Tom, Dick and Harriet don't let you go to school

[Ian Batten]

On 14 Apr 08, at 1602, David Hansen wrote:
> The question is whether before RIP was extended to them councils would
> have even thought stalking children, let alone done so.

Nor is there any evidence that they are doing so here.  The usual  
issue is parents' regular house.  I know some people, for example, who  
bought a house in the catchment area of a popular school, applied to  
the school from that address, and then as soon as they had place  
`changed their mind about moving' and put it up for rent.  Along with  
the other four houses they rent out.  Pre-meditated?  You bet ya'.   
The row, had it happened, would have been about the parents' residence  
--- the house they were claiming as their own had no furniture in it  
--- than the child's.

There are cases I've heard of where the children are the subject of  
the debate, usually divorces where the shared custody arrangements are  
played to advantage.   I know of a father who claimed that they were  
living with their mother, and therefore that their child was resident  
with the grandparents who --- mirabilus dicta --- happened to live  
around the corner from a desirable school.  I don't know how those are  
handled, because in the case I have in mind the child ended up at an  
even more desirable school by similarly nefarious means.

I don't believe David is currently involved in school admission  
processing.  For what it's worth, I would say that amongst the middle  
classes I know, about 30% of the applications contain at least one  
deliberate untruth.  There's a whole debate about the reasons why  
people do this --- and, ironically, around where I live there are no  
`really bad' schools, and the children of middle class parents do well  
wherever they go.  But the reality is that they do, and I honestly  
can't see any other way of confirming application details.  Everyone  
who fiddles a place (usually the affluent middle-classes) does so at  
the expense of someone else (the honest).

ian