education
Keep
LEARNING
Tutor Willow Hewitt offers advice on how students can make
the most of summer studying
M
y colleagues and I always
look forward to summer.
Not because we get a long
holiday—tutorial centres
are busier than ever while kids are off
school—but because of the change in
our students at this time of year. During
term time, kids can be tired and stressed
from their heavy workloads. The last
thing they want to do is contemplate the
deeper meaning of a poem or check
their essays carefully. But in the holidays,
they apply themselves in ways which are
truly impressive.
Summer is a fantastic opportunity to
stretch your child’s mind in directions it
can’t go during the rest of the school year.
There are many different ways to do this.
Take a look at a few of the options below
and find what works best for your kid.
Read, Read, Read
This is an easy one, but something
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most people overlook. It’s no
coincidence that my students who read
the most are also the ones who do
best in their exams. In fact, the British
Cohort study (which has been following
thousands of people for several
decades) has found that frequent
reading increases a child’s spelling,
vocabulary and maths results.
In order to keep learning over
summer, it’s vital for a child to read. Try
to push yours to read more challenging
texts than they tackle during term time.
However, don’t do this at the expense
of enjoyment––it’s more important that
they read than what they read 1 .
Catch-up Classes
Summer is a great time to catch up on
any subjects your child is falling behind
in. It might feel unkind to push them
back into Chinese or maths straight
after they’ve struggled through exams
https://www.theguardian.com/boaoks/booksblog/2013/sep/16/reading-improves-childrens-brains
www.playtimes.com.hk
in these subjects, but they’ll feel the
benefit when they return to school next
year on a strong footing.
Make this catch-up project fun by
gathering a group of your child’s friends
together for it. Many tutorial centres will
let you form a private group if you meet
their minimum student number for a class.
If you follow these lessons with lunch in
the park, they’ll become a fun part of the
holiday with fantastic long-term benefits.
Breadth Boosting
In Hong Kong’s hyper-academic
environment, it can be easy to forget
that there are other subjects outside
those on the standard curriculum.
However, schools in the rest of the world
offer a wider range of subjects and put
more stress on the ones we’d consider
peripheral. In this global economy, it’s
important to consider what students are
learning elsewhere and ensure your child