Why do Private schools ask for parents' profession on application forms?

[LondonMummer]

I'm currently applying for a series of 13+ entries for my son. A number of schools ask for details of parents' profession on the application form (mandatory response required). I'm proud of what I do and have no issue sharing it but I don't understand why this has any relevance to an application. I've heard CLS even ask boys in the interview what their parents do. Can anyone enlighten me?

No idea, but state schools around here also ask on the “getting to know you” form. I assume its for statistics and to figure out how many parents they can expect to rope in to help out for career days, sport days etc

1. Do you have the kind of job where you could offer interesting talks, advice, work experience

2. Do you have the kind of job that means you are a safe bet for being able to afford the fees for the next x years, or are you going to be declaring bankruptcy or asking for bursaries every other year? ie Accountant = pretty safe bet. Professional poker player = this one might be tricky.

They want to kniw if you're good for the fees

I think it’s for scoping how much you earn.

Ditto parents date of birth. I filled it in and then questioned if I wanted that information out there on my child’s application form.

I asked my parents who had sent me to a private school and they said they would have left it blank or written “none of your business” in the space.

It's also to understand how their market is changing.
Professions that could send their children to fee-paying schools thirty/forty years ago cannot now.

@RedAndGreenPlaid

It's also to understand how their market is changing. Professions that could send their children to fee-paying schools thirty/forty years ago cannot now.

I hope it's this. Assessing fee reliability would be ridiculous as there are all sorts of ways that fees might be paid which might not be apparent from a job title.

I think it's horribly old fashioned and looks a little like a screening mechanism to decide if applicants are "our type". I'm pretty sure it isn't this but if it is as you suggest to drive real understanding of social mobility they should explain that clearly and make a feature of it.

To keep out the riff raff

Our DS’s very chi chi prep school asks for this and the Registrar once confessed to me she used it to desperately find parents who weren’t bankers or lawyers, as she could fill the school five times over with those. So she genuinely liked having the more creative or unusual professions!

It's more for targeting marketing- such as which in-house journals for advertising etc.
No point in targeting surveyors and accountants, for example, if those groups can no longer manage fees, better to go for an area that has increasing numbers of parents in that area that may not traditionally have considered independent schools.

@LondonMummer under GDPR organisations need to explain how they use your data and only ask for what they need. So it would be reasonable to query it. I guess most people wouldn't though, in case it impacts their application.

My DS is doing his UCAS application currently, and they ask the same question, but there is a 'prefer not to say' option, and I was pleased to see he has selected that. I have him well trained!

The question is asked by UCAS to monitor widening participation in HE (Specifically about levels of education of parents, which is what I think they ask)

@WorkingItOutAsIGo

Our DS’s very chi chi prep school asks for this and the Registrar once confessed to me she used it to desperately find parents who weren’t bankers or lawyers, as she could fill the school five times over with those. So she genuinely liked having the more creative or unusual professions!

If that is true, it is unethical if she was prioritising children based on their parent's occupation

No sinister reason.

They probably want to know who to tap up for careers' talks.

@CraftyGin

No sinister reason.

They probably want to know who to tap up for careers' talks.

But why ask on applications in that case rather than once pupils have joined? I don't think that's the reason at all.

Maybe worried about lawyers who might be litigious if something goes wrong 😂

My private school asked these questions nearly fifty years ago for my older siblings. I think it was simple curiosity, though neither school had any problems with being in trade. If I had my druthers, I would choose a school with more entrepreneurial parents would be wise. They tend to be more pushy and competitive than rentiers for their children.

They are nosy, judgemental and want to see if you can afford it!

It is in order to assess the kind of occupations (and also the incomes that come with those) who are applying. This then enables them to target their future market. Over many years if having this info, patterns emerge and changes over time show up.

For example, a number of school now report (internally) that increasingly there is 1 very high earner and a SAHM. Schools might note that the number of GPs applying has dropped, or the numbers in the City have risen.

The data is more for a macro interest point of view, than about YOU as an individual or what YOU as an individual do/earn.

Bananafruitcake of course it’s not unethical! Private schools often have many more applications than places and so they have to have criteria to use to select the pupils they offer a space to. Some might do this by academic ability, others like the one I talk about have an explicit criteria to ensure they have social diversity. How can that be unethical?

I love the idea that school fees are reliably affordable on lawyers’ salaries. That’s what it used to be like!

Marketing (what are the growing markets?) and to use for talks/career advice. Nothing sinister - outside London, if you can pay, you’re in.

If a school publishes admissions criteria then it cannot choose by parental occupation. That is not fair on anyone applying. It could be challenged legally too. If they make it clear that the background of DC is considered in the selection process, that’s entirely different. Everyone must be clear about the admissions process and the criteria used. In every school.

Our school does and it’s a state school.
I work for a Church and we ask for parents profession on the application for Baptisms - I just use it to judge which parent is likely to be the easiest to speak to when making the arrangements. Wedding application forms still ask for parents professions.

@TizerorFizz

If a school publishes admissions criteria then it cannot choose by parental occupation. That is not fair on anyone applying. It could be challenged legally too. If they make it clear that the background of DC is considered in the selection process, that’s entirely different. Everyone must be clear about the admissions process and the criteria used. In every school.

Exactly

There seems to be an increasing number of private schools petitioning for bankruptcy on non-paying parents. I suppose they might want to try and avoid this if at all possible.