Why we built SATs Arcade

Funding is not the problem. What happens at home is.

The UK spends £122 billion a year on education and has dedicated teachers. Yet every summer, 38% of children leave primary school below the expected standard. We built SATs Arcade for what happens after 3:30pm.

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UK education spending since you opened this page

£9,968

Based on £122 billion per year (DfE, 2024/25)

The unfair advantage

53% of affluent families pay for private tutoring. Only 31% of disadvantaged families do. A private tutor costs £200+ a month, and they only cover one subject. Children at private schools get structured practice built into every evening. State school children get a worksheet and a “good luck.”

The gap between those who can afford help and those who can’t is not closing. It is widening. Teachers cannot close it alone in a class of thirty, and no parent should have to buy their way out of it. What has been missing is a tool that costs less than a tutor and still does the job.

The unfair advantage is now £39 a month

SATs Arcade gives every child a structured route through all five SATs papers. Its headline feature, SATs Academy, teaches each topic step by step in a voiced lesson, then gives practice, a short test for every level and full mock papers. Your dashboard shows their mock history and the mock score trend.

You already know the hour after school is where the difference gets made. This is simply a way to use it that your child will actually agree to.

Sources: DfE National Curriculum Assessments, 2024/25; Sutton Trust, 2026

The parent moment

If you have sat at that kitchen table more times than you can count, trying to make revision happen, you know how it goes. The workbooks. The printed past papers. The bribes, the timers, and the kind of cheerful encouragement that makes everyone involved feel slightly deranged.

And the same pattern every time. Five minutes of effort, then the pencil tapping starts. The staring out of the window. The sudden, desperate need to use the bathroom. The tears — sometimes theirs, sometimes yours.

Then you walk past the living room and see the same child who “can’t concentrate” locked into a game for two hours straight. Learning complex systems. Mastering new mechanics. Choosing to repeat difficult challenges until they won. Not because anyone told them to — because they wanted to.

That is the moment everything changes. Not the child. The question.

We stopped asking ‘how do we make children revise more?’ and started asking ‘why does revision have to feel like punishment?’

The reframe

What we ask children to do

Sit still for an hour
Complete worksheets
Repeat until memorised

What children choose to do

Play for hours voluntarily
Learn complex systems
Master through repetition — by choice

20.4: Hours a week: the average time UK children spend gamingOfcom, 2024
34: Hours a week for teenage boys — more than school itselfOfcom, 2024

Same child. Same brain. Same capacity for focus, persistence and mastery. The difference is design. A good game shows them how, lets them try, and shows them the moment they’ve got it. Most revision does none of that.

So we built lessons that do the explaining. SATs Academy shows the method step by step in a voiced lesson, gives practice on just that topic, then a short test and a star they can see. When they want another way in, The Arcade has the games.

The chain

What happens at age 11 doesn’t stay at age 11.

Age 11: KS2 SATs. Primary school exit.
Age 16: GCSEs. Secondary outcomes.
Adult: Lifetime outcomes. Earnings, health, opportunity.

£157,500: More in lifetime earnings, linked to a one-standard-deviation rise in KS2 English and mathsDfE, July 2025
£104,400: More in lifetime earnings, a separate estimate for a rise in KS2 maths aloneDfE, July 2025

Children who meet the expected standard at KS2 are around six times more likely to go on to strong GCSE passes, and many secondary schools use KS2 results to set Year 7 groups. But every chain has links, and the one at Year 6 is the one you can still reach.

What we built. Let the lesson explain.

So we built something different. Not another resource. A route through every SATs paper, with a lesson that does the explaining.

The lesson does the explaining
SATs Academy teaches every topic in a voiced lesson, step by step, with captions on. Your child can pause and replay any part, and you don't need to know the method yourself.
You'll know where they stand
A star for every level they pass, from Working Towards to Greater Depth. Stars fade if a topic isn't practised for a while, so gaps are easy to spot. Your dashboard keeps their mock history and the mock score trend.
Everything SATs covers
All five papers: Arithmetic, Reasoning, Grammar and punctuation, Spelling and Reading. 51 topics, over 300 voiced lessons and 71 full mock papers with written feedback.
Simple, honest pricing
From £39 a month. Family plans cover up to four children. Standard and Family start with a 7-day free trial, and come with a full refund within 30 days of signing up, including your 7-day free trial.
And a way back in
The games, leagues and daily challenges have their own page, The Arcade, for the days they want another way in.

Reading is step one. Practising is step two.

SATs Academy teaches the exact papers your child will face in May, step by step, then lets them practise, take a short test for every level and sit full mock papers.

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What we believe

Every child is already a brilliant learner.
Motivation is a design outcome, not a character trait.
Primary school performance shapes life outcomes.
Access to effective preparation is a right, not a privilege.
Preparation should build confidence, not anxiety.
Parents shouldn’t need a teaching degree.

Built because brilliant kids should not hate learning. See if your child agrees.

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Only 22 weeks left at school before SATs 2027