The address given at the time of application for enrolment must be the student's usual place of residence when the school is open for instruction. This means that if you currently live at an in-zone address but move to an out-of-zone address before your child's first day of attendance at the school, your child will not be entitled to enrol at the school.
Please note, this also applies to younger siblings (pre-schoolers). There is no automatic entitlement for students (with an older sibling already at the school) if their address is out of zone.
The Ministry of Education has advised that parents should also be warned of the possible consequences of deliberately attempting to gain unfair priority in enrolment by knowingly giving a false address or making an in-zone living arrangement which they intend to be only temporary;
- renting accommodation in-zone on a short-term basis;
- arranging temporary board in-zone with a relative or family friend
- using the in-zone address of a relative or friend as an "address of convenience", with no intention to live there on an ongoing basis.
Before enrolment takes place (i.e. before attendance begins) if the board has reasonable grounds for believing that the given in-zone address will not be a genuine, ongoing living arrangement, the board may withdraw any offer of a place which it may have made on the basis of the given address.
After attendance has begun, if the school learns that a student is no longer living at the in-zone address given at the time of application for enrolment and has reasonable grounds to believe that a temporary In Zone residence has been used for the purpose of unfairly gaining priority in enrolment at the school, then the board may review the enrolment.
Unless the parents can give a satisfactory explanation within 10 days, the board may annul the enrolment. This course of action is provided for under section 11OA of the
Education Act 1989.