All Students Welcome At Florida Prep’s Summer School Program, Features Personal Enrichment
By Space Coast Daily // April 28, 2016
HANDS-ON ACADEMIC GROWTH
BREVARD COUNTY • MELBOURNE, FLORIDA – Ah, summer, that idyllic time when kids spend carefree days enjoying the outdoors. Or maybe not.
Although the fantasy of an endless summer can be enticing to young people, the reality is that summer is the time when their education takes a step backward.
According to the National Summer Learning Association, “research spanning 100 years shows students typically score lower on standardized tests at the end of summer vacation than they do on the same test at the beginning of the summer.”
The learning loss accumulates throughout the student’s career, too, for researchers have discovered that for high school students, two-thirds of the academic achievement gap in reading snowballed during the summer months of the elementary school years.
During the summer, most students lose about two months of grade level equivalency in critically needed math skills. To add insult to injury, students not only lose academic knowledge during the summer, but they also tend to gain weight while out on summer vacation, since many kids end up whiling away the summer days in front of the computer or the television.
Kids do want time to unwind, but boredom soon sets in without activities that engage their minds. Surveys show that summer is actually considered by parents the most difficult of times to ensure their children have productive activities to keep their minds and bodies occupied.
“Without academic enrichment, the students lose some of what they have learned,” said Lisa Gray, principal at Florida Prep in Melbourne.
ALL STUDENTS WELCOME AT FLORIDA PREP’S SUMMER SCHOOL PROGRAM
Florida Prep’s popular summer school, open to all students, offers an opportunity to energize students’ educational momentum during summer classes that takes advantage of the fun activities offered around Central Florida. The Summer program isn’t just for students at Florida Prep, either.
“They can enroll regardless of the school they currently attend,” said Gray.
The school prides itself in engaging students from the first moment of class.
“We have a lot of families who want their students to keep with the academics during the summer,” but we also know it is summer and there are many ways to learn outside the classroom,” said Gray. “We make learning fun.”
The two summer sessions at Florida Prep are geared for students in grades sixth through eighth and in the ninth to twelfth grades.
For middle schoolers, the four-week session offers boys and girls plenty of personal enrichment, hands-on academic growth, supervised exercise and the chance to make new friends from around the world in a structured, safe atmosphere that also encourages the development of personal responsibility.
CURRICULUM, ACTIVITIES CHALLENGE MIND, BODY
The program, which blends academics with daily activities designed to challenge both mind and body, consists of English and language arts, mathematics, science and history, taught throughout the day.
Additionally, students participate in weekly activities that bring education into the real world environment. There’s plenty of fun, too, with weekly field trips to spots such as the Kennedy Space Center, Wonderworks and Andretti Thrill Park, among others.
The kids will also engage in a beach clean-up as a way to serve their community in a meaningful way.
FOUR WEEK PROGRAM
For high school students, Florida Prep’s Summer Program’s small class size allows the students to focus on subjects that may have been problematic for them in the past, offering a chance to correct a not-so-great grade. It is also perfect for students who want to step ahead of the competition as they prepare for college.
“We have high school students who want to make up a credit, as well as students who may want to take AP Calculus in their senior year and want to get courses such as Algebra 2 or Geometry out of the way,” said Gray.
The four-week program enables students to earn one full credit at the completion of the four-week program. A variety of subjects, including Geometry, Algebra 2, Pre-Calculus and English, are available.
COLLEGE ROAD TRIP A HIGHLIGHT FOR SUMMER SCHOOL HIGH SCHOOLERS
High school students can also participate in Florida Prep’s college road trip Aug. 6 to 12. The seven-day trip, open to students in grade nine through 12, visits 11 Florida colleges and universities to explore campuses and their college towns.
The fully chaperoned trip includes all travel, hotel accommodations and leisure activities. Florida Prep’s significant international student body is an added benefit of the Summer Program, since long-lasting friendships can be forged with other young men and women from around the globe.
Because it is available in both day and boarding school format, Florida Prep’s Summer Program is also a “no commitment” way to sample living at school.
“We get a lot of students who are not sure about boarding, but who would like to try it,” said Gray. “This is the perfect opportunity to test the waters.”
Families who want their child to board may select from five- or seven-days-a-week plans.
For working parents, Florida Prep’s Summer Program provides the peace of mind of knowing that their children are engaged in a program of academic growth and physical and emotional development. For students, the Summer Program is about fun and learning during a summer they won’t soon forget.
FOR MORE INFORMATION on Florida Prep’s Summer Programs, call 321-723-3211, option 1, or visit flprep.com