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Parents are giving fake addresses in a bid to get their daughters into Cheltenham Girls, perhaps the state’s most exclusive non-selective state school.
According to locals, there are many fraudulent ways to pass yourself off as a resident of the local area, including living there.
Principal Susan Bridge told The Daily Grind that one of the most creative scams she’d seen this year involved a prospective student living in the local area her whole life.
The school’s excellent reputation means it attracts applications from out-of-towners, mature-age students, boys, Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz, curious passers by and spam-bots.
The scale of the problem was revealed after the 2006 census revealed approximately 74 million people lived between Beecroft Road and the railway line, of whom over 99.9 per cent were 12-year-old girls.
School officials say they have limited resources and that the occasional fraudulent application may slip through. Mrs Bridge told The Daily Grind that her ultimate nightmare was a phone call revealing that one of her students lived in Thornleigh or Eastwood or something.
But with demand for the school’s acclaimed educational approach vastly outstripping supply, the Department of Education shows no indication of finding a solution. Options include closing the school down or studying 2-unit economics.
According to a recent census, Beecroft NSW, near the popular Cheltenham Girls High School, is home to almost 74 million 12-year-old girls.
