What does it take to make the perfect summer activity programme?

During our popular English language summer school, most of our students opt for our ‘full-day programme’, which includes morning English lessons, lunch, and afternoon activities on our premises and around Cambridge. For the last two years I have been working at ABC Languages during my summer breaks from my undergraduate studies, and in this time I have observed and led a pre-planned summer activity programme, and subsequently taken over the planning and running of the summer school activities. Because I lead the activities myself in my first year working at the summer school, I was able to quickly identify any areas where we could improve on both the design of the activity programmes, and how they were carried out. My main objective for the programmes I designed was that all of our students, (and staff) would have fun in a safe setting. In this blog I’ll be taking you through the process of how and why our activities are planned and showing you why our full-day programme is such an unmissable option, with a sneak peak of what’s to come in summer 2020.

As an academic hub, Cambridge is an excellent setting for an English language school. At first glance, however, there is not a great amount of child-friendly entertainment. It is filled with fascinating museums, many of a superior calibre to any others in the country. These are often a part of the university itself, which attracts tourists to visit Cambridge year after year. One aspect of my job is to include the university in a programme that stimulates and interests our younger students. The university’s activities may not be designed for children, but they can be harnessed and made suitable. For our tween and teen aged students, the university museums which might seem ‘boring’, but with the use of specialist smartphone apps they can be turned into fun ‘scavenger hunt’ style competitions that pique their interest. For our littlest students, I’ve realised that the best way to experience our university setting is on a punting trip down the college backs, looking at and learning some facts about the beautiful university buildings while doing some duck-spotting on the way!

As well as the more ‘typically Cambridge’ activities like the university museums and punting, I’m always on the look out for new options. New activities for summer 2019 included indoor climbing sessions at Clip ‘n Climb and also the inflatable water fun park, Cambridge Aqua Park. The response to these from our students and parents/carers was hugely positive, and as a result they will be back by popular demand in summer 2020. 

The ‘fun-factor’ of adrenaline-filled activities like these is highly important to me when planning the full-day programme. It is a must for us that the activities we run, both on and off our premises, are stimulating and inspiring, and that we continue to build on the English language that the children are learning in the mornings. The most important thing for me, however, is that they have fun! It is so rewarding to see an activity that I have spent time planning be well-received by the students. With this in mind I have spent time researching even more fun-filled activities which are possible for us in Cambridgeshire. New activities for summer 2020 include a roller disco and ice skating as well as bouncy castles on our very own premises! 
 
Options like inflatable afternoons require a lot of space, and luckily this is something that we have in abundance at our new summer school venue. English is not the only thing that children learn at our summer school when you opt for the full-day programme. As well as the excursions I have already mentioned, our unique experience offers children the opportunity to play new team sports, to climb on purpose-built climbing walls, to swim with their friends, to design and make their own jewellery, and to bake yummy cakes and biscuits, to name but a few of the varied options. All of these things are made possible and so much easier in a large secondary school like the one we will be operating out of next summer. With extensive sports fields, indoor gyms,  and specially designed classrooms for activities like cookery, the possibilities for fun are endless. Most anticipated by us is the indoor heated pool that all age groups will have regular use of during the afternoon sport sessions. 

Besides securing an exciting new venue, there are other, more mundane things that must be taken into account when creating and booking the summer school programme. These include pricing of excursions and travel time to and from them. We aim to offer value for money while at the same time ensuring that every activity we offer is top-notch quality. Health and safety is also, rightly, of the upmost important to us, and everywhere has their own safety policies and procedures that must be taken into account and implemented alongside our own. This is particularly relevant in regard to the number of children who can take part in an activity. There are often limits to how many students we can take on a certain excursion, and this sometimes means that certain activities are not possible and alternatives must be found. 
More activities will become bookable In the coming summer, however, when we will be diversifying our programmes again. This year we will be operating with 3 parallel-running activity programmes with smaller age brackets, in order that everyone is doing activities perfectly suited to their own age. The programmes are designed for children, tweens, and older teens. 

The tricky age group of the ‘tweens’ – in between our Early Learner and Teen classes – is something I’ve spent a lot of time trying to get right. Activities for them often seem either ‘too young’ or ‘too old’. They form a gap in the middle that I wanted to focus on for the coming summer. I am anticipating that our new programme specifically designed for this smaller age group of 10-13 years old will really make them feel included and actively engaged in the summer school. It has been drawn up as a programme that is mature enough for quickly growing tweens who feel too grown up for some of our younger activities like messy play and trips to soft-play centres but aren’t quite ready for the more  independent and academic aspects of our young adult programme. 
 
As a result of these three activity programmes, we differ from our competitors who generally run one activity programme throughout the summer, irrespective of large age gaps between the students. As well as meaning our activities are more specialised by age, the diversity in our programmes creates smaller groups on the activities, giving every student more individual attention from our staff. As our summer school teachers and teaching assistants double up as our activity team the students spend their afternoons surrounded by the staff they already feel comfortable with, who are also excellently qualified to continue assisting them with their English outside of the classroom. 

Also new for 2020 is the introduction of our family friendly activities. Since coming to ABC I have learnt that our unique-selling-point is how central family is to our organisation. As well as being a family-run business, the fact that parents or carers and children can study in our school at the same time is something that really makes us stand out in this industry. To add to this, in the coming summer, we will be opening up our children’s activities to parents and carers, with at least one activity every afternoon that can be joined. On top of this, the longer excursion day will be optional for parents and carers every week, subject to availability. Our long excursions, unlike the rest of the activities, are often shared by all age groups, making them an excellent opportunity for siblings to spend time together, as well as with their parents/carers. 
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The theme of family will be continuing into the evenings with the family activities that we will be running at our new venue one evening each week. These evenings will be an opportunity to meet other families studying in Cambridge as well as enjoying fun activities such as magic shows and children’s discos.

If you would like to know more about our 2020 summer school please get in touch! We would love to tell you more about our new set-up and the different courses we can offer you...

Allegra Goodwin, Student Experience Manager