Investigation of Summer Learning Loss in the UK—Implications for Holiday Club Provision

Abstract

This study sought to examine whether summer learning loss occurs in spelling and word reading in a population of 77 primary school aged children aged between 5-10 years (37 boys, mean age 100 months, SD 18months, and 40 girls mean age 103 months, SD 16 months) attending three schools in areas of low SES in Scotland and the North East of England. Word reading and spelling was measured using the word reading and spelling sub-tests of the Wide Ranging Achievement Test (WRAT 4). Participants were tested on three occassions: immediately before and immediately after a seven week summer break, and again after seven weeks of teaching. The results showed a significant main effect of time for spelling scores, F (2,136) = 21.60, p 0.05, ηp 2 = .021 ). None of the interactions were significant. There was no main effect of time on word reading scores (F (2,136) = 1.12, p = >0.05 ηp 2 = .016 ). However there was a main effect of school (F(2,68) = 4.85, p = <0.01 ηp 2 = .005 ) in relation to reading scores, with children from school 2 and school 3 outperforming children from school 1. There was no significant main effect of gender (F (1,68)