Summer school

[LoversLane]

Can anyone recommend a summer school in London (ideally north) that does academic work in the morning and then sports/arts activities for the rest of the day?

I forgot to say for primary- aged kids (KS2)

I'm not an expert - only a parent - but I've only come across that setup for foreign students learning a language. It's often residential in the actual country (eg UK kids learning French in the Alps, French kids learning English in the UK). They often do language lessons in the morning, and sports activities in the afternoon.

What's your reason for wanting this setup? Is your DC struggling with some areas after lockdown? Or are you looking for some specific enrichment, eg science or coding?

It might be easier to combine a few different camps which cater to exactly what you need, eg one week sports camp and one week science camp, and add in some 1:1 tutoring if you're trying to catch your DC up with some areas.

That will be easier if you work from home and have some flexibility over your schedule, and especially if your DC can entertain themselves for an hour or so in between things! Then you could do a half-day of activities and add say an hour of 1:1 tutoring each afternoon.

There are a few coding camps which do just a couple of hours each day remotely, so that would be ideal to combine with tutoring if you're WFH. I've also seen lego and art camps which are just half a day.

@LoversLane , I think you will find the general view by educationalists is that dc should have a break in the summer away from academic studies so it's unlikely you will find more than as mentioned an arts or coding club. But in London there is of course massive tutoring industry that ramps up over the summer for 10 and 11 plus. I think most parents use a tutor for academic and then normal holiday clubs.

Thank you both. I wasn't proposing a whole summer, just a week or two spread across the summer holidays. I want them to have a break too!

DC are 8 and 9 and struggled with home learning (as did us parents!) during lockdowns. They fell behind and initially got lots of help at school but that has died off now and we are noticing they are regressing again with maths and English. School hasn't been very proactive this term.

DC are reluctant readers unless in an organised environment and we are worried that they will fall behind during the summer even more. The 'little and often' at home with us doesn't work with them and it's easy to fall out of the routine.

Maybe a tutor a couple of afternoons following a morning sports camp may be enough? I worry if they are at home though that they will find ways of getting out of it! DD is an expert at it!

Can I just add that we try to read with them every day and do weekly spellings and maths homework but they will always try to do the bare minimum!

As a tutor I would say that yes to keep them ticking along a few hours a week would be plenty ☺️. I usually suggest 2, one hour long sessions a week on a Tues and Thurs but would go to 3 for a child who was behind and needed more support to catch up. A good tutor can give you some homework for them to do independently on the days off. I usually go e my tutees a worksheet or two to go over what we have taught. I aim for it to be easy and only take 10 mins. So over the course of a week they do maybe 3/4 hours academic work including homework and tutoring. This is plenty.

It's also genuinely fine to do nothing. So many kids are in the same boat and schools will work to catch them up as much as they can. But generally all year groups are a bit behind still. Especially the lower key stage 2's as they missed so much content.

The current year 2 cohorts I see have appealing writing in comparison to other years and it's clear it's just been really hard on them.

Same for year 4/5's. Their writing really lacks maturity and depth.

I wouldn't say they need to do work every day, a break is really important.