Odd letter from school admissions board

HairyHandofDartmoor

I had a letter yesterday from the school admissions board yesterday which puzzled and worried me slightly.

To give a bit of background - my son is in Year 6 at primary school and has been offered a place at his first choice of secondary school. We are not in the catchment area, but the school has a very small catchment area of its own and is the school which most children from his primary school go to. Also he has an older brother already at the school in year 9, so we were fairly sure he would be offered a place. He was offered a place at the end of March and we have had about 5 or 6 letters from the secondary school welcoming him to the schoo and telling him about induction days and giving us forms to fill in, etc.

But this morning we had a letter from the council entitled school admissions which said the following;

'Dear Mrs Blah,

I write further to your application for a place for your child at Blah school from September 2009.

As part of our audit check process, we routinely check applicant residence. When you submitted your admission application form, you were asked to provide your home address. THis address would be taken into account in the school allocation process. I would be grateful if you could now provide me with suitable documentary evidence to confirm residence at this address, etc' etc.'

I sent off our most recent council tax bill and gas/electricity bill by return of post with a covering letter and rang up today to check that they had received the documents, which they had. But the woman on the phone was very cagey and wouldn't confirm that my son still has his place at the school. :mad:

We have never received a letter like this before and this is our 3rd child who we have gone through this process with.

So my question is; Is this really a routine check or are they suspicious of us for some reason?

We have lived at this address for 7 years and it was the same address we have when applying for our daughter and older son's secondary school places. The address never got queried then. So why are they suspecting me of fraud now? Or am I just being paranoid?

sidefx

I would think it is just a routine check, so I wouldn't worry too much.

It may be as a result of parents using addresses other than their own, in order to secure a place at a good or over-subscribed school.

tarajayne

Think you'll find that due to recent cases some schools are doing this to all new pupils families, we might see in the next couple of years that all schools have to do it. The woman on the phone probably wouldn't be able to answer your question anyhow. You were accepted so as you didn't lie on your application you have nothing to worry about. I know it's hard but try not to worry, just be glad that they are trying to weedle out those applying dishonestly. X

Woodyrocks

I would pop down to the school myself. With documents in hand of course. You need to know either way what they are playing at. I would go on the offensive in dealing with this and get it sorted instead of this cagey business you have mentioned.

HairyHandofDartmoor

The school is over subscribed this year for the first time ever, as it got very good exam results, so I did wonder if it had something to do with this!

But just based on our address my son wouldn't have got in this year anyway, because some of his friends who lived nearer than us got turned down, but my son got his place because he has an older brother at the school. So the address query seems illogical to me. If I was going to lie about my address it would be a pretty pointless lie! :mad:

I am probably just being paranoid but I didn't want the council to be suspicious of us (I don't know why they should be as we haven't done anything wrong!) and wondered if there was some sort of question mark over our family that I don't know about. Although we have never done anything wrong.

I am being paranoid aren't I?:o

I will ask all the other parents I know if they have had a letter like this and also I or OH will ring the council again in a few days to try and see if the situation has been satisfactorily resolved.

Errata

I shouldn't worry about the council officer being 'cagey' she may not have seniority to answer your question as her job is only to process documents.
Do check with the school, they may be more forthcoming.

sidefx

Yes OP I think you are being a bit paranoid:rolleyes:

I am sure it really is just routine and not worth getting :mad: about

Nicki

HairyHandofDartmoor wrote: »

But just based on our address my son wouldn't have got in this year anyway, because some of his friends who lived nearer than us got turned down, but my son got his place because he has an older brother at the school. So the address query seems illogical to me. If I was going to lie about my address it would be a pretty pointless lie! :mad:

The only thing which springs to mind is whether the school was so oversubscribed that it couldn't even give all siblings a place this year. In that case, the second criteria might well be distance from the school.

This happened this year in my son's school, where there were 10 applications for each place in reception, with the result that not all siblings were able to be given a place, and no first born children, even those literally living next door to the school.

HairyHandofDartmoor

A few of my son's friends who have no older siblings did get into the school, but they live a few roads closer than us. Children who live where we do or further away did not get in unless they had a sibling there.

I know I am probably worrying needlessly, but I will mention it to the secondary school just to see what they say (they are usually very friendly and supportive there - which is why I wanted my children to go there, not because of the exam results!)

Thanks for all your replies.

PasturesNew

They're just checking because a lot of people lie about their address. In fact, here's a high profile one from just 11 days ago:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8073532.stm

peachyprice

I wonder if there is a family that they suspect of giving a false address, but cannot single them out for extra proof, so are sending the letter to ALL yr 7 families?

Or it could just be a 'ticking all the boxes' excercise that someone has been put in charge of, but wouldn't necessarily go to the bother of checking whether the children have siblings at the school.