Summer school for secondary school

[Liveandletlive3]

Just read this and it seems to be mainly aimed at children transitioning from year 6 to 7. Is this looking to be compulsory or down to personal choice?

My son will be moving to secondary school in Sept. I just mentioned it to him in passing and he doesn't seem too pleased about it, he's been working hard all through lockdown and has been doing 95% of his work . I feel as though kids need a break too, enjoy the summer and get out and about and have fun.

It’s for those children who need extra help so they aren’t to far behind in September.

This is total nonsense. I’m sure they haven’t actually priced this up properly. Schools need more than teachers to physically open and has that been added in the costs. Support staff are mostly on term time contracts too.

Lots of decorating and building is done in schools during the long break. My local primary was a building site all summer 2 years ago. These things are planned in for a long time.

Well DD is year 6, so part of the target cohort, but given how she reacted to an extra hour of online teaching this afternoon, I don't fancy a summer of trying to drag her in for extra lessons .

Anyway, she has Scout camp and we are booked to be away camping ourselves for much of August, so I think we will politely decline should it actually transpire (which I doubt).

At our school we always run a summer school for a week in the summer. It’s run by teaching staff and school support staff. Who all get paid an hourly rate. It involves Lessons across all subjects. We try and make it is enjoyable as possible.It’s voluntary but we usually get 3/4 of the year in.
I think that this year it will be extended maybe over 2 weeks. It’s very useful as a head of year to get to know students and see the year group together. I also have a dd going it year 7 and I would like her to have an opportunity to do the same but I don’t know if her school will offer it yet.

As usual, the focus on 'education' in this country is all about cramming information into heads. Never mind the enormous education that living through a pandemic has been - oh no, they need to 'catch up' and they have 'gaps' in their brains where the Crimean war or the 9 times table ought to be. FFS.

My children won't be participating in any such nonsense, and as it happens school has been brilliant throughout and I don't think they have learned any less than usual, but had a hell of a lot more 'education'.

The best thing they can do for this Y6 is allow them to have end of year parties, productions,trips if possible and a whole lot of FUN that DD2 and all the other Y6s missed out on last year. And allow their new secondary schools to do taster days, meet your form mates, meet your house mates and all the entirely normal transition events that DD2 missed out on last year which made starting Y7 doubly difficult.

Having spoken to teacher friends, none of them are doing any teaching after the end of term. They need their holidays.

@Parker231

Having spoken to teacher friends, none of them are doing any teaching after the end of term. They need their holidays.

I started a threat some weeks ago asking if teachers would participate in summer school if it became an option and a lot of teachers refused and quite rightly so. They have worked through all the holidays since the pandemic looking after key workers children and they deserve a break, esp seeing as thing are looking to return to somewhat normality. They deserve a break as do children.

They have worked through all the holidays since the pandemic looking after key workers children

Have they? No schools in my area were open for key worker kids over the summer holidays, Christmas holidays, February half term. I appreciate they will have worked over some of the holidays at the beginning of the pandemic but I think to say they have worked all of the holidays is pushing it a bit.

@Bunnybigears

They have worked through all the holidays since the pandemic looking after key workers children

Have they? No schools in my area were open for key worker kids over the summer holidays, Christmas holidays, February half term. I appreciate they will have worked over some of the holidays at the beginning of the pandemic but I think to say they have worked all of the holidays is pushing it a bit.

In my school we worked last Easter and May half-term. That was an additional 3 weeks. Initially we were told that we would have that time back...it didn’t happen.

We have not been asked since and I would dare them to ask me.

Well, Gavin has provided some finance to fund summer schools.
It will be up to individual staff if they’d like to go in and get paid extra for it, but it will totally be their choice to say no if they’ve had enough.

The responsibility for delivering summer schools does not lie on any individual teacher. Their responsibility lies in doing the job they are contracted for and of course many go far and above this anyway. Providing finance for some extra hours is one thing,but that’s not the same as providing the staff....and that’s down to government not individual staff.

Some people might like the chance to earn some extra. Great. There won’t be extra earning from exam marking this summer, but people might be able to earn some more from staffing summer schools. Most won’t want to do it though and that’s totally up to them. No doubt some extra ‘tutors’ will be found.

If you want to set up a tutoring firm offering summer staff to schools at the moment, I’d say there are big bucks to be made.

The government funding works out at 43pence per pupil.