Saturday school

[bloomingbarbara]

Would Saturday school at a prep school (year 4-8 only) be a pro or con for you? There was an article about how many schools are dropping it and I didn’t realise it was a thing! If your child has Saturday school what are the benefits? I don’t think I would ever choose it for my DC - I really like our more relaxed Saturday mornings and in non covid times, out of school activities.

I think it is a throw back to times when boarding was more popular so parents wanted children home for longer holidays. I think private school timetabling is very outdated - holidays are far too long and terms too short and compressed with too much pressure so DC end up exhausted. Would be great for DC if timetabling moved from the boom/bust mentality and great for parents for work too!

I quite like the longer days but yes, my kids are shattered at the end of term. I think most kids are though? Most of the schools in the article were boarding so that makes sense. Keeps them busy on a weekend too!

Saturday morning lessons at boarding schools tend to accompany more afternoons set aside for games and other activities during the week. So in part a different distribution of lesson time.

DS's former prep (day only for 20 yrs + I think) has maintained optional Saturday mornings as a time when they do music activities such as orchestra, which makes scheduling much easier for the choristers there. Another school near us seems to be changing their Saturday school to extracurricular activities, at least for the younger students.

We moved from state primary to independent secondary so have experienced both extremes in terms of school timings. DS now has school all day on a Saturday - lessons in the morning, games in the afternoon. I think the advantage is the sheer amount of time it allows for fitting stuff in. There's so much on offer in terms of clubs, music, drama and sport that it would be a real challenge to cram everything into a 'normal' school week. The sport in particular has been a revelation compared with primary - they do literally hours of exercise every week, which I think is a massive benefit. It is tiring, but DS loves school so he isn't really bothered - we just keep term time very quiet in terms of weekend activities and plan more stuff for the long holidays. Plus I love the peace and quiet on a Saturday morning . For the boarders at school, the long week means there's less free time when the school needs to keep the kids entertained.

I would have loved it to have one day of the weekend free but my daughter would hate it and she specifically discounted any secondary schools that had Saturday lessons/games