Teachers warn Clegg over summer camp scheme

The plans, announced by Nick Clegg at the Liberal Democrat conference, are part of the government’s reaction to this summer’s rioting.

But while Russell Hobby, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, welcomed extra funding for residential summer programmes, he said such schemes should not be seen "as an antidote to broken Britain".

Hobby said: "If what Mr Clegg has in mind are just literacy boot camps for poor children, they will squander the chance of doing something with enormous potential for all. Neither should summer camps be seen as punishment for children who have fallen behind or they will lose the support of the very families they seek to help."
 
He suggested the government should instead consider shortening summer holidays. One way of ensuring they make a smoother transition from primary to secondary school would be to avoid leaving them out in the educational cold for six weeks," he said.

Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, argued that ring-fencing part of the pupil premium to fund the summer camp scheme would force schools to abandon spending plans they have already put in place.

"The coalition government has repeatedly said that it wants to make the education funding system fairer and it wants to give schools more freedom and autonomy," he said. "With this initiative it has abandoned both these principles and turned the pupil premium into the kind of ring fenced grant it criticised the previous government for."

Lightman added that the summer camps are merely a short-term "sticking plaster" solution to the problems facing disadvantaged young people.

"If the government is determined to ring fence money from the pupil premium, it would be better off putting it towards restoring face to face careers guidance for those pupils who will reach the end of their compulsory education so that they can be helped into employment or training next summer and not end up on the streets," he said.

Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said summer camps will do little to reduce inequality.

She warned: "Tackling the root causes of the riots will not be solved by a two-week summer school for primary school children. [We need] policies that address the growing inequalities in our society.

In his speech to the conference Clegg said the summer camps would help disadvantaged children to catch up and get ready "for the challenges ahead".