Hi Reader

If you’re anything like me, summer can feel like a constant balancing act.

You want your child to rest, switch off and enjoy the holidays, and rightly so.

But there’s often a small nagging worry in the background…

What happens if they stop reading and writing altogether for six weeks?

As a GCSE English tutor and examiner, I see the effects of this every September.

Students return to school feeling rusty. Vocabulary recall is slower. Writing stamina has dipped. Analytical thinking feels less sharp. Even bright, capable students can find that producing a thoughtful essay or creative writing piece suddenly feels much harder than it did in July.

This is what people sometimes call the summer slide.

Now, before panic sets in, let me reassure you.

Preventing the summer slide doesn’t need to involve endless worksheets or battles over revision.

In fact, I would argue that one of the most powerful things your child can do this summer is surprisingly simple:

Read a genuinely good book.

High-quality reading quietly develops so many of the skills needed for success in English:

• vocabulary
• comprehension
• inference
• analytical thinking
• writing style

When children read regularly, they absorb language patterns almost without realising it.

And if you occasionally talk with them about what they’re reading (what surprised them, which characters interested them, why the writer described something in a certain way), the benefits become even greater.

As I mark this summer’s GCSE papers, one thing feels clearer than ever: students who read widely have a huge advantage.

That’s one reason I’m preparing this year’s Summer Reading Challenge for pre-teens and teens.

But before I send it out, I’m curious…

I'd be really interested to know.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

All the best,

Verity