The long summer holidays will soon be upon us. But those endless warm afternoons of childhood may conceal a hidden menace – ’summer learning loss’.
Policy wonks have found that summer learning loss, an established side-effect of long school holidays, is particularly pronounced in some groups:
…children from the poorest backgrounds suffered most with ‘summer learning loss’ because they were the least likely to practise reading and writing during the six-week break.
The Education Guardian has reported on plans from think-tank The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR)Â to shorten the long summer holidays. This should interest parents from any wealth bracket – without the right attention even the most expensively educated can suffer.
Further to this, long term times might be causing ‘burn out’ in some students.
A co-author of the IPPR study, Sonia Sodha, calls for a five-term system, with two-week breaks between eight-week terms, and a month for summer hols.
Many parents remember their long summer holidays with fondness, even though the original purpose of the long break – to allow children to return to farms for the picking season – has almost entirely been forgotten, certainly in practice.
Margaret Morrissey of the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations argues that children may also need “…a chance to recharge their batteries”; but one could well argue that if the terms weren’t so long, children’s batteries wouldn’t need recharging in the first place.
(As of 2010) Former Children’s Minister Kevin Brennan said the IPPR report (which also includes recommendations on increasing the role of play in classes for 5 and 6 year-olds and suggestions that secondary and primary schools employ in-house counsellors or use counselling networks) matches commitments made in the coming ‘Children’s Plan’.
Keeping children constructively entertained over summer is an issue, whether or not the Children’s Plan includes shortening the summer holidays. The finding that unstructured holidays can lead to ‘learning loss’ is still relevant, and is something we recognise. In 2007, Whizz Education launched our Summer Adventure – featuring the Professor lost in the jungle. Students were charged with helping him escape, by solving maths puzzles and playing jungle-themed games.
(a maths puzzle from the 2007 Summer Adventure)
The Summer Adventure was a huge success – Maths-Whizz students at Mead School, Kent, had a great day helping the Professor escape from the jungle when Toni Burkett and Monique Kleinschmidt from Whizz visited with prizes for their top-performing students.
(Our 2007 Summer Adventure in use at the Mead School, Tunbrdge Wells)
Our Summer (and Christmas) adventures encourage students to continue learning with Maths-Whizz; students must finish lessons before they can try the themed games, and they get to learn about jungle creatures with our colourful worksheets.
We’ll be bringing back the Prof and his rainforest antics each Summer, with brand new features. If you’re wondering how to keep your child occupied this summer, make sure he or she logs onto Maths-Whizz, because the Professor isn’t going to escape from the Mayan jungle all by himself…
[UPDATE: Read a study of 39 investigations into Summer Learning Loss]
[Read more about summer learning loss - Wikipedia]
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