Teaching Pack

Summary Skills
Cambridge IGCSE™
First Language English 0500

Version 1
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Contents

Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 4

Lesson plan 1: Identify and select ................................................................................................... 5

Lesson 1 Teacher’s notes ............................................................................................................... 7

Lesson plan 2: Organisation and overview ...................................................................................... 8

Lesson 2 Teacher’s notes ............................................................................................................. 10

Lesson plan 3: Selection and structure ......................................................................................... 11

Lesson 3 Teacher’s notes ............................................................................................................. 13

Lesson resources.......................................................................................................................... 14

Icons used in this pack:

Lesson plan

Teacher’s notes

Lesson resources

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 Teaching Pack: Summary skills

Introduction

This Teaching Pack focuses on supporting learners to develop the skills required for a selective
summary task.

The lessons presented here are designed for learners who already understand that a summary
requires them to be able to take what is written or said, and condense it down to its main points.
Each lesson can be presented individually, extended and/or split into two or three shorter sessions
to accommodate differing timetable requirements.

It is expected that learners should already know that a written summary response should be a
concise, easy to read text, be written in their own words and use correct grammar, spelling and
punctuation.

Learners should understand that they must provide alternatives where appropriate for vocabulary
used in the text in order to avoid copying from the original. They should also be aware of some of
the ways in which they can link together the key points they have identified.

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 Teaching Pack: Summary skills

Lesson plan 1: Identify and select

Resources  Worksheet 1: Top tips for summary writing

 Worksheet 2: Childhood obesity
 Worksheet 3: Who, What, When, Where, Why?

Learning By the end of the lesson learners will be able to:

objectives
 reflect on what makes a successful selective summary
 identify explicit and implicit ideas and attitudes in a text

Timings Activity
Starter / Introduction
Task: Distribute Worksheet 1. In pairs, ask learners to consider what they might need
to include when writing a successful summary. Encourage learners to feed back this
information and record some answers on the board. This could then become the class
success criteria for summary writing.
Learners should consider:
 How should they organise and structure their writing?
 How much detail should they include in their writing?
 How much of their summary should be their own words?
 What vocabulary should they use?

Main lesson
Task: Divide learners into groups of four. Learners read Worksheet 2 either as a whole
group or individually. While reading Worksheet 2 learners should find the following key
words:
 evolving
 hyperprocessed
 controversial
 overwhelming
 perceive

In their groups, learners try to come up with a different way to say those words.
Learners should try to keep their responses quite short, using simple language to
express their ideas. Ask each group to share one of their responses and ask the rest of
the class to evaluate whether this was effective. If another group feels that their
definition is clearer then they can share their ideas with the class.

Mini-plenary: Learners re-read the text and then create a group summary of the whole
text in one sentence.

Task: Distribute Worksheet 3 to each group. As a group, learners should identify the
details in the text that answer the questions. They should then answer the question in
their own words and then record the evidence they have found from the text. Highlight
or underline details in the text that answer the questions. One half of the group could
highlight and identify the details and the other half could record the answers on the

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 Teaching Pack: Summary skills

Timings Activity
worksheet. Remind learners that they may have to use some inference skills to locate
specific details.

In their groups, learners use the information from the text on Worksheet 2 and the
details they’ve collected on Worksheet 3 to answer the questions:

How is the food industry contributing to childhood obesity? What steps can we take to
prevent this?

Learners can further highlight and annotate the text so that they can explain their
thoughts as they read.
When learners have collected the information from the text, they can verbally share the
information they have found out. Then learners work together to create a summary of
no more than 120 words that addresses the two questions. Remind learners that they
should use continuous writing and their own words as far as possible.

Plenary
Task: Re-read paragraph 7, ‘The bliss point…’ Identify two health problems that are
associated with eating sugary, salty and fatty foods.
Homework
Learners select a favourite or well-known book or film. They summarise this book or
film in no more than 150 words and bring this summary to the next lesson.

