In summer 2021, the Department for Education offered £200m of funding for summer schools, giving secondary schools £597 per two-week place (£59.70 per place per day).

For schools to access the DfE funds for summer school, they needed to register using a short online form: Coronavirus (COVID-19) summer schools programme funding: sign-up form guidance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) which needed to be completed by midnight Friday, 7 May. There is more information on the DfE’s Summer Schools programme here: Summer schools programme - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Summer school is the perfect opportunity to help smooth the transition from primary to secondary for Year 6 pupils. Research from the EEF shows that summer schools can enable pupils to make two to four months’ progress. (The image above shows our Summer School at Buile Hill High School in 2018).

We developed a ‘Ready for Secondary’ Summer School package of Maths and English sessions to support the effective transition from primary to secondary.

The programme offered a scheme of work to engage Year 6 in Maths and English ahead of the move into Year 7. It complemented a school’s Recovery Curriculum and could be tailored to pupils’ particular needs. The summer school programme featured a diverse range of inspiring and popular leaders. Tuition also focused on the skills pupils need to be secondary ready.   

The flexible package, delivered by our highly-experienced tutors, was designed to run over one or two weeks, depending on a school’s preference, with 10 hours of tuition each week. It was designed to sit alongside any additional summer school activities schools had planned, to create a blend of academic and enrichment activities.

Tutors worked with small groups of six pupils at a time.

The timeline for joining the DfE’s summer school programme was:

• Notification of school’s intent to take part by 7 May 2021: Coronavirus (COVID-19) summer schools programme funding: sign-up form guidance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Make contact with Tutor Trust’s Schools Partnership Manager for Leeds, Liverpool or Manchester to book your tuition programme:

• Liverpool: Schools Partnership Manager [email protected]
• Leeds: Schools Partnership Manager [email protected]
• Manchester: Schools Partnership Manager [email protected].
• Summer School takes place mid-July to August.

The content of this page was updated in September 2021.