"voluntary" after school SATs boosters for year 6

[Thedogstolemyheatedblanket]

Is it normal for schools to expect children to attend lots of SATS booster sessions outside school hours /at lunchtime? For all of next term ?

My daughters school has started sending emails about this and they are really pushing that children have to attend. But my daughter does an extra curricular hobby outside of school most evenings and has a tutor on the other one. I don't want her to do any more really but I don't know how this will go down with school.DD always does her homework diligently, but she has dyslexia and I don't think she will benefit from missing lunch breaks or lots of extra school sessions

Just wondering if anyone has been to a school that does similar and said no? I don't mind her missing assembly or something for these sessions but am not keen on the school day being longer (even though logistically that would make my life heaps easier).

It is fairly normal, but sometimes they do it as breakfast clubs instead of after school precisely because they know children have other activities and they want them to attend.

If you don’t want your dd to do them then just don’t accept them. There will be people in the school that think you’re causing an inconvenience to their mission of getting good SATs results no matter the cost, and there will be others that agree with you that it’s too much and will respect your choice to prioritise other activities. It doesn’t matter what they think, all you’re supposed to do is what you think is best for your child.

Thanks @SometimesCalmPerson we are family that reallv values education but in a more rounded sense rather than solely focussed on exam results.

I do want to support DD (hence the tutor, who she has had since the first lockdown), but I don't think it sends the right message to say extra curriculars have to be jettisoned at exam time. To me success in exams is about keeping a balance not burning out (I got firsts at uni and never did more than 6 hours a day). And also, DD loves her hobby and hopes to make a career out of it in some way.

I don't want to piss the school off but I would rather they focussed on making the most of the time she is in the classroom. She's always really hard working.

Some schools do this and others don't. Some do before-school boosters and I have heard that a few even do some extra sessions in the Easter holidays. My DD's school didn't do any, as far as I know.

I agree with @SometimesCalmPerson that you can just decline to have your daughter attend. You might like to explain to the school that you are engaged and supportive parents who value her education (and mention that she is already having additional tutoring to support her dyslexia) but the timings are a clash with her hobby which is important to her. You will do your best to support her with her homework, but she will not be able to attend the extra sessions because she is not available at those times.

Thanks @LetItGoToRuin , yes it's making me feel better that it's ok to decline. I thought maybe I would suggest that they can always feed back any particular areas they think she should focus on and I can ask her tutor to look at those, at least that shows willing then

I work in year 6 and think it's shocking that schools do this. We have intervention groups during assembly time and in the afternoons; these change throughout the year, both in focus and the children attending. We do four sets of old papers through the year, and all children who are not on track to reach expected by the end of the year will get some extra support (including those who we know will not get there). We would never expect children to come in outside of normal school hours in a bid to to boost their results.

Our school had some for maths but much closer to the actual SATs. The target was kids who were doing well in maths and might get a greater depth result with a little bit of extra support, additional to what they could fit into school hours. So they did feel like they were geared towards the school’s interest and desire to show they could achieve greater depth results, rather than supporting kids simply because more learning would be good. So quite a few people did feel a cynical about them and decline. They were before school for about five or six weeks before SATs.

It is offered to those in our school who are borderline - either borderline to expected or borderline to greater depth. But there is no obligation to go.
It really depends on what secondary they end up at and how important SATs are for setting later on in that secondary. In our school, all the kids who did the 11 plus grammar tests in September relax and do not go and usually get greater depth but a lot of the parents who live in catchment of the good comps do the extra classes because they are hoping for top set comp. And then the parents for children who struggle do what they can, bearing in mind their DCs mental health. Some kids get very very stressed about SATs, others really do not and it is hard to keep them motivated.

That sounds bonkers. If my son's school had had this I would have said no. Sats results are for the school, not the kids.

When my son was in Y6 the school.hekd a "SATS preparation" meeting for parents. The Y6 teacher and Head teacher basically said that they didn't expect any child to do additional.work for SATS and that regular hobbies, or just playing outside, was a much better use of a child's time.

Just seen these messages.
I declined and haven't had any further fuss from school thankfully (despite their letter implying it was basically compulsory)

Yeah DD1's school does this for children who are borderline as above. It's bonkers, they do extras in half terms and easter as well as morning sessions. It's a big academy chain dominant in South london, answers on a postcard which. They also miraculously turn up two 'consultant' teachers to teach in year 6 all year so the essentially have 4 classes instead of 2.

We have said she won't be attending (she has asc) although I know they want her to as she's on the border. Her teacher is great and agrees and just keeps removing her name from the list but I suspect at some point I'll need to have words with the Head.

One of the issues is that there ends up being a lot of peer pressure because all the kids go, especially for the morning sessions. I loathe it. SATs are for the schools and they have all already sat banding tests for secondary and all the secondaries do their own assessments anyway.

Yes that's my experience of the secondary her older brother is at, they did their own assessments anyway.