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 Teaching Pack: Summary skills

Lesson 1 Teacher’s notes

Key words / concepts you could highlight during the lesson, or have pre-taught before the lesson:

 explicit ideas – something that is clearly stated and leaves nothing implied.
 implicit ideas – something that is suggested and not directly expressed.

Starter

The starter allows learners to reflect on their knowledge of what makes a good summary. It means
that learners can create a success criteria that they can use in their writing and in other future
lessons. Make sure learners comment not just on what they need to include in the content of the
summary but how they should structure their piece of writing also.

Main lesson

Learners should rewrite the following words in their own words. These should not be definitions,
rather they should be alternative ways of expressing the words below. We have given some
suggestions but any valid suggestions made by your learners would be acceptable.

 Evolving: changing and developing

 Hyperprocessed: very heavily processed
 Controversial: a topic or subject that causes disagreement or argument
 Overwhelming: very large amount
 Perceive: view or realise something.

Text

This text is from the New Zealand Herald and is about the obesity crisis facing children and families.
The author lists the various contributing factors that are making the obesity crisis worse.

Homework

This homework asks learners to find a film or book that they like or are familiar with and create a
short summary about this. Learners should then bring their summaries to share with their classmates
in the following lesson.

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 Teaching Pack: Summary skills

Lesson plan 2: Organisation and overview

Resources  Worksheet 4: Aspects of Writing – we need to talk about spelling

 Worksheet 5: Aspects of Writing - questions
 Worksheet 6: What is the text about?
 Five different coloured highlighters (1 per group)

Learning By the end of the lesson learners will be able to:

objectives
 select key details from a text
 respond to a range of question types

Timings Activity
Starter / Introduction
Task: Ask learners to share their homework summaries. Learners can either talk in
pairs, small groups or you could allow learners to walk around the classroom to share
their summaries. Learners should take turns to verbally share their summaries with one
another without revealing the title of their summary. Then learners try to guess each
other’s film or book.

Main lesson
Task: Put learners into groups of 5–6 and give each group a copy of Worksheet 4. It
would be useful if these could be printed on A3 paper so that all learners can access
the text. If this is not possible, then you could print two copies of the text per group.

Using Worksheet 5, learners select the relevant details from the text to respond to the
questions.

When learners get to question D:

According to the text, what are the main issues with spelling, punctuation and grammar
for GCSE students and what can teachers do to help this situation?

Learners can summarise their text, thinking about the focus of the questions. Remind
learners that they should use their own words and that they should structure their work
so that it is clear to the audience. Learners may need to highlight and annotate some
key details in the text to find answers for the questions above.

Learners swap their summaries with another group to peer assess each other’s work.

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Timings Activity
Plenary
Create a line of agreement in your classroom. One side of the classroom should be
called ‘strongly agree’ and the other side should be ‘strongly disagree’. Give learners
one of the controversial statements below and ask them to line up to show their
thoughts and feelings about the statement. Learners can choose to stand on whichever
side of the room best represents how they feel, or they could choose any space in the
middle of the room. Remind learners that they need to be able to back up their opinions
with reasons.

Correct spelling, punctuation and grammar is less important today than it has ever
been; people don’t care if you can spell.

Social media has made young people lazy with correct spelling, punctuation and
grammar.
Homework
Distribute Worksheet 6 and ask learners to read the three short stories. They then
select the option that best summarises what each story is about. Learners can share
their ideas, explaining how and why they came to that decision.

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Lesson 2 Teacher’s notes

Key words / concepts you could highlight during the lesson, or have pre-taught before the lesson:

 audience – who the text is written for. This can be general, e.g. ‘women’, or can be more
specific, ‘women in their early 20s who are interested in rock climbing’.
 purpose – why the text has been written. This can be to describe, persuade, inform,
entertain, narrate, etc.

Starter

Learners should walk around the classroom, finding another learner to share their homework
summary with. Learners should then try to guess what film or book their partner’s summary is
describing.

