🚀 July Holiday Reading, Writing & Speech Camp — Class Guide for Parents

For young readers who are just moving beyond decoding individual words and starting to make meaning from longer texts, this class builds two essential skills in parallel: careful, attentive reading and the ability to write sentences that actually say something interesting.

In the Close Reading Foundation component, students learn to slow down, re-read, and notice details that a fast reader skims past — the kind of noticing that underpins every English skill from Year 3 onwards. In the Writing component, they practise turning what they’ve read and thought about into their own sentences, learning that writing is simply thinking made visible on the page.

This class is ideal if your child can read independently but their writing still feels thin or hesitant. By the end of the 10 sessions, they will have a reliable toolkit for reading carefully and writing with more detail and intention.

This group uses the same close reading approach but pairs it with story writing — perfect for the child who loves stories and has things to say, but whose writing on the page doesn’t yet match the ideas in their head.

Working from a carefully selected picture book or early chapter book, students analyse how published authors build characters, set scenes, and create moments of tension or warmth. They then apply those same techniques to their own short stories. The emphasis is always on authentic voice: we want children to write stories that sound like them, not a template.

A great choice if your child already enjoys reading and you want their writing to catch up — or if they have a creative streak that needs a proper outlet and a skilled teacher to channel it.

This class uses The Ant Explorer as its anchor text — a beautifully written book that rewards close reading and sparks the kind of imaginative responses that make for genuinely memorable creative writing.

Students in Years 2–3 are at a pivotal stage: they have enough reading fluency to focus on what a text is doing rather than just what it says, and enough writing ability to start experimenting with language deliberately. This class accelerates both. Through guided analysis and modelled writing sessions, students learn to borrow techniques from skilled authors — unusual vocabulary, unexpected comparisons, precise observations — and apply them in their own creative pieces.

If your child comes home saying they “don’t know what to write about,” this class solves that problem permanently. By reading closely, they never run out of ideas.

Moving into Years 3–4, the texts become more complex and the writing expectations rise to match. This class works with The Eagle, a rich, layered text that gives students plenty to analyse and argue about — and that naturally produces the kind of vivid, specific writing that teachers and markers love.

Students explore how authors create mood, build tension, and use language to make readers feel something. They then write their own creative responses: short stories, descriptive scenes, or character studies that demonstrate the same craft. The goal is writing that has a voice — work that a reader can tell apart from thirty other students’ pieces.

This is the ideal class for children in Years 3–4 who are capable but whose writing feels “safe” — technically correct but flat. By the end of the camp they will be taking deliberate risks on the page, and their writing will be far more interesting for it.

By Years 4–5, students are expected to write not just creatively but informationally — reports, explanations, and structured non-fiction pieces that organise ideas clearly and use evidence to support claims. This is the writing style that dominates school assessments from Year 5 onwards, and it’s the one most students find hardest.

Using How Was That Built? as the core text, students analyse how expert non-fiction writers make complex ideas accessible and engaging. They learn the architecture of information writing: how to open with a hook, how to organise paragraphs logically, how to use precise vocabulary without being dry, and how to conclude with genuine insight rather than a summary restatement.

If your child is heading into Year 5 or preparing for the jump to secondary school, this class gives them a serious head start on the writing skills that will matter most over the next three years.

This is our most advanced holiday stream, designed specifically for students preparing for GATE, selective school entry, or private school scholarship exams. For July we are running this as a scholarship and selective preparation intensive focused on the skills that actually move the needle in these assessments.

The class tackles two of the most challenging skills these exams demand: persuasive writing and structured spoken argument. Students work with high-interest debate topics — “Are vaccines useful?” and “How do we stay safe online?” — that require them to read critically, form a position, marshal evidence, and communicate it with clarity and conviction.

In the writing component, students learn to construct arguments that examiners reward: a clear thesis, logical progression, consideration of counterarguments, and a conclusion that actually advances the position rather than just repeating it. In the speech component, they practise delivering those arguments aloud — learning that confident, well-structured speaking is a skill, not a personality trait.

If your child has a GATE test, selective school interview, or scholarship application in the next 12 months, this class is the highest-value preparation you can give them over the July break. Class size is capped at 6 to ensure every student gets individual feedback on both their writing and their delivery.