(In reference to helping students catch up) In February, the government pledged £720m towards a package aimed at helping schools to provide ‘catch-up’ for learning missed due to lockdown. Whether this be an adequate sum or not to support such a vast number of pupils is not what I want to emphasise here, but rather the way this money is being used. The government has asked for summer catch-up schools to be held so that no child will be left behind. Yet this focuses too intently on the academic side of education, forgetting that equally, and potentially more, important, is the social side of school which allows certain skills which cannot simply be taught to flourish – creativity, communication, teamwork, self-esteem, to name a few. Not only are these challenging to develop in real life, but this is impossible over Zoom.
I propose that there is a better solution than forcing students once again to remain sedentary and indoors, albeit in a real classroom. But this means parting with the idea that cramming still more knowledge into young people’s minds is somehow going to equip them for their futures. Instead, this summer, the money which the government has already pledged needs to go to more creative ways of getting children active, socialising, and developing positive mindsets.
Summer holidays are only four to five months away, so considering these time restraints, we would need to take advantage of pre-existing infrastructure to facilitate these type of experiences. Organisations like the Outward Bound Trust and PGL are already equipped for the kinds of school trips which allow pupils to develop more than just academic knowledge. The experiences which young people would be able to gain over a weekend or expedition in similar places would outstrip anything that could be provided in the classroom. Outward Bound itself states that it tries to ‘equip young people with a stronger sense of self-belief, able to cope better with stressful situations and interact more positively with others,’ the very skills which my generation has found it more challenging to develop during lockdown. These skillset are often overlooked because they are not taught in formal lesson or assessed in formal exams, but they are no less critical to the development of young adults.
Overnight trips are just one way of allowing students to make up for lost socialisation in a more dynamic and stimulating way than in summer school. Creativity is incredibly difficult when sitting in front of a computer, so summer is surely the perfect opportunity to develop this critical skill and encourage socialisation. On-site activities like drama, music, and sports would have multiple benefits for more than just pupils. Actors who have been out of a job for a year now would have the opportunity to earn a much-needed salary in their own profession, as would sports coaches and trainers. It would also have the direct benefit of getting pupils active, away from screens, interacting with each other and making up for the real things that they lost in lockdown. These events are even easier to organise at such short notice since they can take place on-site in an environment which is easy for young people from primary through to secondary education to access. As shown, this style of event has multiple benefits on a personal level, be it for the young person or the actor, musician, or coach involved. On a social level, when more individuals return to work, gaining a salary, they are, of course, better able to contribute more effectively to the economy. The importance of this last point is clear – we must do everything we can to support our economy throughout and beyond these challenging times. If this support can go hand-in-hand with individual-level and educational support, so much the better.
It is only when students have a renewed sense of self-confidence and ambition that they will be prepared to tackle any formal learning they may have missed. For those who have genuinely been prevented from learning for whatever reason, schools and teachers up and down the country are already working tirelessly to ensure that all pupils continue to receive quality education. And this hard work is not going to stop simply because we return to physical school. We need to look at schools as more than academic machines, churning out pupils with a set of grades at sixteen and eighteen. Because they are more than this. Schools are a place for discussion, socialisation, creativity, and critical-thinking. I cannot stress enough: nowhere else can young people learn the skills they need for future life so naturally. Especially not over a computer. By acknowledging this, we will see that the money the government has pledged for pupils catch-up will be most effectively used by engaging pupils in summer camps and creative activities, in order to restore the only things which lockdown has really taken away from us. A sense of adventure, self-esteem, and creativity.
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