Main lesson

The text in this lesson is from a report by Cambridge Assessment which explores different aspects
of writing such as spelling, punctuation, sentence structure and the use of paragraphs. The report
had been carried out every 10 years since the 1980s and explores changes in a wide range of
students’ writing in formal English exams. The report looks at how these aspects of writing have
changed and offers teachers some solutions for how they might tackle these issues if their learners
appear to be struggling with written English.

Learners may have some opinions about the issues raised in the text so this could be a good
opportunity to create a speaking and listening activity where learners can debate ideas around
grammar and ‘correct’ use of Standard English in a modern day context. You could use some of
the strategies mentioned in any of the Speaking and listening Teaching Packs.

Plenary

This teaching tool is designed to make learners move around the room and visibly show their
opinions rather than writing them down. This activity works best with controversial statements that
mean learners have to choose a side and then defend their point. You can use the controversial
statements that we have suggested or you can of course use your own statements.

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Lesson plan 3: Selection and structure

Resources  Worksheet 7: The popularity of overpriced Center Parcs is truly baffling

 Worksheet 8: Summary Venn diagram
 Worksheet 9: The Dutch alternative to Center Parcs has arrived in Britain
– but is it any good?

Learning By the end of the lesson:

objectives
 all learners will be able to identify and summarise a number of explicit
and implicit ideas from a longer text
 most learners will be able to select carefully a range of ideas and
structure their response helpfully to communicate understanding
 some learners will be able to skilfully select only ideas relevant to the
given focus and craft their response for the benefit of their reader

Timings Activity
Starter / Introduction
Task: Distribute Worksheet 7. Learners read this article (either independently or led by
you) and write down five questions about the article that relate to the 5Ws (one for each
of: Who, What, When, Where, Why/How).

Put learners into pairs to share and compare their questions. As a pair, learners decide
on their most effective questions to check someone’s understanding of the main ideas in
the text.

Learners may come up with the following questions. If learners need support, you could
offer some of the following questions as prompts:
 Who is writing?
 Where are they?
 When are they writing?
 How has the situation come about?
 Why are they writing this article?
 Who else is mentioned in the article?
 What details are described?

Learners could then share their examples of questions with the rest of the class who
could try to answer them. If a pair asks a question that is incorrect or irrelevant then the
rest of the class could offer suggestions for how to improve this.

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Timings Activity
Main lesson
Task: In pairs or small groups, learners now re-read the text and highlight key quotes
and evidence that answer these questions.

1. What might appeal to someone visiting Centre Parcs for the first time?
2. Why would Centre Parcs not appeal to families?
3. What facilities are available at Centre Parcs?

Using Worksheet 8, learners record their ideas in the relevant sections to identify where
there are overlaps/differences. In their notes, learners should not use direct quotations
but summarise their ideas in their own words. Learners may use bullet point notes to
record their ideas.
Learners complete the selective summary task as an independent task. Remind learners
that their summary should not be more than 120 words and that they can use Worksheet
1 (from Lesson 1) to help them.
Learners review their response for clarity, concision and content and indicate in a
different colour pen any changes they need to make.

Plenary
Learners mark each other’s tasks to say what their partner has done well and what their
partner could do to improve their response. If there is time, learners could redraft their
selective summaries to act on what their partner has suggested.

Homework options and/or further extension activities:

Learners should read Worksheet 9 (or learners could find their own examples of suitable
texts about a topic that interests them. It may be useful for learners to tell you what they
are planning to research or for you to give learners a list of topics) and create their own
summary question.

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Lesson 3 Teacher’s notes

Starter

This starter encourages learners to reflect on a text by constructing their own questions about who,
what, when, where, why/how. This activity means that learners need to think about how they might
approach analysis in the future. This helps learners to be specific when selecting certain details,
but also helps learners to answer their own questions whilst thinking about them.

Worksheet 7

This text is written about Centre Parcs, a European company that has created a series of holiday
villages, usually in woods and forests. Centre Parcs UK provide short holidays and provide a range
of outdoor, active and leisure pursuits for both adults and families. Here, the author describes
some of the negatives of visiting Centre Parcs, listing aspects such as cost, food and design.

