Parents caught out 'cheating' to get children into Richmond's schools (From Richmond and Twickenham Times)

Parents caught out 'cheating' to get children into Richmond's schools

1:51pm Friday 17th July 2009 in

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The parents of 21 children tried to cheat their way to places in borough schools this year, it has been revealed.

Richmond Council said it had ripped up 14 “fraudulent” applications for places at secondary schools and seven for places in primary schools because parents had deliberately put a false address on the forms.

The revelation comes weeks after Harrow Council dropped the prosecution of a mother it had accused of providing a fake address to get a place at a “good school”, and Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, called for a report on the problem of parents cheating to get school places.

England’s schools adjudicator, Ian Craig, will look at the scale of the problem, whether there are enough powers to tackle cheats and if they are being used.

Councillor Malcolm Eady, Richmond Council's cabinet member for education and children’s services, said anyone who tried to con their way into a school in the borough would be caught.

From 2005-06 to 2007-08 there was a rise in the number of detected false applications, from five to 50, but this declined to 21 this year and the authority confirmed if a place is offered to an incorrect address it will be withdrawn.

Coun Eady said: “Despite having the best primary schools in the country this has been less of a problem in Richmond than other parts of the country.

“We put this down to a rigorous checking procedure where every application is cross-checked with council records.

“This has enabled us to catch 21 fraudulent applications this year, before offers were made to parents.

“This figure is considerably down on previous years, something we attribute to increased publicity of this issue both locally and nationally and a clear message from the council that if you cheat in Richmond, you’re likely to get caught.

“I can understand parents who want to get their children into the best schools.

“However, they need to be aware that if they provide fraudulent information they are depriving another family of a place to which they are entitled.”