I'm reading this thread with interest because renting in a catchment area is something I've contemplated and I'd genuinely be interested to know what those who find it so immoral would do in my situation, as I'm finding it a tricky one to navigate ethically. I've always lived in the area and 6 years ago after years of saving managed to scrape enough together to buy a place with my now husband. Our child won't be school aged for several years but recently we have realised that our home appears to be in a primary school blackhole - we have multiple local primaries all within half a mile to a mile of us but their catchments are all so small that we wouldn't get in. Instead it looks as though our child would either be offered a place at a school miles away, or more likely at a local catholic school which as quite a staunch atheist I would feel extremely uncomfortable with. We love our home but in any case, with house prices having gone up so much, couldn't afford the costs associated with selling and buying another place nearer to one of the schools(stamp duty etc). However when trying to figure out a solution we reckoned we could just about afford to rent our place out and in turn rent somewhere in the catchments of one of our local schools. All of our options seem pretty grim when it comes to school a) have our child at a primary school miles away which would be very difficult to manage with our jobs and mean that they don't develop local friendships b) have them sent to a religious school we disagree with, c) have the expense of renting somewhere for a year and be universally hated or d) move out of the area entirely away from all our family and friends If anyone can think of alternative options I'd love to hear them, or if not I'd be interested to hear which option other people would choose?
