Can Summer Schools Help Disadvantaged Pupils Bounce Back from Covid?

As a trainee teacher, I often needed a bit of extra cash to pay for my rock climbing habit. Fortunately, I was training at the height of London Challenge so my schools’ pockets were rather deeper than they are at the moment. That meant I could opt to sacrifice a few days’ holiday and teach some lessons over the break in return for an extra payment. A few days of these payments easily funded a drive up to the Lake District and a pitch for my tent, with a few pounds left over for a pint or two of Wainwright Ale at the Old Dungeon Ghyll pub.

How much things have changed in the nearly 15 years since then. The funding gates have snapped shut, London Challenge is a distant memory, and that’s before even mentioning the mass closures that have come with the covid pandemic.

What doesn’t seem to have changed, is teacher’s willingness to go into schools over the summer holidays, and many schools are counting on this willingness as part of their strategy for helping pupils bounce back from the lockdown. Nearly two-thirds of teachers told TeacherTapp that they would be willing to work as part of summer schools in the upcoming break.

It’s therefore no surprise that last week, the charity Teach First submitted evidence to the Education Select Committee advocating summer schools as a means of providing “intensive catch up”. Chief Executive Russell Hobby said:

“Fully resourcing summer schools, particularly in the most disadvantaged communities, will be essential to getting the support to the children who need it most…. Summer schools are one way to provide the foundations to re-engage pupils with ongoing school life, re-establishing routines so that when schools fully resume young people can hit the ground running with learning.”

However schools planning summer activities should not expect a quick fix. Whilst there is evidence to suggest that summer provision can yield 2-4 months of additional progress, some studies show limited academic impact and effectiveness seems to depend on how they are delivered. If summer schools are intended to help the most disadvantaged pupils, there can also be considerable difficulties ensuring the right students turn up. That’s why Stuart Lock, Chief Executive of Advantage Schools, a MAT in Bedford argues that:

“This is not the first time summer provision has been on the agenda and money was thrown at this in the past. The problem was that as well as being expensive, firstly, the most needy did not turn up and secondly, it didn’t work for those that did. That’s why it was scrapped… Overall I therefore think it is a bad bet and I can’t see it working”

Like Stuart, I certainly recall that when I used to return home from a class during the holidays, I was infinitely less tired than after a normal school day because the pupils who had sat in front of me were rarely the most challenging.

So what should schools do if they want to try and help their pupils bounce back during summer 2020? Well, the Centre for Education and Youth has today published a new report to support school leaders who are grappling with exactly that question. As well as calling on the government to properly fund any national roll out, it makes three recommendations to schools.

In the report we set out some of the ways this summer will differ from ‘normal’ summers and why this will require a different approach to usual when balancing academic and social-emotional content. Thus, today’s report builds on last months’ report “Supporting Vulnerable Young People through Covid-19”.

We also argue that although any provision should be open to all, it is important to work with other services to reach out to the most vulnerable pupils, as Janice Allen, a Head Teacher in Rochdale explains:

“An important consideration is making sure that any academic catch up doesn’t feel like a punishment by unfairly targeting more disadvantaged pupils. The message can’t be… ‘you are disadvantaged so we want you to give up your holidays and work on your English and Maths’ That’s why working with partners is so important, and why it has to be part of the universal offer. We can then use our knowledge of our pupils, alongside existing relationships to encourage pupils to participate.”

Finally, we argue that pupils transitioning between phases of schooling risk being particularly disadvantaged by school closures. Though the government’s latest announcement on school reopening may mean some pupils are able to return to school before the summer holiday, this is unlikely to be the case for all of them and normal transition support will not be easy to implement. We therefore argue that schools should particularly prioritise provision for pupils transitioning out of the Early Years, into secondary schools and into Post-16 education.

Thinking back to that summer 2007 as I cycled through the parks to teach my classes in North West London is like looking back at a very distant continent as it slips behind the horizon.

Reflecting on the classes I taught, I’m pretty sure my students enjoyed them and I’d like to hope they learned valuable lessons. However there’s no doubt that I could have taught them more effectively if I had guidance on how to make the most of that bonus time. Hopefully today’s report will provide that and mean that any schools going above and beyond by teaching their pupils this summer can maximise the impact of their efforts.

About The Author

Loic Menzies (@LoicMnzs) is Chief Executive of The Centre for Education and Youth (CfEY). He has worked in education research, evaluation and policy for the last ten years and is interested in how different aspects of education, youth services and wider society shape young people’s transitions to adulthood. He has authored numerous high profile reports on issues ranging from youth homelessness to teacher recruitment, all based on detailed qualitative and quantitative research. He works closely with practitioners and policy makers to communicate research’s implications, for example presenting to the Education Select Committee on White Working Class Underachievement or working with civil servants to tackle the teacher recruitment and retention crisis. He is currently editing CfEY’s first book, for Routledge entitled Young People on the Margins. Loic was previously a teacher, youth worker and tutor for Canterbury Christ Church University Faculty of Education.

The Centre for Education and Youth // @TheCfEY // www.cfey.org

The Centre for Education and Youth is a ‘think and action-tank’. We believe society should ensure all children and young people receive the support they need to make a fulfilling transition to adulthood. We provide the evidence and support policy makers and practitioners need to support young people. We use our timely and rigorous research to get under the skin of issues affecting young people in order to shape the public debate, advise the sector and campaign on topical issues. We have a particular interest in issues affecting marginalised young people.