On a recent Saturday out with NCT friends and associated toddlers, conversation turned to schools again. Our kids are all now two years old, so of course the question of where they will go for reception in two and a half years’ time is all the more urgent than it was when we first started talking about this subject two years ago. After all, with two and a half years to go, most lists at local preps are already closed. Even Hill House, Prince Charles’ alma mater (aka the mustard uniformed school in Chelsea) which boasts that its list doesn’t close until your child is about two years old, is no longer an option at this point. And if a house move is to be orchestrated to get into a good state school catchment area, it must be done in most cases so that you are physically living (for real) at the new, catchment-friendly address by October of the year prior to entrance. So the real urgency is apparent: there is a year and a half to find a new house if a good state school is the goal.
All of this sounds so calculated. It is even more so if you consider the plot that we discussed on that Saturday afternoon on the local common. Four of us were sipping our lattes. One is sending her daughter to the Welsh School so has avoided both catchment areas and big price tags altogether. Another lives in an enviable catchment area. The third one has no decent non-denominational state school so was pondering a house move. Rather than moving, it was mooted, why didn’t she look to rent out her home in Stockwell and rent a maisonette in the enviable catchment area for a year or so — just long enough to gain admission — and then move back into her house in Stockwell? To some (including the relevant mother) it smacked of playing the system. But was it? If you conform to the letter of the code, does its spirit really matter? Well, probably. But if we’re going to deal with that question, then we must deal at the same time with the question of state-funded (ie funded by us) denominational schools at the same time. In the case of my Stockwell friend (and in my own case), there are good denominational schools which we support through our taxes…and yet for which our own children are ineligible. So until that injustice is rectified, I’m all for my Stockwell friend renting out her house in Stockwell, and legitimately taking up a place at the locally sought-after school based on her new residence nearby. I may in fact move in next door to her on the same basis.
And lest any of us thought this to be a covert action of the middle classes trying to undermine the system: John Burton, the chairman of the governors of a state primary, St. Peter’s Eaton Square, was recently reported to have admitted renting out his family home in Kennington to take up rented accommodation within the catchment area first of St. Peter’s Eaton Square and later Lady Margaret School in Fulham — both highly sought after schools. The office of the schools secretary, Ed Balls, has reportedly confirmed that this governor operated within the scope of the schools admissions code. With Ed Balls’ blessing, I think more of us should have the balls to follow Mr Burton’s example.
Snowdon on Schools 