EDUCATION & SUMMER SCHOOLING 10 FAMI LY VALUE S 21 JUNE 2014


Making learning fun & rewarding Tips to give your kids the best start in life


1. Books: Te best way to encourage your children to love books is to read aloud to them. Start when they’re a baby and they’ll enjoy listening to your voice. Continue to read aloud with them even when they can read for themselves. Make sure there are a variety of books and let them choose one from the library and set up a time each day for reading. 2. Educational toys: Whether it’s a jigsaw, Lego, or even a kiddy’s laptop, there are a variety of toys that will stimulate and entertain and improve a child’s development. 3. Language: Try to introduce your child to a foreign language when they’re young — it’ll help them become truly proficient later on in life. Learning another language can also help enhance children’s English vocab. Introducing fun books, videos or computer games in the chosen language may spark their interest. 4. Choosing a nursery: Search the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) website for member nurseries in your area. Contact nurseries on your shortlist and then arrange a visit. Taking your child with you may help you make a decision. A large nursery isn’t necessarily a bad one as it may have more facilities. www.ndna.org.uk 5. Choosing a school: Word of mouth is one of the best ways to find a good local primary school, but if you’re moving to a strange area, take a look at lists at www.gov.uk. Ofsted reports and school league tables are useful, but take sure to visit the schools in person before making a decision. www.gov.uk/schools- admissions/choosing-schools 6. Tuition & revision: Tutoring is a great option if you want to help your child pass an entrance exam for private or grammar schools or help them maintain their studies over the summer. Coaching and revision courses can improve a child’s confidence and performance.


7. Summer camps: A great way to encourage independence, discover new activities, improve at a sport and make new friends. Camps abroad can also introduce your child to a new culture and help them improve language skills.


Family Values recommends: • Bloomsbury: No money? No time? Excited children? No problem! 100 Ideas for Dads Who Love Teir Kids... but find them exhausting centres on Willem, who loves his children but finds them exhausting. Ten, one day, he challenges them to find games that require him to lie on the sofa. Tey have the best day ever! Tis witty new book from Featherstone (an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing) features an eclectic range of activities for kids and their dads written from a personal perspective. Paperback. RRP: £4.99. www.bloomsbury.com/uk • FunTech: FunTech offer kids and teens the opportunity to dive into the world of computer technology. Our residential camps provide an immersive week-long learning experience packed full of tech fun and activities. Taking place at Tonbridge School, starting on Sunday 17 August 2014, the camps combines high- quality tech classes with physical activities (from archery to tennis) — and it’s great place to make new friends. Whether your child is eight, 18 or somewhere in between, we’ve a residential camp to fire their imagination. All our staff are passionate about computer science and inspiring young minds. www.funtech.co.uk • Debate Chamber: Established in 2003, Debate Chamber offers high-quality pre-university academic summer schools in central London. With small group classes, inspiring (and highly- qualified) seminar leaders, and a rigorous and challenging programme of study, these summer schools are a fantastic way for school students to prepare for the new academic year. www. debatechamber.com www.debatechamber.com/ summerschools


FunTech


• ESL – Language Travel: An award-winning study abroad agency, with over 15 years’ experience in the industry. It organises tailor-made language study trips to over 100 destinations worldwide. Tere are programmes suitable for all levels of proficiency and all ages, including for adults, juniors, families, gap year, professionals and over-50s. From a couple of weeks’ learning French in sunny Provence, to six months’ getting to grips with Mandarin in Beijing, ESL – Language Travel will create the perfect package for you. www.esl.co.uk • Nursery World: Choosing childcare is one of the most important decisions a parent will make, and families want their children to be educated and cared for by early years professionals who can make sure they get the best start in life. Since 1925, Nursery World has led the way in providing information and advice to those who work with families and young children. Nurseries, schools and childminders in turn support parents to


bring up their children, and Nursery World is there to help. Nursery World’s combination of fortnightly magazine and daily-updated website makes sure that early years professionals have the news, opinion, practice and management knowledge they need to provide the very best childcare and education for under-fives and their families. To subscribe, please call 0800 137 201 or visit www.magsubscriptions.com/ nurseryworld. • Tutor Doctor: A leader in one-to-one, in- home tutoring. Tutor Doctor covers all ages, subjects and abilities, including: primary, SATs, 11+, Common Entrance, GCSE, AS/A2 Level, degree subjects, learning difficulties and languages. Its DBS-checked tutors are matched by skillset, personality and aptitude to the student they’re tutoring. Tutor Doctor ensures the match is perfect from the outset by meeting the family and assessing your expectations. www.tutordoctor.co.uk


