The annual KECHB year 7 summer school takes place in the first full week of the summer holidays, this year happening from Monday 26^th to Friday 20^th July 2021. The activity is for the Year 6 children who will be joining Year 7 in September, to support their transition to secondary school.

This year’s summer school was enhanced by addition funding from the Department for Education through the Summer Schools programme.

In a normal year the summer school activities would be dominated by sporting activities such as swimming, touch rugby, dodgeball, table tennis and rounders, plus craft projects with the Art department. The additional funding from DfE meant that we were able to broaden the offer to involve more departments: Biology, Maths, Drama and the Library all also ran superb activities for September’s new Year 7.

The cost of staffing the week would normally be met by asking the parents and carers of attendees to pay £15.00 per day, but this year we were able to offer free places to every child in the year group. As a consequence of the free places, the summer school was very well attended. 110 of the 120 child intake attended at some point over the course of the week, with the majority of those joining us for all five days.

With the help of the additional Summer Schools funding, we were able to offer a discounted school dinner to all students who wished to sample the canteen food. For those children who are eligible for free school meals, the entire cost of lunch was met by the funding.

The 2021 summer school was a great success, as indicated by the overwhelmingly positive feedback we received from parents and carers. The event gave the children an opportunity to familiarise with their new school, peers and teachers in a relaxed and enjoyable way before they made the ‘big leap’ into secondary school in September.

A breakdown of the Summer Schools funding and how it was spent is detailed below:

• School lunches (including cost of canteen staff time): £1310.00
• Teaching and support staff for summer school: £11209.72
• Total amount claimed from the summer schools programme: £12519.72

We are most grateful for the funding support, which allowed us to expand the summer school offer to include a greater variety of activities, to involve the school canteen in the event, and to support an even greater proportion of the new Year 7 with their transition to secondary school through this event.

Steven O’Malley

Head of Year 7