3 practical tips to prevent summer learning loss

A recent review of 13 studies revealed that over the summer, children (on average) experience learning loss equivalent to one month of the academic year. It causes issues at the best of times, and this year the loss is likely to be more profound than ever due to the effects of the pandemic and the closure of schools.

Learning loss over summer affects different children in different ways including difficulty settling back into school, anxiety, and wasted time spent catching up (studies say about 6 weeks of the Autumn term is spent repeating the summer's learning).

Of course, summer learning loss is, to some extent, simply something to be expected each year - certainly, most schools take it into account when planning their Autumn term! However, there are some practical tips we can offer to parents to minimise this loss - while making sure that the summer holidays are as stress-free and fun as possible, of course!

Get them reading!

Just ten minutes of reading a day will ensure that your child maintains the skills they have built up over the school year. Lots of libraries run summer reading competitions, which can be a great way of motivating children to take part! The National Summer Reading Challenge's website for 2021 is already up and going - you can read books to unlock all sorts of badges, and bring your certificate into school in September to show to your teacher!

Delve into puzzle-solving!

Statistically, maths and spelling suffer most badly from Summer Learning Loss, so playing games and doing puzzles such as Scrabble, Sudoku, times table challenges etc can be very beneficial, as well as fun for the whole family! Not only will they help to maintain those at-risk skills, but they will enhance areas such as critical thinking and problem solving - as well as providing hours of fun!

Take the learning outside!

Keeping children learning over the summer doesn't mean sitting them at a table and giving them worksheets. Plenty of maths, science, and literacy can be found in the great outdoors with relatively little effort. We wrote a blog about this quite recently as part of Children's Gardening Week, but there are loads of fantastic sites dedicated to outdoor learning for families - we love the Learning Through Landscapes website here.

Need some extra support over the summer holidays?

Just a few sessions with a tutor can help make the world of difference in terms of maintaining or improving, your child’s academic level. My Primary Tutor have a limited number of summer places available, and they are filling up fast! If you'd like to read a bit more about how tuition can benefit your child, we wrote a blog about it last year, which you can find here.

To find out more, or to book a slot, get in touch with Karen at myprimarytutor@yahoo.com today!