The Canadian school year was originally organized around the harvest. Canadian parents wanted their kids to get an education, but they also needed them to help plant seeds, tend to crops, and harvest produce during the short summer growing season.
Because of this, the school year was held during the fall, winter, and spring – saving a long summer break for farm work. Even though most families in Canada no longer work in agriculture (farming families only account for about 2.2% of Canada’s total population), the school summer break tradition has carried on.
While vacation time is great for outside play and travel, kids who don’t make time for practise run the risk of losing the essential English language skills they built up during the school year.
For ESL students who need regular practise to strengthen their language skills, making the most of summer is especially important.
Read on to learn more about the value of summer study and how your child can prepare for success this September with an intensive ESL course.
The Problem of Learning Loss During Summer Vacation
Recent studies have shown that a long break away from school has a negative impact on student performance. Students, on average, lose 1 month of grade level equivalency during the summer break. They also perform worse on standardized tests than they did in May before their extended vacation away from class.
Subjects that were especially affected by summer learning loss were math and spelling.
Many countries have recognized this problem and have implemented year-round school schedules. For parents who are already familiar with the year-round educational systems of Australia, France, New Zealand, China, and South Korea, finding a good summer English camp makes perfect sense. They want to make sure that their children continue to progress throughout the year and don’t forget crucial lessons on grammar, sentence structure, vocabulary, and spelling.
Enriched Summer Programs Help ESL Students Progress Faster
For children still building valuable second language skills in after school English programs, continuing that education during the summer helps them transition out of the ESL stream and into regular classes faster. Enriched ESL programs like Little Mountain Learning Academy offer many different summer programs for students at every academic level – from phonics for early readers to university prep courses.
For example, Little Mountain offers summer courses such as:
Speech, Debate and Writing (for students at levels Grade 6 and up):
∗ Helps advanced ESL students strengthen writing skills and practise formal and informal debates for school presentation assignments
English Language Arts Head Start (for students at levels Grade 3 and up):
∗ Helps prepare ESL students to transition out of the ESL stream in the coming school year
Literacy through Art & Science (for students at levels below Grade 3):
∗ Helps young learners practise their ESL skills and expand their vocabulary through hands-on activities in the arts and sciences
ESL & ESL Transition (for students at levels Grade 3 and up):
∗ Strengthens vocabulary, grammar, and punctuation so that students can transition out of the ESL stream
Are you interested in enrolling your child in an intensive summer ESL program? Give us a call at 604-221-2363 and register today!
How Little Mountain Helps Your Child Read and Write English Independently