Some may view the beginning of October as the final trace of summer. The persistent lukewarm breeze, the dog-walkers and their conversations, and a general sense of playfulness: a picturesque day to spend outside.
A day that 10 students spent indoors, in school, on a Saturday.
Saturday Academic Recovery Periods (SARPs) have quickly become a hot topic amongst Saints students: miss 25% of school in a two-week period and you’ll have to spend the better part of your Saturday in a classroom with some school administratiors.
With the first SARP taking place last weekend, these two curious reporters wanted to get a better understanding of what it’s really like from the students there. We decided to (VOLUNTARILY) attend the first SARP, arriving at about midday to hear what they had to say.
“I thought it would be more strict,” says Joffrey Chan (‘28), when asked about his initial thoughts on SARPs. “I can take breaks and stuff, so it’s pretty nice.” Indeed, the environment seemed quite quiet and relaxed: three 75-minute working blocks separated by 15-minute breaks, a 30-minute lunchtime, and a 30-minute circle reflection.
Coming into this experience, Jason Yu (‘28) said SARPs “felt more like a kind of punishment [from] missing school.” After two-thirds of the day had elapsed, Jason’s view had shifted: “I think, honestly, I’m more focused here than I am at home.” He wasn’t the only student to come to that view. When asked about advice he would give to future SARP attendees, Noah Fowler (‘28) said to “make the most of it,” because “you’re probably not going to get the work done at home.” For some, it seemed that SARP was a place to focus and get their work completed.
Of course, not all students felt the same. “I’d rather sleep in,” said one anonymous student. “I’m still a little sick right now.” That brings with it a very important point: recently, students have been coming to school sick in order to avoid being assigned SARPs. When asked to comment on that situation, Vardaan Sara (‘27) said, “You’re going to get people sick… [and] uncomfortable… you’re better off staying home. To be honest, it’s not that bad. It’s pretty chill, pretty mellow.” There was also an efficient element to the experience, according to Vardaan: “You just work, get your stuff done, and then you don’t have to do anything for the rest of your weekend.”
We also caught up with Ms. Phoebe Darwin, Vice Principal of Student Life, and asked a few questions about the philosophy around SARPs.
“In my experience, when students are doing accountability… when people come to terms with their actions, everyone is on the same page and kind to each other. We still want to foster a positive learning environment,” she said in response to hearing some of the students’ thoughts. Ms. Darwin also had a word on the TV-show-inspired nickname for SARPs: “We’re not just sitting in a room twiddling thumbs or writing lines like in The Breakfast Club,” she said. “We’re here to recover missed work and make sure that students are caught up for the next week.”
Was that objective successful for this first Saturday School? In the eyes of the students, definitely. “There really aren’t that many expectations,” said Jason Yu when responding to fears around admin supervision. “It’s just a calm place to study which happens to have other students.”
That isn’t to say students should be skipping school to come to SARPs. “Keep avoiding the SARPs,” Ms. Darwin says, “because you don’t want to come into school on a Saturday and sit with us for six hours.” She stressed that this environment “cannot substitute” for the students’ subject experts (teachers) and in-classroom knowledge.
That said, if you do have a SARP, the environment doesn’t seem as bad as initially advertised. Maybe it was because our reporting presence was a change of pace for the students, but we found a few grins, winks, and even a joke or two thrown around. It seems that the overall lukewarm sentiment from those we interviewed suggests that the negative hype around SARPs was overblown.
Vardaan sums it up well. “It’s just a six-hour fifth block. So it’s pretty easy.”
If you have any questions about SARPs, please leave them in the comments!
All photos and interviews obtained with consent of the subjects. If you are uncomfortable with your representation on this article, please contact [email protected].
