A New Vision for Summer Schools in a Rapidly Changing World
I have known the Managing Director of British Summer School, Steve Wood for a long time. We both had very similar jobs running summer programmes for big Independent Schools. For many years we were in a Best Practice Group with other like-minded industry colleagues. Through our meetings I found Steve to be a true professional who was always open and honest and who was delivering quality programmes year on year. I got to know Steve more personally on our many encounters around the world whether in airports, conferences or at the dinner table. Apart from our very similar jobs we had a lot in common. For example, we both have Spanish wives and love Spain, but we are also different in some ways - he has a great eye for detail, but I am more of a big picture guy. Anyway, despite our age difference we became good friends.
Coming out of the disaster, that was Covid, saw us both moving in different directions. It tipped me into retirement, but Steve took the time to put together a new innovative way forward for summer schools. After a year as a consultant for my old job I was delighted when Steve asked me to help a little with his exciting new project. Before we look at the finished product let us take a brief look at the circumstances that led Steve to perceive the need to re-think and re-design the traditional summer school model.
It sometimes can seem that the world is spinning out of control and that we are living in a time of disruption. The universal fears of famine, plague and war that have transcended all human history seem to be prevalent again and new fears like climate change have been added. As I write a huge hurricane called Milton (unfortunately also the name of the author of ‘Paradise Lost’!) is veering towards the Florida Coast. It’s easy for everybody but especially the young to be stressed and overwhelmed by all of this.
At the same time, the pace of change now is staggering, and the future is reaching us far too quickly. It took people 5 million years to put a handle on an axe, but AI can now make chess moves that Grand masters can’t understand. In this age of information overload there is a danger that it can lead to physical and mental exhaustion. Being glued to your smart phone and addicted to social media can cause a sense of hollowness. Living for clicks and likes is not real life.
It seems that we are at a reflection point that happens in history every fourth or fifth generation. A generation is loosely defined as a group of people born in the same time period with shared values and history. I am a Baby Boomer 1946-64. I come from the time of the Cold War and Civil Rights. Steve is Generation X 1965-75. A generation that was a bit more rebellious than mine perhaps. They saw the first home computers and are much more comfortable with them than my generation! For most of my career I taught Millennials 1980-1994. They saw 9/11 and the birth of the internet. They became adults at the turn of the century, and one just invited me to his wedding next year!
Now we are educating Generation Z (and they are educating us!) 1995-2012 who are living through a difficult period of culture wars and threats to peace and prosperity. They are followed by the young Generation Alpha 2013 – (2025) who are surely going to be more plugged in to the future than we can even imagine now.
In a life full of distractions there is a danger of a loss of focus for both individuals and societies. We don’t seem to be solving our problems like previous generations.
Allow me a little anecdote. I have always loved reading - perhaps too much. Shortly before she passed my mother wanted to apologise to me. Why I asked. She explained that when I was young, and we were going on family holidays I was always reading in the car, and she kept asking me to stop and enjoy the view. I accepted and appreciated her apology. Now years later and with more time on my hands I was looking forward to reading more again and enjoying my lifetime library of over 8000 books. However, I was reading less and less, I couldn’t seem to focus, and I couldn’t understand why. Was it age or eyesight? I was starting books and not finishing them. It took me a while to realise that it was my phone constantly beeping and taking away my concentration. I, like most people was lost in the pace of my own diminished life. You sometimes need stillness to stop and think and reflect. However paradoxically this also got me thinking about my mother’s apology. I realised that, in that context she had been right (as always) back then. There is a time and place for everything. I should have stopped reading and shared more of the family excitement of the approaching holiday, and I should have apologised to her. Sorry Mum.
It is only by understanding what is happening that we can begin to change it. James Baldwin said “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced”. So it was that Steve began to put together his vision of a summer school that was fit for purpose for the many challenges of this new world. One that would help young people to meet and overcome these challenges head on so that once again these generations would be able to step up and lead humanity forward to a better future.
These are some of the things Steve and I have learned over many summers and lifetimes in education.
1. LEARNING is a PROCESS not a PRODUCT
2. Education is about EQUIPPING people for LIFE (and LIFE-LONG)
3. Education happens best when you are CURIOUS
4. Every Learner is DIFFERENT
5. Students need GOALS institutions need PURPOSE
6. The ENVIRONMENT and PEERS are CRUCIAL.
7. Learning is not DONE to students it is what students DO
8. Students need time to REFLECT
9. Whatever the generation and however the world is “KIDS are KIDS”
10. FUN is a great leveller and LEARNING TOOL
11. Learning should be BLENDED
12. Learning CAN (and should be) LIFE CHANGING
13. Learning should be AUTHENTIC
14. The EXPERIENCE should be MEMORABLE
15. Because the PROCESS of learning takes place in the MIND, we can only infer that it has occurred from students PRODUCTS and PERFORMANCES
16. Learning involves changes in KNOWLEDGE, BELIEFS, BEHAVIOURS or ATTITUDES. This change unfolds over time. It is not FLEETING but rather has a LASTING IMPACT on how students THINK
Steve started with a desire to make summer school more than a place to just learn a bit of English, play sport, have fun and give parents’ a break. In the modern world he realised it needed to be much more than that. And he began to put down on paper his vision based on his experience and world view. This is fortunately an industry trend, and many schools are adapting their programmes, but this one is very much Steve’s brain child.
First, he designed a STRUCTURE for the courses that needed to be age appropriate and progressive. Currently we have EXPLORERS, ADVENTURERS, CITIZENS, ARTISTS, ACADEMICS and PROFESSIONALS (but we are always brainstorming more!). Each of these have different PATHWAYS within them because every learner is different. The working week reflects real life with busy school days Monday to Friday with excursions (London every Saturday) at the weekend. With the recognition that students learn both inside and outside the classroom, direct English teaching is reduced to what Steve called CORE ENGLISH. He added more focussed task-based learning classes and where appropriate school subject lessons, and external exam options.
Overarching all this is the incorporation of 2Ist Century Learning Skills – Critical Thinking, Creativity, Communication and Collaboration and the strong desire that students should learn more about themselves and each other. Steve also wanted to make space for students to reflect on and synthesize the information they receive. All the while keeping some space for sport (even pro-options), dance and music but never losing the fun!
After finding great partner schools, recruiting a dynamic like-minded team and with the help of his state of the art, self-designed school management system, Steve was ready to put his vision into action and we are amazingly now already gearing up for our fourth season.
In the microcosm of the world that is a summer school ‘bubble’ where everything is fresh and new, nobody is prejudged and where students can reinvent themselves great things can happen. We have already sent home many ‘Happy Campers’ but more importantly students who have thrived in an atmosphere filled with stimulating, authentic, transformational experiences in a programme carefully designed with a balance of Work Time, Me Time and Play Time. Time to focus, Time to reflect and Time to relax and absorb. And hopefully we have managed to motivate them to continue on a life-long learning adventure and helped to prepare them to navigate through a competitive fast changing world.
We have just lost the great Kris Kristofferson The Silent Generation 1925-45. He once wrote in one of his beautiful songs “Yesterday is dead and gone, and tomorrow is out of sight”. Still words worth living by but maybe tomorrow is not so out of sight anymore. To all our past and future students, Steve and all of us at BSS, hope you will welcome change, embrace it, tackle it head on, be stimulated and excited by the prospect and make a positive difference. One thing now for sure is that the world is going to be a very different place.