Holiday Classes

“It’s been challenging and I’ve learnt a lot of new words – pretentious, ubiquitous, serendipity. I’ll use them in essays.”
    Harish Goswami, pupil at the Toynbee Hall summer school

 

There is a limit to what can be achieved in two or three hours, once a week. We therefore also run holiday schools. Mornings are given over to English language, literature and comprehension and arithmetic. Afternoons are taken up with a programme of cultural activities.

Our first holiday school took place over two weeks in summer 2005 under the direction of Irina Tyk, the author of the Butterfly Book. Afternoon visits included the British Museum, the Natural History Museum, the Tower of London, and London Zoo. The reading age of the children increased by an average of ten months.

(Left) Summer school visit to Hackney City Farm

In 2006 two summer schools were held, one in King's Cross and one in Whitechapel, teaching English and maths. The afternoon outings were based around the theme of the development of parliamentary democracy, and involved visits to the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and the Banqueting House, Whitehall. The reading age of the children increased by an average of eleven months.

(Right) Yaasin playing the multiplication game at the King's Cross half-term lessons

The 2007 summer school was our most successful yet. We brought the children from four of our London classes together for a two-week course held at Gatehouse School in Bethnal Green. This enabled us to make the best possible teachers available to all the children. The reading age of the children increased by an average of one year and nine months. Outing included visits to the Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood, Hackney City Farm, and the National Science Museum. The older children studied The Merchant of Venice in their English lessons and watched a performance at theGlobe Theatre. The students gave a wonderful presentation of a scene from the play at the summer school prize-giving ceremony.

In February 2007 we held our first half-term school at King's Cross. The children worked in maths and English lessons for three hours each morning. We also took the children on an outing to the London Eye where they pointed out the historic landmarks of London and talked about their significance. We will be holding more half-term classes throughout the academic year.

Half-term school visit to the London Eye