What is ‘Summer Learning Loss’?

Summer Learning Loss refers to the loss of knowledge by children, during the summer holidays. The 6-week summer break is a fantastic time for everyone to relax, reflect, recharge and prepare for the next academic year.

However, children tend to forget what they’ve learnt prior to that summer break and come back in September wondering what on earth happened before those 6 weeks.

How to use DB to help retain knowledge over the summer break?

New Era’s online learning cloud, DB Primary, allows pupils to login whenever and wherever they want (providing they have internet access) and complete their learning. Using DB Primary, teachers can assign the children pre-made, self-marking activities from the Learning Library, create a sequence of activities for the children to complete as part of a learning pathway, create their own personalised activities, and more!

As DB Primary allows pupils to log in wherever they are, parents can get involved in supporting their child’s learning, by logging in to DB Primary with them and seeing their progress, as well as being able to see what activities have been assigned to their child.

Free content!

We have written a whitepaper suggesting a few activities that can easily be set and completed within DB Primary. But even without DB, you can still take inspiration and set these tasks using other tools. Download the whitepaper here.

Furthermore, we have created a few other fun activities to complete leading up to, or over the break. Why not plant a class garden, paint with sunscreen or write a story together? Find our latest ideas here.

How can parents help?

Parents don’t need to know the ins and outs of what children need to know, but reading with them regularly, practising times tables with them, or encouraging them to write about what they’ve been up to during their holidays on their personal DB blog can help children retain information and continue their learning. Teachers and schools can also give parents additional pointers on how best to support summer learning – and the activities they could try. These don’t just have to be based on their school learning but could include learning a new skill such as playing badminton, going swimming, baking a cake or starting to learn to play a musical instrument.

Summary

By using a product like DB Primary, teachers can easily set self-marking activities for the children to complete over the holidays, meaning the teaching staff can relax and recharge ready for the next academic year, whilst ensuring the children are still practising the skills they’ve been taught over the previous academic year!