11 Plus Exams Forum

If private schools are interested in admitting bright children why fo they want to know parents occupation and the like. Some I am told also interview the parents.

Quite a few schools interview the parents and most if not all will be wanting to know the occupation(s). There are many questions they are wanting the answer to:

(I know sledgehammer etc and some of this must be tongue in cheek)

1 will the parents be able to afford the fees
2 will they keep on being able to afford the fees (ie stable jobs)
3 are they likely to go along with our views of discipline / ethos etc etc etc.
4 Are they argumentative, cantakerous and difficult and would we want them back?
5 are they going to sue us?
6 Are they likely to have bright well behaved kids?

glad they never interviewed me - couldn't have kept a straight face...

We were asked to put our occupations on the application form and when DS was interviewed we were asked a few questions "why do you want your son to come to this school etc etc" I think they want to know that you will support your child in sports matches, plays etc.

hermanmunster wrote:
1 will the parents be able to afford the fees
2 will they keep on being able to afford the fees (ie stable jobs)
3 are they likely to go along with our views of discipline / ethos etc etc etc.
4 Are they argumentative, cantakerous and difficult and would we want them back?
5 are they going to sue us?
6 Are they likely to have bright well behaved kids?

And the one that may be true, but few dare say:
7 Are they the right class?

I knew a prep school head more than 20 years ago for whom 7 was very important. They even mentioned specific examples of turning families down because their children had names that were thought too "common"!

zee wrote:7 Are they the right class?

I knew a prep school head more than 20 years ago for "!

The clue is in the '20 years ago'

ealingmum wrote:If private schools are interested in admitting bright children why fo they want to know parents occupation and the like. Some I am told also interview the parents.

I think I am correct in saying that these days parental occupation is a statistic that all schools including independent ones are required by law to collect, along with info about religion, ethnicity etc if parents are prepared to provide it. Independent schools, unlike state schools, are allowed to ask this at the application stage. It wouldn't do for state schools to be influenced by such things, whereas independent schools need to be sure of a reliable source of income from most of their pupils to provide Dame Suzi Leather's bursaries for the rest of them.

When you think about it the state schools can get access to all sorts of our information from the government so an independent asking about a parents occupation is a menial request and in reality they know very little about us compared to what a state school could get their hands on!

I wonder why they collect info about occupation? i can understand ethnicity and religion as the government has an obsession at present about these.
Occupation changes frequently in some people and is often a not very useful indicator of anything - I preesume they are using it as a proxy for income.

In crabby old age I have started putting "other" whenever asked ethnic origin or religion.

Phew, I'm now relieved that my kids got through 9 interviews between them without me having to submit to scrutiny as well! That's assuming the schools weren't monitoring me covertly...

LOL cinnamon!!!

I suspect you have chosen sensible schools - the ones that I looked at who it turned out wanted to interview the parents were quite a way down my list for various other reasons.