The Summer Slide: "Will My Child Forget What They Have Learnt?"

Matthew is a qualified Teacher and GCSE Maths specialist whose experience spans across 10 years and includes multiple leadership and teaching roles, including Maths Teacher, Assistant Vice Principal, Head of Sixth Form and Lead Teacher.

Will My Child Forget What They Have Learned?

By Matthew | GCSE Maths Specialist | Sherpa Tutor

Six weeks can feel like a long break. For many families, it's a chance to relax, travel and spend time together. But many parents also wonder whether such a long break means their child will forget what they have learnt during the school year. The short answer? Some learning loss is completely normal - but there are simple ways to reduce it.

What Is a ‘Summer Slide’?

Summer slide relates to a decrease in academic performance following a break from education. Research first identified the concept of summer slide in the 1970s, but it was in the 1990s that awareness of the idea and its impact grew.

For students in the UK, this tends to refer to a drop in academic performance when returning from the long summer holiday - but it can also be the result of any educational pause, such as the COVID-19 school closures or any spell out of the classroom.

Is the Slide Significant?

In a word, yes. Or certainly according to much of the research which has found many students suffer significant decline in academic performance following breaks from the classroom.

Research conducted in 2020 found that the impact of summer slide was not only significant but also widespread. The study followed primary school pupils across five consecutive summer holidays and found that, on average, those affected saw their performance decline by more than a third.

Interestingly, some researchers have found the slide is not consistent across subjects - with some subject areas more affected than others. A study by Briggs and Wellberg in September 2022, found that over the summer, students could lose up to 40% of their learning in maths.

As a Maths educator – this is particularly interesting to me and explains why I am so keen that students continue with some form of learning over the holidays. During this time, I often encourage my own students to move away from intensive exam preparation and instead focus on short, enjoyable sessions that revisit key ideas and build confidence ready for September.

What Causes the Slide?

Psychologists have known for well over a century that we naturally forget information when we don't use it. One of the best-known explanations is Ebbinghaus' Forgetting Curve.

The forgetting curve is a psychological model that demonstrates how memory retention declines over time when not actively recalled - in fact, it states we forget up to half of new learning in just 24 hours!

Every time we successfully recall something we have learnt, we strengthen that memory, making it less likely to be forgotten in future. This is known as ‘interrupting the forgetting curve’ and is where the idea of ‘use it or lose it’ comes from.

These ideas are used every day in successful classrooms. Teachers regularly revisit previous topics, use quick quizzes, and encourage students to recall what they have learnt rather than simply rereading it.

These small moments of retrieval help strengthen memory over time. With this framework in mind, it is easy to see how a student who spends six weeks without ‘recalling’ their academic study could see a significant slide in academic performance.

What Can You Do to Prevent the Slide?

The way to prevent the loss of learning lies in the concept of the forgetting curve. In top-performing schools, the concept of ‘interrupting the forgetting curve’ is embedded across schemes of work and seen in every teaching episode. Some examples are provided in the previous section.

However, whose responsibility is it to interrupt the forgetting curve during the summer holiday - the school, the parent, or the student? I guess the answer to this is likely a combination of all three; the respective portions of responsibility varying with the age of the student and phase of learning.

Parents and schools would be expected to take on more responsibility for younger students, but by the time a student is in sixth form or university, the responsibility would be much more their own.

Five Easy Ways to Reduce the Summer Slide:

1. Read for 20 minutes a day to strengthen English skills.
2. Spend 10 minutes on number skills or mental maths.
3. Bake or cook together using measurements.
4. Visit museums, art galleries or historical sites to bring History to life.
5. Keep a holiday journal.

Summer should absolutely remain a time for relaxation, family and making memories. The aim is not to recreate school at home. Instead, a small amount of regular learning can help children return in September feeling confident, prepared and ready to build on everything they have already achieved.

If you are thinking about how to keep your child's confidence growing over the summer, I would love to hear what has worked for your family. Every child is different and often the smallest habits make the biggest difference.