25th July 2014 11:00
By Blue Tutors
By now, most exams have come to an end, and students are wrapping up for the summer holidays. This is a time when students can relax, but often an anxious time for parents. In addition to the burden of arranging childcare, many parents are also concerned that their children will fall behind in school as a result of months without studying. There are lots of ways to make sure that children continue to learn over the summer, from educational trips to hiring a tutor. If parents do decide to hire a tutor for the summer, it is important that they go about it in the right way to ensure that their child gets the most out of it.
The first thing parents should remember is that they really shouldn’t panic about their child not being in school for a couple of months from an academic point of view. Learning and development happen in all sorts of ways, and the diversity that a summer holiday can afford is often a good alternative to classes all year round. This is why if parents choose to hire a tutor, they should not do so in order to recreate the school environment. Summer holidays should not be taken up by lessons with tutors, even if students have coursework or revision work to do.
Tuition is most effective over the summer when it is given as part of a wider range of educational activities. It should not just replicate school, rather it should be an opportunity for students to broaden their educational experience. Children might have a lesson with a history tutor one week on extracurricular material, and supplement this with a visit to a relevant museum the next. Having a tutor for just an hour here and there is also a good way to encourage children to read; a good arrangement is to give a student an enjoyable but challenging book, and give them an opportunity to discuss the book with their tutor. Whatever the arrangement is, parents should use the summer tutoring as an opportunity to supplement their child’s education, rather than to attempt to replicate school in the summer months.