Year 6 SATs breakfast club

[Clearinguptheclutter]

DS is in year 6 which obviously means SATs in May. School have announced that after half term they will be "expected" to attend SATs breakfast club, starting 40 minutes before school, twice a week. Then it's every day after the Easter holidays up to and including SATs week in mid may. TBF there is no charge and breakfast is provided so that's something.

My son has been 'exceeding' across all areas since the beginning of year 6 and I know will have no issue with the exams so I'm not sure how it will benefit him, other than perhaps FOMO if he doesn't go (they apparently try and make it 'fun'). However I am unhappy with the school seemingly putting the kids under so much pressure. From what I can gather SATs are a measure of the school as a whole not individual kids; the school seem to be pressuring the kids to do well as a group rather than individually.

DH thinks we should not send him to the breakfast clubs in principle. DS already feels that he 'has to' go and fears 'getting in trouble' if he doesn't. I don't think he will but I do worry about it reflecting badly on me as parent.

How normal is this and how necessary is it for a kid who has no concerns about doing well in the tests? Even before the breakfast clubs, the school seem to have got them doing very regular mock papers so it will be a case of taking them from very well prepared to extremely well prepared I suppose.

FWIW it's a "naice" school with supportive parents and I expect most of the kids will do well, not just my DS.

Most schools do it and to be honest, you might make him feel more pressured if you don’t let him go? It’s done to make sure that everyone has had breakfast and that children who are habitually late, get to school on time. I completely agree with you re the ridiculous pressure put on children sitting SATS. We took DD out of school for a 2 week holiday just before she did them. School were furious but she aced them so we had no regrets.

We do this but ONLY in the week of SATS, certainly not before-the amount our lot eat, we couldn't afford it! There is no extra practising for the tests involved, it's just for 2 reasons

1. to make sure all our children have a good breakfast before the tests
2. to get them in a bit earlier so we can chase up the late arrivals!

My DC's school did something like this although not as many sessions as this. Most attended, some didn't which was absolutely fine. If you don't want him to go or he doesn't want to, then don't.

I'd imagine a reasonable number won't attend. It's not convenient if you have younger children for example, to take the Yr6 child in 40 mins early (bringing the younger children with you), then home again, then back out 40 min later to drop the younger children at school.

This is how the school gets good results. It’s not something on the radar of people applying for Reception but very common for Year Six to have a shit year if the school is OTT about preparing.

My kids are young adult and went to a school like this and the classes started in March which was bad enough. Breakfast club was just during SATS week and was literally breakfast rather than a revision session so it was for social reasons.

If you aren’t able to stand up for your son and allow yourself to be judged then you’ll need to take him in. I don’t think that everybody will turn up. What’s the plan for those with siblings in other years ? Are they expected to wait 40 minutes in the playground ?

I'm sure everyone won't be going every day, and the school can't enforce it. I wouldn't have a problem with it personally.

For clarification though, our (lovely, nurturing, low pressure) primary school also reassured us SATS were a measure of the school not the kids - this is absolutely not the case. The child's SATS score will set their entire 'flight path' for the next 5 years at secondary and be used as a predictor of GCSE results and for setting classes. It is used in an extremely rigid way in my experience and does not change even if children are clearly exceeding this, and is also used, ridiculously, to predict GCSE scores in subjects which may not be particularly related eg art/ PE.

Maybe not an issue if your child is clearly going to do well anyway, but definitely worth knowing.

i was about to say about the SATs scores being used, at least by our local secondary, to set children in English, maths and sciences. They do say that children can move sets but I wonder how often this actually happens. It feels a bit unfair that if an 11 year old child has a duff day on SATs day in their maths paper, that’s it, they won’t get entered into a high gcse paper for maths because their trajectory has already been set.

i don’t have any experience of secondary yet (eldest is yr 6) so it remains to be seen how this will pan out…

I really appreciate all the thoughts here thank you.

to clarify some details
•secondary school he (and vast majority of others) will probably go to, do NOT set based on sats scores. Or at all in year 7 don’t think. They have also played down the “flight path” thing.
•they told us that “everyone” came last year but I can’t believe that was everyone, every day!
•re. siblings, not a big concern as all except about 3 live within very easy walking distance, the vast majority walk themselves to school

Having spoken to ds he seems quite fine about the idea so I guess I’ll encourage initially for social reasons (he is one to “follow the crowd”, unlike dh and I), but if he decides it’s a waste of time and he’d rather that extra time in bed, I’ll support that too.

My daughter's school did this. First day we went in and they were in the hall with the regular breakfast club kids. Most of them had eaten and were running around playing and there was a cd player with music playing too. It was the most unrelaxing environment you could imagine.
The other 4 days we left it as late as we could to go in - we literally live next door which made it hilarious.
It was really about making sure the children weren't late that day. A load of nonsense if you ask me. The only children who were regularly late was because they came to school on public transport - not much you can do about that.
Oh and my girl didn't attend the Easter holiday "revision camp" because at Easter we were visiting her grandparents. Apparently it was hardly any revision and mostly just playing games and fun activities (like the regular holiday "camps"). A few parents were quite annoyed about that because they changed their Easter plans because of this.

@Clearinguptheclutter I think it’s awful for the school to do this. Over the top for all sorts of reasons. The school should just be pleased he’s doing well.

I would be led by your DS. Will his friends go and would he like to be with them? If he feels it’s not what he’s likely to enjoy, don’t go. He’s old enough to know his own mind and what coaching does he need apart from timing maybe?

They should have a parents’ evening about getting enough sleep, not worrying (joke!!) and what the arrangements are for the week. Plus - please don’t go on holiday! Just let DS decide and find out what his mates are doing.