Chessbrook Summer School 2021

For the academic year 2020-2021, the Department for Education (DfE) announced that there would be funding for schools to run summer school programmes. The funding was provided as DfE research highlighted the effect that the pandemic has had on students’ education and mental health.

The aim of the programme was to deliver a short summer school which had a blend of academic education and enrichment activities.

Over the period of the pandemic, the SEN team at Chessbrook reassessed all students in relation to the four areas of need: Communication and Interaction, Social Emotional and Mental Health, Cognition and Learning and Sensory/Physical needs.

From these assessments our SEN team identified that Communication and Interaction and Social, Emotional and Mental Health were impacted the most as a result of lockdowns, COVID restrictions and periods of self-isolation. In addition to these key areas of need, many students exhibited gaps in their literacy and numeracy learning due to the reduced time in school during the year. 

The Programme

Chessbrook ran a six day summer school programme, every Thursday, throughout the summer holidays. The students engaged in a variety of activities that included; literacy, numeracy, sport, team games, art and craft, drama, cooking and gardening. These activities were designed to address the highlighted needs of the students and the programme ran weekly so that we were able to maintain regular contact with students throughout the summer.

The Funding

Chessbrook has claimed £8947.86 for the summer school programme and the table below shows a breakdown of the costs.