FEATURE FOCUS: BRIDGING THE LEARNING GAP


Summer schools: how to make them work for pupils, parents and teachers


challenging. Summer schools have been touted as one of


the leading initiatives to make up for this shortfall in learning. The government has pledged around £200 million in funding to help secondary schools run additional classes, citing statistics from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) that suggest that pupils can make up to four months’ additional progress by taking part in a summer school programme. While the basic concept of summer schools has


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n our second piece this month, Nayeer Afzal, Programme Director at Learning


Hive, examines the summer learning gap and offers her thoughts on how summer schools can help children affected by the pandemic regain much of the learning they have lost due to home schooling and school closures.


The UK may finally be approaching some form of normality once again, but the impact of the pandemic on young people’s education will take a significant amount of time to be fixed. School closures, classroom bubbles and self-isolation requirements have caused unprecedented disruption and, despite the best efforts of hard- working teachers and home-schooling parents, children have missed out on a lot. Pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds have felt the effects particularly acutely, with a lack of access to technology making learning from home extremely


plenty of merit, the government’s plans have been met by scepticism and opposition from some stakeholders. Teachers are concerned about the risk of burnout, while parents have expressed worries that too much of an academic focus could be bad for their children’s overall wellbeing. Making summer schools work, therefore,


means taking a nuanced approach that bears the concerns of every stakeholder in mind. Specifically, it is crucial that programmes strike the right balance between academic rigour and enriching activities that provide a holistic experience for pupils.


The impact of school closures The first nationwide school closures in March last year saw young people miss out on around three months of in-person learning, with the second period of shutdown in January this year lasting until around February half term. Outside these periods, pupils have also had to deal with further disruption caused by mandatory self-isolation, as well as the various challenges of being in class bubbles. Despite remote learning helping to maintain a semblance of stability in pupils’ academic


30 www.education-today.co.uk


routines, it is clear that many have fallen behind. Research has shown that reading skills across all year groups – both primary and secondary – have suffered, with learning loss in maths also being felt strongly. In addition, school closures have had a huge


impact on children’s mental health. A recent study has found a significant rise in emotional and behavioural difficulties in primary school children following closures in the 2020 spring and summer terms. Such issues are likely to be felt in the secondary school environment too, as any severe break in routine and time away from friends and teachers can be highly disruptive to young people’s wellbeing. From this, it becomes clear that additional


resources to help pupils catch up on lost learning and restore their sense of emotional fulfilment are key. Summer schools, in theory, should be aiming to do this.


Disadvantaged children bear the brunt Children from disadvantaged backgrounds have been hit particularly hard throughout this period. Research by the Sutton Trust found that almost a quarter of GCSE students from poorer families said they could not get help from family members with their schoolwork, and 40% said they lacked a structured routine to enable them to study from home. While 97% of children from disadvantaged families had access to a digital device such as a laptop or tablet at home, only two-thirds said they were able to use it to do their schoolwork. The slow response by the government to get


devices to disadvantaged children early in the pandemic also exacerbated the situation further.


July/August 2021


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