Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of pupils engaged with (a) academic teaching and (b) enrichment activities as part of the 2021 summer school activity programme in York.

In total, over 2,800 secondary schools in England signed up to the participate in the summer schools’ programme. This is 74% of all eligible mainstream secondary schools and it means that over 500,000 pupils will have been invited to take part. The aims were to help recover education lost as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak and to give pupils the confidence they needed to start the new academic year.

Through the £200 million made available by the government, schools have been able to fund provision based on the needs of their pupils. Summer schools needed to offer a blend of both academic and enrichment activities, although the precise proportions of each and the detail of the programme were for schools to decide.

As part of the government’s commitment to developing a long term education recovery plan, understanding the effectiveness and success of the 2021 summer schools programme is a key priority for the department. We have designed and released a research study to help us to better understand the perceived impact of summer schools on both children’s wellbeing, transition to secondary school, and academic recovery. An independent research agency will carry out the analysis and reporting of this important research for the department. Substantive figures will be available in October and a full evaluation will be published on gov.uk.