Is my occupation relevant to Ds education?

[chocolateandcoffee]

I got my Ds enrolment forms for primary school yesterday.

One for the questions was Mothers and Fathers occupations

Tbh I don't see the relevance of this question and I think it pangs strongly of my school days when doctors and solicitors children were treated as superior beings.

Don't get me wrong, I am very proud of what I do as is Dh. We have both worked hard to get were we are.

Aibu to Leave this space blank on the form, I am not going to voice my concerns to the school as I believe in picking my battles. Dh says to put down our occupations, I think it's none of there business and has no relevance to my Ds care or education. So who is right?

:o at ComposHat

I either tick the boxes truthfully or, if it is too personal (how much do you earn?) I just randomly tick a box.

'Who shall we promote?'
'How about x?'
'No way. Do I really want to justify myself everytime I ask x to do something?'

The names have been changed to protect the innocent (and me from an Industrial Tribunal) :o

I fight the battles that need fighting. Kicking up a fuss about ticking a box on a form just marks you as someone with an attitude problem.

I'm too embarrassed to say Compos...

I totally disagree Pusheed.
It is just another intrusion, where none is neccessary, and what actually riles me is that most people just shrug and do as they are told.

It's like with ID cards, and the "don't minders" would say "well, if you have nothing to hide.."

I do fucking well have things to hide. It's called my personal business, and it's none of yours. (Not yours Pusheed, but you know what I mean!)

And I don't have an inferiority complex, but I do know that a lot of the sort of information that schools gather is used to "get the measure" of a child's background.

When the school wanted to know who exactly lived in ds's household, that info was actually going to the health authority.

So, say if I was living with my boyfriend and we broke up, am I supposed to tell the school that there is one less person living here?!

I don't think that who I live with, or what I do for a living, or how much I earn, or my date of birth, or whether I have a degree or not, is relevant to my sons education.

What worries me is that the information could be used to penalise dcs further down the line - e.g. that really nice fair plan to discriminate against those university applicants whose own parents had been to university.

There was some talk among the chattering classes a while back of dumbing down one's job as much as possible - Mr Barratt of Barratt Homes would be a "builder", Sir Terry Leahy of Tescos (although he's gone now) would be "shop worker" etc etc.

I was asked today by a recruitment consultant whether I owned or rented my home, now I can see where they are going with that, it's about flexibility to relocate but I asked do people happily offer that level of personal information. Apparently I am the first to mention it, but then I expected that answer. I do feel we are a bit too free and easy with our business these days, there's sharing and then there's sharing too much.

"I was asked today by a recruitment consultant whether I owned or rented my home"

Probably wanted to flog you household insurance. A lot of agencies are into financial services. Pensions, health insurance, professional indeminity etc.

Nowthen - I get what you are saying but personally I don't care too much about some of the personal privacy issues that bothers some people.

I mean if the council wants to install more CCTV in the town centre for example then it doesn't bother me if some guy in a control room is watching me eat my Big Mac as I shop. But that is just me :) since I know that CCTVs winds up a lot of people

I don't think I'd have a problem with this personally, but they really should say what the information is for, and if it's for diversity analysis or whatever then make this clear and assure parents that it will be confidential and not used for anything else. Much like the optional sections on some application forms where they ask for ethnic background etc.

The thing that's winding me up at the moment is why on earth the registrar needs to know our fathers' occupations for me and DP to get married. Seems utterly bizarre and archaic to me, not to mention a bit pointless as the answer is 'retired' in both cases, as it probably is for most couples getting married these days.

I agree, but that's exactly why they maybe need to do a better job of explaining what the information will be used for and why it's important.

I can see that parent occupations are irrelevant, but why would anyone object to telling a school what language their child speaks

I find it hard to believe a surestart centre targets ethnicities. They probably monitor the demographic that uses the centre, but why would they get points for black children?

It probably pisses off the mother of black children that her kids are seen as points = prizes, I would hate that personally.

And you're going to get "hard to reaches" in by having a quota of black children

"... I just refuse to give information that I don't consider relevant. .."

How do you know it's not relevant? Maybe not relevant to you but there may be a very good reason of which you are simply not aware.

My advice to the OP and all who want to know why the question is on the form is to ask.

Of course if the school don't know why, that's a different matter entirely!

Parents occupation is completely irrelevant. However the language a child speaks at home is very relevant, it helps a school prepare and look into relevant support for any none english speaking children that maybe due to start. I remember in DS1's school a little girl started reception and only spoke hindi, the school didn't and still don't do home visits, the first thing they knew about it was in July when she did a transition visit, parents both spoke fluent english but didn't bother to tell the school that dd didn't.

Just seemed an odd thing to state TSC - that you should put down your children's ethnicity because Children's Centres get points for black children - it's not something I've ever come across.

Supporting families who are recent immigrants or who don't have English as a first language seems like quite a different thing to me - why would the centre get points for black British children if they are aiming for non-English speakers?

I'm sorry if you feel I'm had a go at you.

I would put "Ofsted Inspector" and have done with it.

I don't actually mind private schools asking, because they just want to know you're good for the fees. But I do have a problem with state schools asking anything that might make someone without a job, or with a crap job, feel their child is going to be disadvantaged by their own lack of advantage. It's just wrong and actually it should be removed from all state school paperwork.

TheSecondComing - But asking people's occupations when they are a pupil at the school means they're already "in the building".

Oh dear, Pusheed. Are you saying that you eat in the street. Ugh!

I'm not sure if it has been mentioned already, but it is very relevant to the school to know if either parent is a serving member of the armed forces.

Schools receive £200 per pupil in this instance (£250 from April); this Pupil Premium is intended to compensate for the disruption to education often suffered by the children of armed forces personnel.

"Ofsted Inspector" - tremendous!

I don't think it's relevent but the school probably want to know to show their "diversity". If you don't want to fill it in don't! You could always make something up, porn star, gigolo, MP