Connie, 13, says: "Friends outside the school say I'm a boffin because I'm going to school on a Saturday. If I wasn't doing this, I wouldn't do anything on a Saturday morning. I'd be in bed."

Emilia, 13, says: "I get up at 6am to come to youth club. If I have got something that winds me up I can talk about it here. I'm the sort that if you keep winding me up, I get really angry. I'm more chilled out and relaxed since I've been coming here."

One Saturday morning two years ago, Jay, 14, picked up a guitar and taught himself to play. Without Saturday school, he wonders where his band Inverse could practise. "We would have to hire another hall and it would cost money," he says.

Paris, 12, says: "You don't have to wear school uniform, you can leave when you want, you can do whatever you want. My parents like it because my mum and my sister can go to the gym and my dad can clean up the house."

Simon, 13, has no computer at home. "It's easy for me to come here if I have got any history homework. I do a bit of gardening. I have never grown anything before. I have been in detention on Saturday and it's not much fun."