School Holiday Learning..Yes or No??

When the kids are on holiday from school do you worry about them forgetting their `learning` skills??

Do you give them extra work for the holidays or give them a break from learning completely??

What do you think of the following quote??

`As many as one in three children can fall behind as a result of a seven-week break from the classroom`
Richard Garner, The Independent

As Richard Garner states above, long summer holidays can lead to a `learning loss`. Russell Hobby, General Secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, earlier last month stated a similar proposition when introducing the new education manifesto.

This `learning loss` results in pupils playing catch up in the first few weeks of the Autumn term, thus exacerbating the gap between the weakest and strongest pupils in class.

To try and prevent the `learning loss` during the school breaks EdPlace has developed a on-line learning programme that is tailored to your child`s developmental stage.

Developed by Head teachers and teachers, English, Maths and Science are covered in the form of worksheets to meet the National Curriculum in Key Stages 1-4.

EdPlace have kindly allowed Alfie and Jacob a trial of the programme with full access to the on-line programme to see how they progress over the summer holidays.

The layout of the website is clearly set out and easy to navigate between the different areas. There is a parent area where you can auto-assign or manually choose which worksheets you would like your child to do in which subject.

When you register the programme recommends which worksheets should be done for your child`s learning level. Alfie was given all the year 2 or KS 1 worksheets to complete but I decided that as Alfie is about to go into year 3 and KS 2 that I wanted to challenge him. The first few worksheets he found a little hard as he hasn`t covered the work yet but soon got the hang of it.

I love the fact that you can set goals for your child, once each worksheet is completed their score is converted into points, once an amount of points that is chosen by you is reached they can receive a reward of your choice. It doesn`t have to be a massive and expensive reward, we have said that once the boys reach their targets we will go to our local cinema for the kids club showing of their film of choice....bargain at £1.50 each!!!

To keep the kids engaged there is a function that rewards them with badges, so for example when they reach 100 points or complete a subject level.

Th questions are clear and easy to read. The programme also helps to improve their keyboard skills as a few questions require a sentence to be repeated.

Alfie is loving using this programme, he is eager to learn and is actually asking to do more than the one worksheet a night that we have initially allowed him to do.

Now Jacob is a little trickier, as he is about to start reception in September he is a little too young for the lowest level of year 1 but is doesn`t hurt to challenge them right??? He too is getting the hang of the layout and is actually getting quite good at answering the questions, he can`t read the questions yet so I am reading them out to him and he seems to be enjoying it.


Another great feature is that you can track their progress against EdPlace`s average.

If you are worried that your kids are forgetting how learn over the holidays or just want to give a little head start on the new term then this programme is definitely one to try.

The monthly fee per child for unlimited access to all 3 subjects is £12 per month or £96 per year, or one subject is £8/month or £64/year. Much much cheaper than a home tutor!!!

EdPlace have an trial offer on at the moment for 14 days of unlimited access for only £1!!!! Click HERE for details. Go on £1 for 14 days trial.....AMAZING!!!!