5 local actions to promote an enriched educational summer

The summer is currently fertile territory for educational inequalities because for the 80 days over which the summer holidays last many children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, do not take part in any type of summer activity aimed at encouraging learning or stimulating interests.

Most nearby countries have tended to shorten the summer break to limit the loss of learning.

The loss of learning opportunities suffered by children and young people from the most disadvantaged backgrounds during the summer can lead to pushing their learning back by the equivalent of 2 or 3 months of schooling every summer. The cumulative effect of this learning gap during the summer may mean a difference of up to 3 years between the most advantaged and the most disadvantaged pupils by the time they finish primary education.

Most nearby countries have tended to shorten the summer break to limit the loss of learning, whilst making up for it with educational leisure and support programmes for students from disadvantaged backgrounds or by distributing the days off in a more balanced way over the school year, thereby avoiding long periods of disengagement.

Now is the time to step up the action of public administrations to improve access to quality educational leisure activities.

However, shortening the school summer holiday gap is not enough, and given that we have also faced the two-year-long health crisis with its huge socioeconomic impact on a large part of the population, now is the time to step up the action of public administrations aimed at improving the accessibility and quality of the educational leisure activities that will be planned for this summer in Catalan towns and regions.

Towns, the key to an enriched summer

Many town councils are already firmly committed to promoting summer programmes explicitly aimed at educating, enriching and stimulating the growth of children and adolescents. In most Catalan towns and regions there is a range of leisure-based educational activities offered founded on the notion that learning does not stop for the holidays.

Regrettably, however, not all children and young people who live in settings where there is a risk of socioeducational vulnerability have access to summer activities. There are many factors behind the exclusion from and inequality in access to summer activities, including:

• The low purchasing power of the family.
• Lack of knowledge about the activities on offer and the procedures to take part.
• Lack of knowledge about the benefits of these activities for children.
• Cultural or identity-based estrangement of the summer proposals from the various social and cultural realities, etc.

What are the 5 key measures to ensure all children and young people benefit from an enriched summer?

To turn these inequality factors on their head, action must be taken by local governments. In the first quarter of 2022, local governments that have still not done so should adopt broad inclusive and equitable measures to guarantee all children and young people in their town, particularly those who are most vulnerable, can benefit from an enriched summer.

Action from local governments is the key to guaranteeing all children and young people in their town, particularly those who are most vulnerable, can benefit from an enriched summer.

1. Increasing financial assistance for vulnerable children to ensure 60% of these children can benefit from 2 to 4 weeks of summer camp:

• Increase of the budget earmarked for summer grants to help families on low incomes to pay the registration for 2-4 weeks of summer camp.
• Direct awarding of summer grants to beneficiaries of free school meals, children with type-B special educational needs, children with a social risk filing or children with parents who are unemployed to streamline the procedures and make it easier for families and the administrations.
• Free coverage of expenses for morning reception and meals services for families who need it to ensure they can take part in summer activities throughout the day.

2. Expanding the range of local summer activities offered to meet the educational needs of vulnerable children and young people:

• Extension of the summer programming over August and the first weeks of September to guarantee children and adolescents can benefit from leisure settings for socialising and learning.
• Planning of summer camps at high-complexity schools and/or at public facilities in disadvantaged neighbourhoods to broaden access to summer learning.
• Planning of an equitable distribution over all areas of the range of summer activities offered or establishment of mechanisms to provide travel for families who live far from the public facilities where the summer activities are unfolding.
• Increase in the resources earmarked for adaptation of summer activities so they can be truly inclusive and suitable for participants with specific support and care needs.

3. Promoting recommendation by schools and social services to engage vulnerable families in summer camps:

• Organisation of customised support by schools and social services for families that are in a position of vulnerability, more isolated and typically not users of the range of summer activities during the months before the summer: informing them of the range of activities offered, the financial assistance and the benefits, solving families’ queries, offering support with procedures for applying for places and financial assistance, involving them in the summer proposals, etc.
• Reservation of 30% (or a percentage equivalent to the proportion of families living in income poverty in the town) of places on all activities offered in the town for vulnerable children and young people with recommendation by social services or schools.
• Appointment of specific professionals (community figures) to guarantee support and monitoring for children and adolescents at risk of socioeducational vulnerability while performing their summer activities and to establish a link between the summer camps and their associated settings.

4. Agreeing on an equity and quality criteria document with all summer activity providers:

• Issue of a call to all local agents offering summer activities to sign up to common programming for an enriched summer, setting out targets for educational improvement based on the learning of skills and criteria for equity, inclusion and quality.
• The requirement that public funding for organisations involved in the local offer of summer activities be conditional to compliance with the criteria for equity, inclusion and quality that summer activities must adhere to.

5. Linking the local summer programme to other participatory, community and active citizenship building projects promoted by the local council:

• Opening of spaces for consultation and co-creation with children, adolescents and families to come up with proposals for summer activities in the local town, thereby promoting democratic participation, involvement, motivation, diversity and customisation of summer activities.
• Promotion of a non-segregated summer programme that encourages respectful interaction among children and young people from various social backgrounds free from social, cultural, gender and class-related stereotypes.

Would you like to help make an enriched summer a reality in all towns in Catalonia?

The Education 360 alliance is providing town councils with a host of inspiring and expert-based instruments to help them deliver a quality and equitable offering of summer activities:

• Education 360 is calling for more local investment so all vulnerable children can enjoy summer camps.
• Read the guide Summer camps: A 360 opportunity, setting out the dimensions and measures needed to form a local summer camp policy step by step.

Download the publication Let us progress towards an enriched summer, a guide to promote a range of summer activities being offered locally as part of Education 360.