SUBSCRIBER SPECIAL OFFER

 

Add Home Access to your subscription, so that your pupils can take advantage of it from now right through to your next renewal, covering the vital months of the school holidays. Your price is discounted and pro-rata'd, so this is an offer not to miss!

Take a look at your email for your personalised quote! Lost your email? Request a quote here.

Busy Things' Guide to the Summer Slide

1. What is it? What slides?

2. Can it be avoided?

 3. How Busy Things can help

4. ADD HOME ACCESS FOR YOUR SCHOOL

1. What is it?

Summer slide goes by several names – summer learning loss, summer brain drain – but essentially, it’s the loss of academic skills and knowledge that occurs as a result of the long summer holidays.

It’s a problem because in any one class, pupils will be affected to different extents. Meaning some are ready to learn from where they left off, whilst others can be missing key knowledge that needs to be recapped before they can progress.

 

How much do things slide?

Tree World

1) Children can lose anywhere from 25-50% of their school-year gains in mathematics. That equates to losing more than two months’ worth of learning.

2) Children backtrack in English too, but overall, losses in reading ability tend to be less dramatic than for maths. You may find younger children especially suffer small setbacks in verbal fluency, i.e., struggling to think of appropriate vocabulary.

3) The phenomenon occurs amongst almost all age groups but often peaks at Upper Key Stage 2 when pupils are learning lots of new concepts.

4) The loss can build cumulatively over a pupil’s school career, severely impacting his/her academic success and job opportunities.

Research also indicates that there’s a link between socioeconomic status and the level of slide. One study looking at language skills reported that middle-class pupils who may have enjoyed travel, arts and lots of activities over the summer showed no change in their reading and language abilities. Whilst pupils from lower socioeconomic groups, who may have had less access to fewer learning opportunities, lost up to 3 months’ worth of learning. 

 

2. Can it be avoided?

The good news is that summer slide can be avoided if children’s minds are kept active over the holidays. Some ideas of suggested activities are below. Perhaps, as a school, you could create an activity booklet and get pupil and parental buy-in to complete a set number of activities!

 

 1) Make reading a habit. Encourage your pupils to take part in the libraries’ Summer Reading Challenge or launch your own!


2) Add an element of maths into everyday life. Can your pupils mentally calculate what they’re spending at the shops or estimate how many shells are on their beach? Ask them to calculate one thing per week and just make a note of it! Maybe have a prize for the most imaginative.

Climate change around the world jigsaw

3) Get outdoors. Whether it’s gardening at home or exploring local parks, museums and galleries, getting outside gives the children opportunities to enjoy nature, art, history and culture. It doesn’t have to be approached like a school trip with learning objectives and follow-up activities, just being there and perhaps taking a photo is enough.

4) Get creative. Encourage pupils to make, bake or even code.


5) Get active. Whatever their passion – be it running, cycling or even mooching around the shops – harness it with a target! 10,000 steps may be a step too far but what would be realistic for them? Can they meet that target every day of their holidays or even every other day?

6) If it’s all about screen time, make some of it count! Giving your children access to educational websites like Busy Things via Home Access will keep their grey matter functioning. As their teacher, you don’t need to pin activities for them to complete (unless you want to!) but can leave it to them to play games that pique their interest. What will they choose? Maths, English, coding, science…

3. How Busy Things can help

The UK

As a Busy Things’ subscriber, you know how much the children enjoy playing on it.

 

And it’s Busy Things' ability to make learning fun and engaging that makes it such a great tool to help children avoid summer learning loss.  

 

The children are having fun on the computer. They’re exploring and experimenting. They don’t really realise they’re learning at all.

spacer

SUBSCRIBER SPECIAL OFFER

 

Add Home Access to your subscription, so that your pupils can take advantage of it from now right through to your next renewal, covering the vital months of the school holidays. Your price is discounted and pro-rata'd, so this is an offer not to miss!

Take a look at your email for your personalised quote! Lost your email? Request a quote here.

spacer