Remember your own school summer holidays? Chances are it was an idyllic time of den building and trips to buy ice pops. Spelling and algebra probably didn’t figure much. It’s rather different for children today, as schools and parents fret about the loss of academic skills over the six or eight-week break. One survey showed that a quarter of parents of older primary school children were planning to hire summer tutors, rising to half of private school parents, while a separate survey of head teachers revealed that 70 per cent were worried about the effect of the six-week holiday on learning. Many more schools now set summer homework.
Tuition centres report brisk business. “July is one of the most popular times of the year for