How To Support Your Child Before the New School Year

Published 2nd July 2025

Introduction

When the last day of the academic year arrives, you’ll fall into one of two very different categories of parents:

1. The ones who are relieved that you can finally shed the end-of-year load that comes with being a parent: for six whole weeks you don’t need to manage the last minute dash to the bus stop, the sudden realisation that you have less than twenty-four hours to prep them a full Greek God costume, and that you aren’t lobbing coins at every charity, own-clothes day, and sponsored wander around the playground-athon.
2. The rest of you're looking at the next six weeks with absolute horror: you’re faced with the agonising and often futile attempts to keep your kids off their screens whilst also not spending an absolute bomb on entertaining them. Oh, yes. Then there’s attempting to earn a living. That pesky job sure does get in the way of enjoying your child’s long summer break.

Whether you’re cracking open the sangria or battening down the hatches for a summer of mayhem, the new school year feels a long way off.

But it’s coming…

Before you know it, you’ll be sewing those name tags on, shining those shoes, and it all starts again.

So, should you really be forgetting about their education for six weeks? It’s taken such a slog for them to get where they are. Won’t they have forgotten everything?

But Shouldn’t the Summer Be a Time to Relax?

Yes. The first way you can prepare your child for the new school year is to ensure they have the space to have fun, recharge and switch off from their schoolwork.

We know their thirteen weeks of holidays a year seem a lot when you’re working forty-seven. We know their 3 pm finish sounds like a dream when you’re switching off the laptop after 8 pm.

But it’s easy to forget just how tiring school life is, and with mental health issues worse than ever for young people a summer break is absolutely essential to getting more out of their education next year.

Does That Mean You Should Do Nothing?

Of course not. Six weeks is a long time, and for some students the lack of routine is difficult. Not only that, many studies have asserted that students suffer a summer slump after the long holidays.

There are plenty of things you can do to make sure that they are ready for the new school year.

What Can You Do to Prepare for the New School Year?

1) Keep Up Reading Habits

If other routines fall by the wayside during the summer holidays, reading should not. As well as giving your child time to enjoy their reading when other aspects of learning are more relaxed, ensuring that your child still reads on a regular basis will make them see it as an activity that has nothing to do with school. Rather, it is a lifetime activity that is beneficial and enjoyable.

2) Educational Visits

A staple of every summer holidays, educational visits to museums, galleries, zoos and theatres will keep your children engaged in their learning without it feeling like schoolwork. And the best thing? Many of these museums are absolutely free!

3) Maths Games

Since the summer slump for children’s education is more pronounced in Maths than other subjects, it’s a good idea to keep up with the subject on a daily or at least weekly basis. There are plenty of great websites that make learning fun. Try:

• Mathsframe – free games for upper primary age
• TT Rockstars – a popular times table game where your child can build their own rockstar character
• STEM Learning – for secondary age – a mixture of games and other activities

4) Summer Programmes

There is a whole host of engaging activities that your child can get involved in, run by libraries, councils, schools and holiday clubs. It’s easy to feel guilty when we have to send our children to summer clubs so we can earn some cash, but the continued routine and learning of these activities should help them avoid the summer education slump.

Summer is also a great chance for kids to get involved in something they wouldn’t ordinarily do: volunteering, taking up a new hobby, or learning a new skill like cooking or a language.

5) Start Writing

Not enough young people write for pleasure these days. In fact, only one in four young people (aged 8-18) say they enjoy writing in their spare time. This is down nearly 50% over the past fifteen years.

Since students access all of their subjects through literacy – yes, even maths – this is bad news for all children. So, use the summer to get them to write for the love of it. They could do a poetry project, write a journal, or a short story. Maybe they’re up for tackling a full-on novel!

5) Hire a Tutor

Tuition is a great way to keep up the routine of education, avoid the summer slump and make sure that your child is raring to go for the new school year.

Has your child missed any learning or found certain aspects tricky this academic year? A tutor will be able to fill in those gaps over the summer at a time when your child is feeling less stressed by being at school, their homework and other commitments.

For those who are taking the next step in their education (maybe they’re going to high school or have big exams coming up in the next couple of years), tutors can set up suitable study habits and boost your child’s confidence before their first day back in September.

Conclusion

So, before you pour that glass of sangria on the last day of term (or perhaps before you scream into a pillow thinking about the coming weeks), set out a plan.

You can ensure that your child has a great summer and is also educationally enriched coming out of it.

Good luck. You’re going to need it!