Why is it important to attend summer school?

Updated: Jul 8, 2021

With summer just around the corner, students are gearing up to sleep in, relax and enjoy some healthy quality time with their family time they might otherwise miss during the school year. For most students, summer mean a break from the monotony of their academic routines.

However, for others it is the perfect opportunity to work on deficits to boost their academic performance.

The idea of summer school has become increasingly popular amongst parents and students alike. It is a program that stretches over a few weeks during the summer but adds immense value to students academic performance through small group interactive sessions. It is perfect for any student that needs extra support whether they are homeschooled or in public or private school.

Summer School offers more than just intensive tutoring, they have become a popular mechanism to further develop a students’ academic and social-economical skills. This may sound far-fetched, but observations over the recent years suggest that students who attend Summer School are more likely to perform better in the upcoming term than students who take the long summer break from academics. For this reason, parents are increasingly choosing to enroll their children in summer programs, especially in cases where the child has difficulty learning at the same pace as their peers due to disabilities like Dyslexia.

Dyslexia (or reading disability) is a condition where an individual struggles to identify speech sounds and how they relate to letters and words. It is a common learning disability (affecting 1 in 5) and is increasingly being accepted in most countries as a condition that requires an appropriate educational response. With such a disability, dyslexic children often suffer from insecurity and low self-confidence, pushing them even further behind their peers in academic life. For such individuals, inclusiveness that utilized evidence-based methods and focus on the time, energy, and efforts needed to help students take a leap forward to develop the skills that their peers are equipped with are critical.

While some parents struggling with the idea of sending children to summer ‘school’ when they believe children need a break from academics, others have seen the benefit from having their child attend Summer School in the following ways:

Less Academic Loss

It is essential to realize that even though, as a parent, you might want your child to take a break from their grueling schedule, it may not be the best thing for them. Children, especially those who are struggling with a disability, often lose their reading, writing or math skills over the long summer months if their academic exposure and practice isn’t consistent. You might find yourself in a situation where they can’t decipher something that they read or write minutes ago because it still hasn’t found a permanent home in their minds yet. To help with this, it is best to use summer school programs as an opportunity to keep learning consistent and to reduce academic loss over the long summer months.

Individualized Pace and Process

Exploring different subjects in an environment that caters to their pace offers a wonderful opportunity for children to learn. Freed from regular school and the pressure to perform well, a child not only learns new ways of accessing knowledge at a summer school but might also develop an interest in new forms of expressing themselves. In a stress-free environment, children tend to become much more relaxed allowing for the creative side to emerge. A dyslexic learner especially benefits from such an environment where they are given opportunities to be curious and to express themselves.

More Exposure

Summer School can prove to be very important for children who have deep interests or curiosities that get sidelined due the academics requirements during the school year. An environment that encourages them to pursue their hobbies and interact with like-minded people becomes an amazing experience for dyslexic learners.

Development of Social Skills

Attending Summer School can be a life-changing experience for dyslexic children. With peers from all over the community, children learn to interact with people from different backgrounds and open up to the idea of individuality in a less stressful environment. This social interaction helps develop a sense of confidence in them along with many new friendships outside of their circle of classmates and family.

Acceptance

Interacting with a mixed group of people gives rise to acceptance in children with disabilities such as dyslexic learners. They learn to accept their individuality and see it as something that others also cope with. This is also experienced by parents who observe their children participating in all kinds of activities like their peers and realize that they are just as capable as anyone else their age; they simply learn differently.

With the advantages of continued education through a summer program so evident, it is imperative that parents become increasingly confident in the benefits of summer school. Realizing that dyslexic learners have to be more deliberate with their academic exposure and resources, they also deserve confidence-building, fun, and engaging summer programs just as much as (or more than) their peers.

Read Academy of Sacramento understands the importance of a quality Summer School program to help support students in reading, writing and math so that they can be fully prepared for academic success in the fall.