By Isobel Anderson Morris

Holiday homework, anyone? The phrase could almost be mistaken for an English lesson on oxymorons.

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Every summer comes another raft of warnings about “summer learning loss”. The premise is simple: children spend six weeks away from the classroom, forget what they have learned and return in September less able than when they left.

The proposed solution? Often more work.

But what children need after an intensive year of study, coursework and exams is a holiday. The instinct that they should spend it producing worksheets, essays and assessed work misunderstands what that break is for.

Children do not need six weeks of school at home. They need six weeks in which learning can look different.

Perhaps the best way to think about this is to start with the endpoint. What do we actually want education to achieve? Surely it is to equip every young person with the skills,........

© LBC