How To Prepare For The Next Academic Year

There is much to look forward to this summer – The weather has been great and sports fans are enjoying the Euros– but it is important to spend at least some time preparing for the next academic year. This is particularly important for young people making the transition from primary school to secondary school, but everyone should use their free time to improve their chances of academic success.

Read A Book

Humanities subjects such as History and Geography require students to read, understand and respond to long sections of text. Comprehension is a crucial skill which will help you to succeed in these subjects. To boost your reading age, it is important to read as much as possible. The best way to do this is choose a subject you are interested in such as sports, videogames or makeup and find a book on that topic. If reading an entire book seems like a chore, pick up a comic book or magazine – all reading will help you develop your skills.

Keep a diary
Much like reading a book will help you to develop your reading skills, keeping a diary will help with writing skills which will prove useful in English lessons. How long you spend writing will depend on your age and skill level – at most you could write for half an hour, but if you would prefer a shorter task, drawing a cartoon of what you have done with a short caption would still help you to practice your self-expression and summarising skills. Additionally, creating a diary will help you to remember the fun of summer.

Visit A Museum

Because of social distancing measures, many museums in the UK are now open. Visiting a museum is a fantastic experience and can help add more background information to subjects like History and Biology. This can help you to understand and contextualise what you will learn at school. Booking in advance is required for some museums but many of them are free. National Museum Cardiff and Techniquest are brilliant and worth going to – especially on a rainy afternoon.

Cook A Meal or Create Some Art

Practical subjects like Food Tech, Art and Design Technology are perfect for working on over the summer. Cooking a meal or creating some art can be a fun activity that the whole family can enjoy and can help you practice technical skills like chopping vegetables and shading.

Take time to relax

The past twelve months have been incredibly stressful for all primary and secondary school students: social distancing, lockdowns and end of year assessments will have lead many young people to feel worn out and tired. The most important thing a we can do over the holidays is take time to relax and start the next year fresh and ready to learn.

The Photo from Kindel Media.

The Blog written by Sam, Our English GCSE and A level tutor.