Developing a sector-wide profile of parents for UK State Boarding Schools

The client challenge: Schools within the UK State Boarding Schools’ Association (SBSA) provide a vital education and pastoral service to parents and children with often complex circumstances and needs. Effective policy and decision making has been hampered by the absence of a holistic understanding of parents and children across the sector.

Our approach: Conscious of the multiple demands on schools, we worked in close cooperation with the SBSA and its member schools to develop a simple, focused questionnaire for parents and an engagement process for schools requiring minimal administration.

Our approach generated a remarkable 35% parent response rate and allowed us to follow up with in-depth interviews with a targeted cross-section of parents.

Client benefits: Our analysis provided the first ever sectoral profile of SBSA parents and a compelling segmentation of the parent base which highlights the growing role both of UK nationals abroad and EU citizens attracted by the quality of education on offer in the sector.

Our insight and segmentation provides the SBSA with an unprecedented evidence base to underpin its engagement with government stakeholders and a new depth of understanding to guide future policy and practice across schools in the sector.