School place cheating 'folklore'

By Hannah Richardson
BBC News education reporter

Parents say they want what is best for their children

The ingenious lengths to which parents go to get their offspring in to some schools has passed into folklore, England's Schools Adjudicator says.

In his report on fraudulent or misleading school place applications, Dr Ian Craig gave a list of tactics cited by more than 10 of the local authorities which replied to him.

Most popular, at 70 cases, was the trick of using the addresses of relatives - often grandparents with the same name - so household bills could be used as proofs of address.

Renting a property close to a school for the duration of the application was the second most popular, at 33 examples.

Vacant properties

Some 28 sets of parents reported marriage breakdowns, resulting in one parent moving to a more favourable address from a school application point of view. These claims were later found to be untrue.

The number of parents who had genuinely separated, but with the child falsely claimed to be living permanently with a different parent, was 25.

There were 24 examples of parents using a second address, not their permanent address, on forms. These were often being rented to other people.

And there were 21 examples of parents using one address on an application form but not informing the local authority when they subsequently moved away.

Commercial or business addresses within school catchment areas were being used in 16 cases.

There were 14 examples of parents using friends' addresses and sometimes swapping addresses with them in the short term.

And 10 sets of parents were using an empty property or plot.