Worksheet 8

This Venn diagram is a visual organiser that allows learners to select details and record them in
separate areas so that they can practice reading for purpose, whilst also allowing learners to see
how their ideas might overlap or be connected and how they might use these points in their
summaries.

Next steps/ Taking it further

Here we have offered some ideas for how learners might develop the ideas covered in this lesson.
Learners could then discuss how these styles of writing are different from a summary.

 A letter to a friend advising them whether they should/shouldn’t go to Centre Parcs

 A newspaper article on Centre Parcs style holidays in the twentieth century
 A speech to a specified audience objecting to a Centre Parcs being built in the local vicinity
/country
 An interview of a teenager who didn’t enjoy their stay at Centre Parcs
 A report about customer complaints
 Descriptive writing: A holiday in the forest.
 Narrative writing: ‘It will be great,’ said Mum as we arrived at the door of the wooden
lodge…

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 Teaching Pack: Summary skills

Lesson resources

Worksheet 1: Top tips for summary writing

Worksheet 2: Childhood obesity
Worksheet 3: Who, What, When, Where, Why?
Worksheet 4: Aspects of Writing – we need to talk about spelling
Worksheet 5: Aspects of Writing - questions
Worksheet 6: What is the text about?
Worksheet 7: The popularity of overpriced Center Parcs is truly baffling
Worksheet 8: Summary Venn diagram
Worksheet 9: The Dutch alternative to Center Parcs has arrived in Britain – but is it any good?

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Worksheet 1: Top tips for summary writing

What are the first things to consider when writing a summary? Common mistakes are:

Next think about: To be successful you should:

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 Teaching Pack: Summary skills

Worksheet 2: Childhood obesity

This is an article from the New Zealand Herald. It was originally published on 19th May 2014 and
details some of the factors that contribute to childhood obesity. It also outlines the health implications
that childhood obesity can have…

An evolving health crisis of childhood obesity is upon us. Is this the generation where children are
condemned to live shorter lives than their parents? Dave Shaw investigates.

Countless factors have led us here, with nutrition playing a major role. Many foods now advertised to
kids are higher in sugar, salt and fat than those targeted at young generations before. Children are
hardwired to fall for these flavours. The food industry is arguably exploiting the biology – and
psychology – of children.

They aren’t just providing a source of calories and nutrients for a child, they’re impacting their health
in a way that could warrant future legal action. Many children are growing up believing food should be
served deep-fried and sugar-coated. Is this ethical? If other countries were causing havoc on our
children’s health like this, then we’d put a stop to it.

A film shedding light on this topic is Fed Up which may be the most important documentary in recent
times. The film essentially says we have a problem, a problem that many vested interests have no
intention of solving and a problem that must be dealt with if we’re interested in our survival.

In the food industry’s defence, they are giving us what we want and if we ask for healthier foods, they
will provide. But in the end, profits come first.

Here’s a heads up about some food industry insights that may be affecting you and your
family.

The bliss point: This is the perfect amount of sugar – of salt and fat – that allows a food to become
highly salient1. When these tastes combine, they provide a dopamine-fuelled rush driving us to eat
more. It’s no surprise children want to eat more of the food that tastes good. Unfortunately, the high
consumption of sugary, salty and fatty foods can lead to obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes or
much worse.

Hyperprocessed food: there are many heavy hitting facts about the harms of eating too much
sugary and other hyperprocessed foods, yet many of us continue to buy, serve and eat them every
day. There is no difference between some processed food and sugar itself. Saying you can eat a bowl
of cornflakes with no added sugar or a bowl of sugar with no added cornflakes can be essentially the
same thing.

‘Eater’-tainment: The food industry has learned what humans want and is only too happy to oblige.
At every eating opportunity or on every street corner awaits a sugary or salty snack made to satisfy
our craving. It’s what people of all ages gorge on to feel good for a few moments or to relax. Who
doesn’t want to get on this ride, right? And when we do, we are only more than tempted to ride it
again and again.

