Pupils take a break during summer school

Bringing some summer sunshine!

While the north endured the soggy weather, our summer school students made the most of it with our action-packed holiday programmes!

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Whilst people in the North of England spent much of the summer sheltering from unseasonably wet weather, that wasn’t the case for the 69 pupils who signed up for our holiday schools! 

The rain certainly didn’t stop play for those taking part in our maths, English and reading sessions, with our skilled tutors creating exciting and engaging content to support pupils’ learning.

Our summer sessions mixed our traditional tuition with a programme of indoor and outdoor activities, including crafts, art and sports, giving pupils plenty of opportunity to take a break from studies and make the most of any sunshine to connect with friends.

Our teams of tutors worked in four schools across West Yorkshire, and Merseyside, alongside pupils from Year 2 right up to Year 11, creating great spaces for learning whilst keeping energy levels high. Below are pictured just a few pupils from Bishop Young Church of England Academy enjoying a well-earned break!

Students enjoying the summer school activities

Rounak Sen, who tutored and led activities at Bishop Young over the holidays, believes that creating engaging programmes might also support pupils’ school attendance more broadly:

Since there's no curricular pressure, you really get to focus on developing the students' relationship with academia and teachers. It's really rewarding to reinforce how supportive and friendly the school environment can be if students utilise and embrace it.”
Rounak Sen, summer school Tutor

For Daniel Payne, who worked alongside Rounak at Bishop Young, it was the enjoyment from having additional time in sessions at summer schools:

I love tutoring in the summer schools because it gives you an opportunity to teach exciting things outside of the curriculum and go wild with creativity!”
Daniel Payne, summer school Tutor

Summer schools are now an established part of our year-long tuition offer, as we expand and grow our reach to get tutoring support to every young person that needs it. New programmes starting in 2024/2025 include post-16 programmes for those sitting maths or English GCSEs, and phonics, for those beginning their learning journey at primary.

Having programmes running during the holidays supports pupils to consolidate their learning. It also means they can continue to engage with friends. For Abigail Shapiro, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Tutor Trust, this brings back good memories and reinforces the value of the work we do throughout the year:

The first one we ran was in 2013 and we have continued to expand the number of schools we work with year-on-year.

Our tutors enjoy working on them and we have lots of positive feedback from the young people taking part. Their good attendance is a testament to the skills of the tutors in creating a warm and welcoming environment, whatever the weather.”
Abigail Shapiro, Executive Director

Those taking part in summer schools

  • 69

    young people attended summer schools in maths, English and reading

  • 4

    participating schools in Merseyside and West Yorkshire

Rounak Sen, tells us more about his experience:

Getting an opportunity to be a part of the team delivering Tutor Trust's summer school programme has been such an honour. I have been lucky enough to be involved two years in a row, and I'm already looking forward to next year. There's always a range of fun activities that come pre-planned for us to become familiar with. Then as tutors we integrate our hobbies and passions into the different activities. For example, one of our tutors with a degree in geology planned a fun, hands-on lesson teaching the students fun facts about rock, showing everyone some fancy crystals and then getting the students to have a go making their own 3D crystal structures using our paper cutouts and glue. It's so refreshing to see everyone genuinely having fun whilst learning and working together.

Also, since there's no curricular pressure, you really get to focus on developing the students' relationship with academia and teachers. It's really rewarding to reinforce how supportive and friendly the school environment can be if students utilise and embrace it. A moment I enjoyed was the students connecting with each other and getting to be part of a team that I organised that was really inspiring. I noticed one of the younger students was quite shy, but luckily my main activity was being in charge of cricket for the week!  So, I really focused on bringing the students together in teams, competing with each other and, most importantly, making it fun. I made sure to really make sure each student's skills and attitude were recognised and celebrated. I noticed that the younger student had begun to come out of their shell and enjoy themselves and interact with others more.

At the end of each day the tutors get to write their highlights of the day and give a special mention to pupils, and students get a chance to do the same to say what they enjoyed. It's such a heartwarming feeling to hear them say how much they enjoyed the effort and time we put in, and how much they're looking forward to coming back next year.

...one of our tutors with a degree in geology planned a fun, hands-on lesson teaching the students fun facts about rock, showing everyone some fancy crystals and then getting the students to have a go making their own 3D crystal structures..."
Rounak Sen, summer school Tutor

And Daniel Payne, another summer school tutor, reinforces with his highlights:

I love tutoring in the summer schools because it gives you an opportunity to teach exciting things outside of the curriculum and go wild with creativity! I also love seeing new friendships being made in the week that may not have happened in normal school time.

We begin the day with a challenge such as playing higher or lower or throwing a ball into a cone. This allows for an ongoing competition between tables that the children loved as they could see how many house points their team were getting. We then have a range of lessons, this year for example we had Morse codes, an escape the room, game theory, and cricket! Because of this, not only are the pupils having fun but teaching the lessons is legitimately interesting for the tutors!

this year...we had Morse codes, an escape the room, game theory and cricket..!"
Daniel Payne, summer school Tutor

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