A Month Long Of English Summer School - A Huge Success!

Long summer holidays

As mentioned before, summer holidays last forever here. Twelve weeks of no school and it's long. I remember last year it was not only the summer holidays when we had to entertain our daughter, but also a few months before they started because kindergarten was not possible to reach by public transport (too far, the subway was not functional during that time). I was so happy when September was there, and then we found out it was another two weeks before classes started, lol. Anyway, we all knew this now so I was prepared this year.

Looking for activities

I made a long list of possible craft activities as well as day trips so we could just pull out the sheet and pick something from it when being bored. On top of that, I tried to find some camp or summer school and we decided to go for a full month of British summer school, even though it was quite expensive. We thought she worked so hard at school this year and ended the year with a banger report that we decided to just pay top dollar for the month of school. Too bad we picked half days only until 1 PM because later I found out the menu was quite good and she'd probably learned to eat some new things as well. With her fussy eating habits, I was not willing to pay another few hundred euros for these hours assuming she'd not eat anything as it was too expensive for that to risk her being hungry.

A huge success

If I'd known what a huge success the month would have been, I'd probably skipped the hotel we went to and paid for that so we'd have the weekdays from 9 to 4 without having to entertain her. Either way, she had so much fun and was praised a lot by her teacher as well. She said she was a breath of fresh air, always listening well and trying to help, while a lot of kids were constantly shouting and not paying attention or being naughty. Let's sum up what she did over the month as I think it's worth remembering and sharing.

Planets art work

Worth the drive

Although it's not a few minutes walk but a 15-minute drive (one way), I was the one dropping her at school, thankfully as then it was mostly cool so we'd open the windows and listen to music in the car. During these weeks, my knee started to feel much better so it probably needed some extra training as driving the car seemed to help a lot to get rid of the last little pains I had. Bonus!

I took advantage of the fact that there was a big supermarket near the school which I normally don't visit by myself but during the summer school month, I went there every Friday after I dropped her off. Quick shopping without too many people was great actually. I'm glad I didn't have to pick her up at 1 though, as that was a not-so-pleasant drive with the July heat wave (which seemed much worse than the one right now).

The first day

First, her teacher was great. Our daughter loved her from the start and I heard from my friend who works at this school that she absolutely loved our daughter because of the things mentioned above. I was a bit lucky having a friend work there as she kind of spied on her some days to pass on the info to me, lol. So I heard the first day that she was already making friends and having loads of fun.

A game they made with facts about the different planets, she remembered quite a few things!

Swimming classes

The first day started with swimming classes which they had twice a week for 1,5 hours each time. I was a bit nervous about that because she could not swim and I was afraid other kids could so she'd be the only one not having her diploma. The first two weeks were without much progress and I was a bit sad about this (for her) because it was a great opportunity to learn a bit more about how to swim. I never expected her to learn how to swim in these few hours BUT in the very last class, the swimming teacher ran to my friend's desk to shout "She can swim!" She was my daughter's name lol. He was very proud and excited. So were we! What a nice surprise and bonus.

Although they don't get a diploma there or anything, the fact that she learned it so quickly was great because, in the end, it's not about the diploma but understanding how it works. I will put her in another swim class somewhere after the summer to keep practicing though.

She ended second in a contest

They had a creative activity where they needed to create an alien and hers was chosen second from the whole school, which obv made us very proud:

Her runner-up prize alien drawing :)

They had to draft it first and then create the actual drawing, which I used to remind her that I always say she needs to draft something before diving in, lol. When the winners were announced, she had to come on stage, which she was a bit nervous about but she did it anyway.

Draft

Draft

To the beach

They went to the beach twice during the month, and they had a lot of fun with water pistols when they were there. They didn't go swimming as this would have been a bit too much with these little ones but they all came back super happy (and dirty, lol). She was lucky that my friend joined them during the beach visits as she really loves her. Sadly for my daughter, I also got the bad mom prize on the last beach visit because, in the morning rush, I forgot to pack her snack, ouch. Never happened before but it did that day. I made up with her when she arrived home, lol.

End show

Although they did loads of other things, I only mention the highlights and another one was the end show on the last day. Spread amongst the different ages, they had a 30-60 minute show where they made a song about the things they learned about the planets in space. As this was the theme of the month. Every week they focused on different things. Our daughter was the only one in her group who we could understand well enough, the others were either too shy and speaking very softly or just didn't master English very well. Our daughter stood there like a true stage champ, lol. Very proud and in the spotlight, haha. Sadly we could not record the show, although the teachers did, they did not share it with the parents.

Jupiter

She got to take home this Saturn planet they made for the end show because apparently, our daughter worked really hard on this.

Worth it

Another cool thing they did was send weekly newsletters to keep the parents updated about what they did in every class. I really think it was worth the money even though we were in doubt if we should go for it. They didn't have to bring any pencils or crafting stuff themselves, just carry the snack and water and on swim days, the bathing suit etc.

Seeing how happy she returned home every day, was a huge difference from the regular school. Sadly she will probably end up another year with the old teacher she really doesn't like, and neither do we. My friend has offered to come with me for a chat with her once school starts so we can clear up some things because it seems that she misses a lot of things in class and last time I took the English teacher to translate, who was a very bad listener (and spoke English very poorly, lol).

Mask for the end show

But for now, four more weeks of holidays, I hope these last four weeks will pass a bit fast to be honest because I'm still not ok to drive currently, hopefully soon.

Thanks for reading :)