Many schools across the UK now host summer schools during the holiday providing additional lessons and other activities such as sports.
Summer schools typically last two to three weeks and are used to help boost academic performance for pupils who need to catch up or to help ease the leap from primary to secondary school.
Research shows that pupils’ attendance, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, benefit from the extra emotional and social support, helping them to cope with the jump from a small primary school to a large secondary school.
In Summer Schools Programme for Disadvantaged Pupils: Key findings for Schools Research report by the Department of Education many schools reported better engagement with school as well as improved pupil behaviour.
Other main benefits included increased confidence and self-esteem and building relationships with pupils and staff.
The report revealed summer schools are an excellent opportunity for teachers to get to know the pupils before they start secondary school and get an insight into their academic abilities and learning needs.
It also enables them to discover their pastoral needs and put strategies into place to support them through Year 7.
Over a period of two to four weeks teachers are able to give students one to one support and catch up classes in key subjects such as Maths and English.
This intensive focus on subjects helps those students who are falling behind their peers to catch up and helps to reinforce what they know.
It’s also a great opportunity to celebrate their achievements and boost self-belief and confidence.
However, the Department of Education report highlighted summer schools were especially successful when they combined learning with an emphasis of having ‘fun’ with activities like games and sports.
Students look forward to six weeks of holiday in the summer and so it’s not unsurprising that they may baulk at the idea of going back into a school setting.
However, research shows that most pupils have positive experiences of their summer school and felt attending helped them.
They were also pleased to be invited, made friends and enjoyed the experience.
In the Department of Education study, the largest of its kind, pupils said attending a summer school had helped them feel more confident about starting secondary school and a majority thought that it had helped them with their schoolwork.
Evidence shows pupils who attend summer schools make around three additional months’ progress compared to pupils who are similar and who don’t attend a summer school.
However, a study of all the research shows that summer schools have the biggest impact when they have are well-resourced, intensive and have a clear academic focus, and taught in a small group or one to one by trained teachers.
There is also some evidence that there are better outcomes if pupils know the teacher.
The main challenge for summer school provision is attendance as well as pupils dropping out, especially for disadvantaged pupils.
Schools can get around barriers by talking to parents early on to identify any issues affecting pupils such as transport and food costs and clashes with holidays.
Including non-academic fun activities such as arts, sports and trips can also help encourage pupils to attend.
A great way schools can entice pupils to summer schools is by taking the learning outside away from the classroom environment.
Many schools are able to do this in all weathers by adding Spaceshade canopies as an extra dining room, classroom or a shaded and dry area in the playground for messy play.
In addition, you can also add solar panels to the canopy to cut your carbon footprint and electricity bills, provide EV charging to staff and real time learning about renewables.
If you’d like to find out more about our canopies, contact us for a chat.