'Schools around me are just rubbish'

A divorced London mother tells how she used a flat where her children never stayed to get them into a 'good' school
School children raise their hands to answer a question in a classroom
'Parents are not prepared to use children as guinea pigs.' Photograph: Getty

A mother of three secondary school children in north London

I spent ages looking at houses and put offers in for one near the school we really wanted them to go to. I fully intended to move close to the school. But I was in the middle of a divorce and until that was finalised I couldn't move because the money was tied up. So I rented a flat within spitting distance. I stayed there some of the time while the divorce was going through and went on the electoral register for a year. The kids never even went [to the flat].

It's not a decision any parent makes lightly. I wanted them to live near their school, I wanted them to walk to school and I wanted them to have friends they went to school with next door. But we couldn't do that. The schools around me are just rubbish. Parents are scared to tip the balance in a school that is failing. You can turn a school around if enough middle-class children go there. But parents are not prepared to use their children as guinea pigs. It's so much more complicated than a case of 'cynical, exploitative middle-class parent'. I was in the middle of a complicated divorce and trying to secure my family's future.

I agree there should be tougher sanctions for parents who bend the rules. I didn't feel happy about what I did. I didn't feel good. It was a period of great uncertainty and my main purpose was to secure [my children's] secondary education because that was one less thing to think about.

Where you live determines the schools you have access to. Good schools mean expensive houses. I wonder whether the lottery should be introduced in admissions because then the uncertainty is probably fairer than a system of house prices. There are few grammar schools left, but there's certainly a two-tier system and it's all based on property prices.

Today's best video

Today in pictures