living in a rationing economy?
- Maria, sheffield south yorkshire
All parents are entitled to top quality education for their children. Rationing is an acknowledgment of failure. A change of policy is required.
- Alan In Bow, London
I am one of those parents who will lose out this year to those who are 'cheating' to get their child into a high performing school in Richmond. Our 3 year old who has lived 600 metres from his local school since birth, and yet he is extremely unlikely to get into that school for the coming September partly because of those who can afford to rent or buy a property practically 'on top' of the school just in time for the application deadline! Surely Councils could take tenure of occupancy at an address into account not just distance in metres when a school is so oversubscribed?
- Jacquie Goozee, East Sheen, UK
It's a damning comment on Labour that after ten years of "Education! Education! Education!" there are still so few state schools that are in any sense "good". It's the dead hand of state control and political correctness keeping them that way. Why can't education authorities be abolished (excepting a body with responsibility for maintaining school buildings), with schools paid a fixed amount by the state per student admitted, and left free to admit (and to expel) according to their own policies and rules? That way any school that was not a good school would soon have to close down for lack of students and funding.
- Nigel, London
If the child doesn't attend a feeder primary then how does it get a place at the school?
In fact why does any London borough allow pupils from another borough when it can fill the places with children from its own borough?
Local schools for local people and that means all local people not just the few in rich neighbourhoods.
Good schools should be forced to take pupils from the poorer parts of the borough before allowing any external borough pupils in.
- Duncan Bailey, Kent
