By STACEY BODGER
Auckland Grammar School has refused the enrolments of 10 boys because their parents lied to try to get them into the popular school.
Three staff members, including headmaster John Morris, found about 30 suspicious applications while checking enrolments for next year.
It was decided that 10 of the applicants had lied about the address their son would live at during the school year and the enrolments were cancelled.
Under new legislation, schools with an enrolment scheme must define a home zone.
Students who live in the zone are given automatic enrolment rights.
Out-of-zone students may win places under a ballot system.
But because Auckland Grammar has no room to accept additional students by ballot, parents have given in-zone business addresses or lied about boarding arrangements.
The school's board of trustees secretary, Eric Shiels, said boys who legitimately boarded in-zone were eligible to enrol.
"But it's a minefield when people say their son is going to live with his grandmother or other relatives who live in-zone.
"This may be true in some cases but not true in others.
"It's a real stretch of resources trying to verify every application, so we have to rely mostly on people's honesty."
Mr Shiels said Auckland Grammar last week issued acceptance letters to boys who had successfully enrolled.
If it found that any of those enrolments contained false information, the board had to wait until the end of next year to cancel the enrolment, he said.
Epsom Girls' Grammar School principal Margaret Bendall said the school was following up enrolments that "do not seem convincing."
She did not know how many were being checked.
The school usually had a small number of parents who found ways to try to have their daughters accepted.
"But it's fair to say that having a publicly delineated home zone does appear to have exacerbated the problem," said Mrs Bendall.
Education Ministry operations manager Ray Webb had not received any specific reports of fraud since the new legislation was introduced.
He said schools usually required a bill, property lease agreement or statutory declaration to verify residency.
Parent 'lies' undone at Grammar
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