Contents
- The importance of summer learning
- Get your students excited about summer learning
- GoStudent Tutor Academy webinars
- Five top creative tips for summer learning
- Free summer schedule downloads
As the summer holidays kick in, students begin to kick back. Slowing down sounds great, but stopping completely could undo some of the hard work they have put in over the last year of study.
It's crucial to keep your students on track over the summer months to avoid the summer slide. We understand this isn't always easy, so we have created some inspiring summer study schedules for you to use with your students.
Whether you are teaching a primary or secondary school student, use our summer schedules to create a plan to support their ongoing development throughout the summer. Check out our GoStudent guide to summer learning and download our free resources below!👇
The importance of summer learning
The summer holidays are a time for relaxation and recuperation. The sun is out (hopefully!), and families can enjoy a well-earned break from the term-time routine. Of course, we want our students to slow down during this period, but stopping completely could significantly impair their learning journey.
Summer learning loss – or the ‘summer slide’ as it is known in the USA – refers to children’s loss of knowledge and academic skills between finishing their Summer term in July and returning to school for their Autumn term in September.
Recent studies have shown that kids lose significant knowledge in reading and maths during the summer holidays – up to 20 percent and 27 percent of their school-year gains, respectively – which tends to have a snowball effect as they experience further skill loss year on year. 📚
Furthermore, teachers report that it typically takes 3-6 weeks to reteach the previous year's skills at the beginning of the school year. The only way to combat summer learning loss is to maintain a summer learning schedule over the holidays. So, it's up to teachers, tutors and parents to work together to make learning an essential but fun part of the holidays!
Get your students excited about summer learning
Continuing to study during the summer holidays is the only way that your students will be able to hit the ground running when they return for the new school year. As a tutor, it's your job to convey this vital message and ensure that their summer study is as easy and enjoyable as possible.
The three cornerstones for enhancing the academic potential of your students this summer are planning, creativity and fun.
✳️ Plan out a summer learning schedule using our free downloadable resources. Fill it with tasks and activities to support your student’s ongoing development over the summer.
✳️ Get creative and devise simple activities to guide your student in reflection, goal setting, creativity, personal development and much more.
✳️ Keep it fun! Don’t assign long or difficult activities your student will struggle to complete. Instead, keep them light, achievable, inspiring and enjoyable.
GoStudent Tutor Academy webinars
We understand that keeping your students motivated over the summer is no easy task, so, in preparation for the holidays, the GoStudent Tutor Academy has organised a series of webinars to help make your lessons more creative and engaging.
The first webinar was with artist and illustrator Jenny Leonard, who shared her insightful tips and tricks for more creative tutoring. Didn’t have a chance to attend the webinar or need a refresher on the activities covered? No problem, read on for webinar highlights and downloadable resources.
The next webinar will take place on July 13th at 19:00. Register here and get ready for tons of creative tips to improve your teaching.
Five top creative tips for summer learning
In our first webinar, Jenny Leonard shared five tips to incorporate into your online lessons with your students focused on goal setting and recapping information. Download the full guide to using and implementing these five tips below.
#1 Time Management Pie
Encourage your student to create a pie chart for how and when they will learn and revise around other daily activities. You could use the pie chart to break down an hour of their time into 20-minute chunks, a day into hours or even a week into days.
#2 Milestones and Mottos
Draw out a simple template like the one below and ask your student to write down their ‘milestones’ in sequential order of what they need to achieve for their module, course or just this lesson to see them clearly.
#3 On Target
Create a simple circular target shape. Within each circle, write down words of advice, wisdom and practical tips with your student to help keep them on target. Draw some arrows and write the kinds of attitudes or behaviour you want them to bring to class – such as positivity or motivation – above them.
#4 Refresh and Retune
Draw two overlapping circles. On the left, write ‘rational mind.’ Fill this with all the tangible topics and things that they need to learn this term. On the right, write ‘emotional mind.’ Here, write about anxieties or worries about the topics. This top trick helps most when you meet a new idea, hurdle or challenge.
#5 Refreshing Juice
Use the metaphor of a recipe for your course, module or lesson, and ask your student to make up a juice refresher to recap everything they have learned so far. Encourage them to be creative by writing their ‘ingredients’ of the course as well as how it is mixed together, how it’s best served and what it tastes like!
Free summer schedule downloads
Summer is here, and we at GoStudent know that sticking to a learning plan can be difficult when the sun is shining and the beach is calling! So, we have provided you with two fun summer study schedules to help you book and track lessons, set goals and devise engaging weekly tasks.
Summer Study Schedule - Primary
Check out this colourful and inspiring three-month summer study schedule for primary school students. Help them to set goals, allocate time for recapping material they have learned and fill it with fun, creative tasks to keep them engaged. Download the full summer study schedule below.
Summer Study Schedule - Secondary
This bright and easy-to-use summer study schedule for secondary school students will help you to keep on track of your student’s learning goals together. There is plenty of room for task-setting, personalisation, creativity and fun. Download the full summer study schedule below.
Creative hints for the Summer Study Schedules
To support your summer schedules, we have written a list of creative tasks you can give your students to keep them engaged. We recommend setting creative tasks between lessons so that your students have adequate time to complete them before sharing them with you in the next lesson. Download the full list of creative tasks for primary and secondary school students below.
Some of our favourite examples of creative tasks for primary school students include:
- Draw a fantasy sea creature and give it a name
- Make a face using only fruit and vegetables and take a picture
- Make a collage using four photos from a newspaper or magazine
- Write your future self a 200-word letter with words of advice
- Make a castle from recycled plastic bottles and cardboard and take a picture
And for secondary school students:
- Go for a walk and then create a map of your journey
- Write the first paragraph of a children’s book
- Find a headline from a newspaper and write your own article about it
- Create a vision board of your goals and dreams using text and imagery
- Design and invent a new app. What would it do? Who is it for?
If you haven’t already, why not join us as a GoStudent tutor?! Some of the many benefits include working remotely and managing your own schedule. Moreover, we connect you with the students, so you don’t need to advertise. Sound good? Sign up to become an online tutor today! 🎒