THE SUMMER SLIDE: students can lose 20-30% of their maths and reading skills over the summer


Te ‘Summer Slide’ is not a new game or part of a theme park, it is a phenomenon many students experience over the long Summer holiday, where they can lose many of the academic gains they made over the last school term. Summer academic losses are also cumulative, so students who experience the ‘Summer Slide’ can drop further behind each year. Summer Learning can ensure that your junior-


level children start secondary school on an equal footing with their peers, setting them up to succeed. For senior school students, it can prevent learning loss and set themselves up to achieve their academic goals. Even the Department for Education agrees


saying in 2012 that; “Many pupils find the move to a bigger school and a more challenging curriculum daunting which can lead to a dip in their performance. Pupils who fall behind at this stage often never catch up.” “*Educational research is unambiguous: a long


summer break is an impediment to children’s learning. Studies carried out in the US and the UK show what should be intuitively obvious: with a long break from studying maths and English, children’s abilities take a dive over the summer in both areas.” *Source: Sonia Sodha, a research fellow from the


UK-based Institute for Public Policy and Research “It’s unfortunate that children’s hard-earned


skills they learned over the school year can easily be lost over the summer,” said Frank Milner, President of Tutor Doctor.


“With the Tutor Doctor Summer Learning Programme all it takes is one or two hours a week for students to stand a chance in an increasingly competitive world”


“Six weeks without any academic challenge will


dull anyone’s brain, thus it’s important to keep your children on their toes this summer. Tis doesn’t mean that you have to use tedious school books and flash cards to get the job done. You can easily disguise curriculum into fun learning activities for children instead.” Historically, & currently children’s attitude has


always been that school is boring; summer is fun, school


is constricting; summer is freedom. We


don’t want children to feel like learning must be a chore over the holidays as it really doesn’t have to. “Te children need a break, so it’s not about


drilling them to work, work, work, but we can see that regular sessions over the course of the holidays can be a huge help to revisit some of the topics they have been finding trickiest in the last academic year and to get them ready for the curriculum in the year to come,” explains Rob Kerrison, Owner of Tutor Doctor Cambridge. “We also always talk to Mum and Dad about the


kinds of things they can be doing for the younger students in terms of games and activities to get


words and numbers into their family time together. It is different though with your own children, certainly I find this mine, and having someone who’s not Mum or Dad come into the home to provide thought-through relevant material in a fun and interesting way when there’s not the everyday pressures of school and homework is something that’s very effective. We’ve found that the children really look forward to these summer sessions and it’s definitely not the hard sell that the parents may have feared at some stage if we all do our jobs right.” Whether your children struggled to get good


grades last term or you simply want to give them a head start for the new school term; the Tutor Doctor Summer Learning Programme can turn the summer months into an opportunity to excel. All it takes is one or two hours a week for students to stand a chance in an increasingly competitive world. Learning does not have to interrupt summer activities; in fact, it can be integrated with them. Tutor Doctor also helps educate parents on other, interactive, ways to keep their children educated


over the summer, like; planting a garden; creating a summer menu and meal; build a bird feeder and identify the birds who visit; go to local museums, zoos, botanical gardens, or any place in your local area where kids can see and learn about new things, or learn a new skill or activity. Tutor Doctor comes to you at a time that is


convenient, so you can have fun during the summer and not have your activities interrupted. Our one-on-one, at home, tutoring style delivers


results; 95% of our customers would recommend us to their friends and family.


Visit our website at www.tutordoctor.co.uk or call us at 01978 716 997 to find out more.


Stop the Summer Slide and call us for a free consultation Visit www.tutordoctor.co.uk or call 01978 716 997


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