What details are required when filling in forms for primary school choices ?

balletshoes

onlyroz wrote: »

I seem to remember being asked for a council tax bill as proof of residency when I applied for my son's school place. I've got to go through the process again for my daughter soon - here's hoping that I get both kids in the same place.

yes, for some schools this is a requirement. For some, it isn't. Your LEA has these details online usually.

milliebear00001

Nicki wrote: »

But equally, if the school wasn't oversubscribed, families wouldn't have to move closer to have any chance of being considered

That is the way most people assume it works, but Ed Depts are so busy - especially at application time, that they rarely do check. In London, you are more likely to get caught out (and a couple of other very 'heated' LAs) but otherwise, probably not. Lots of people take the risk (and for most it pays off).

My own children's school is sometimes heavily overscribed, but I have NEVER encountered a situation where anyone's address has been checked. I've known people use grandparents, divored parents, rent somewhere, use a business address etc etc.

Many schools will not ask for any paperwork other than a child's birth certificate. This may vary from area to area, but none of the schools local to me (several of which are oversubscribed) asks for address confirmation and nor does the school I teach in (different borough). Schools don't get overly involved in applications as this is pretty much all administered by LAs now.

silvercar

There was a programme on TV about the school application process, it focussed on Birmingham and they did check cases which were suspicious. They particularly looked at cases where families were claiming to live in tiny studio flats and where the primary school and current address didn't tally in an obvious way. They had a team who went to houses to visit families who may have needed some help in telling the truth on their application form

Janepig

When I applied for a place for DS at the school DD was already at, they'd clamped down on fraudulent addresses that year, and they'd altered the form to contain small print saying you'd be prosecuted for using an address you weren't resident at, and you also had to send a copy of your council tax bill and another utility bill. That was a nail biting couple of months waiting to find out if he'd got in!

Jx

barbarawright

balletshoes wrote: »

but being eligible to be on the electoral roll is not the same criteria as applying for a school place for your child. For example, my husband could have applied for our daughter's school place, but he is not eligible to be on the electoral roll.

I didn't say it was. I was replying to the suggestion that there's no legal requirement to be on the roll. There is, if you are eligible which not everyone is. Presumably your husband would be asked for other proof of i.d.

JC9297

barbarawright wrote: »

Incorrect. You are legally required to be on the electoral roll if eligible.

Apologies, my post was incorrectly worded, I should have said there is no legal requirement for everybody to be on the electoral roll.


There are probably lots of people who are eligible who don't register for whatever reasons, am not sure how often,if ever, action is taken against them. Also I'm sure many people don't bother updating it when they move and only do so when the form drops through the letterbox.


My point still stands though that not being on the roll would not be reason enough to deny a school place.

balletshoes

barbarawright wrote: »

I didn't say it was. I was replying to the suggestion that there's no legal requirement to be on the roll. There is, if you are eligible which not everyone is. Presumably your husband would be asked for other proof of i.d.

when applying for a school place for our daughter? I'd doubt it to be honest.

Nicki

I think my first post was maybe badly worded. What I meant was that you couldn't rent a cheap room but not live there, and that the LA could well check the electoral roll and if they found you registered elsewhere investigate further. I definitely did not mean to say that only those who are eligible to vote in the UK could apply for a school place! There are loads of kids at my children's schools whose parents are not UK citizens.

Millie, it may be because i live in London and there are not enough school places for all the kids who live in my borough, so all our schools are oversubscribed, but our LA definitely does check that people live where they claim to, and has in the past prosecuted parents for using addresses they don't actually live at to apply for a popular school.

TeamLowe

The authority I work for will ask for proof of disposal and acquisition of property if you change addresses at any point from applying for nursery (if you did, as it would be their first record of where the child lived) to the allocation of places- ie evidence of buying and selling property or end of old tenancy start of new one. The only reason they would not ask for that is if the parent was fleeing domestic violence, and they would want evidence of that via police reports

They don't investigate everyone as it would take a lot more manpower than anyone has money for these days but any accusations by other parents are looked into and evidence sought as above. And from what I've heard from our admissions officers, the accusations are coming in thick and fast, even from best friends and family members

Janepig

Nicki wrote: »

Millie, it may be because i live in London and there are not enough school places for all the kids who live in my borough, so all our schools are oversubscribed, but our LA definitely does check that people live where they claim to, and has in the past prosecuted parents for using addresses they don't actually live at to apply for a popular school.

In a similar way to the fact that the school DD/DS go to is, to my knowledge, the only oversubscribed school in the county. The year before DS went there there'd been a huge kerfuffle over admissions, the LEA ballsed it up and they had to take quite afew extra kids who'd gone to appeal and won, so they clamped down on the admissions process.

I went to afew meetings at the school around this time and feelings were running high, particularly about parents who had been rumoured to have been using fake addresses. I could see both sides, tbh - I really needed DS to go to that school (as DD was there), but could also see that someone who was out of catchment would be depriving someone in catchment of a place if they got that place by fraudulent means.

Jx