Marketing: The marketing of children’s food is a controversial topic, with many companies under
siege for how they promote their food to youngsters. Children often don’t know the difference between

1
Salient: flavoursome and appealing

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 Teaching Pack: Summary skills

good and bad food and have to rely on others to tell them – usually their parents. But when they see
the Golden Arches2 or colourful packages covered in cartoons they immediately connect with a
product. After tasting the addictive combination of sugar, salt and fat, the marketing image is
permanently engraved on their mind. Suddenly they want more.

Maternal disempowerment: What does a mother do when she has the difficult choice of giving her
child what they want or giving them what’s the best for their health? This is a common struggle
against an overwhelming tide of marketing and, possibly, addiction. Sometimes even the parents
don’t know what’s best, so who’s left to pick up the reins? Parents, and their children, need to be
educated on what are the healthier options, and the healthier choice must become the easier choice.

Public misperception: A fast food diet should not be socially accepted, but it is. So, the real goal is
to change how we view food. The government has a role to play, but if we look at the great public
health successes, they come from changes in how we perceive a product. Smoking for example is
now seen as deadly and disgusting, when it was once sexy. If you look at something and say, “that’s
horrible, I’d rather have something else,” you’re not going to feel drawn to eat it. We can apply this
learning to how we eat. We need to take the power out of certain foods: from there saying “no” to
eating junk is easy.

2 Golden Arches: the trademark of an international hamburger chain

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 Teaching Pack: Summary skills

Worksheet 3: Who, What, When, Where, Why

Answer Evidence

Who is the article

talking about?

What is the
problem?

When is this article

set?

Where is this article

from?

Why should we do
something?

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Worksheet 4: Aspects of Writing – We need to talk about

spelling

Alex Quigley, English teacher, author of 'The Confident Teacher', and Director of Huntington
Research School, York pulls out some key takeaways for teachers from the latest phase of our
unique study #AspectsOfWriting.

Cambridge Assessment released the latest phase of the 'Aspects of Writing' study on Wednesday
to much interest. The full title of the research is the less tabloid-friendly 'Variations in aspects of
writing in 16+ English Examinations between 1980 to 2014', but the headlines came thick and fast.
The Daily Mail gave us: 'Sign off the times: GCSE pupils make more spelling mistakes than their
parents' generation and often cannot spell 'too', 'of' and 'said'. Whereas The Times furnished us
with: 'Oh my word: GCSE pupils can’t spell 'off’'. Answers to the problem quickly raced to blaming
the government for failed initiatives in "drilling punctuation", to blaming Facebook and other forms
of social media. The truth behind the research is – typically – much more subtle than the grand-
standing headlines, but no less interesting.

First, it is important to apply the caution that Cambridge Assessment assigns to their study: it is a
"finger in the wind indication of 16 year olds' writing." The grand decline in spelling and writing
standards is not so marked. Yes, errors are more frequent in the most recent writing sample (it is
important to note it was the Cambridge IGCSE examination – a high-stakes assessment under
pressured timed conditions) from 2014, when compared to 1980, but many of the changes are not
as marked as suggested in the headlines. The crucial findings about the suggested decline in
spelling, as reported by the media, was that spelling errors increased only among students with
grades below a D grade – and not all students. It is unsurprising to me, as a long-standing English
teacher, that E grade and F grade students are making few inroads into spelling during exam
conditions.

Other interesting writing patterns emerge from the research:

• Sentence length, measured by the number of words, showed the highest attaining students wrote
shorter sentences on average (A* - 16.8 words, compared to C - 17.7 words, D - 23.4 words and F
- 28.3 words).
• Capital letters slid somewhat, with low attaining students making a greater number of capital
letters errors at the start of sentences than in previous years.
• There were fewer comma splices, suggesting an improvement in the use of commas.
• There was an increase in the use of 'other' punctuation (other than full stops, commas or
apostrophes) by high attaining students, but the opposite is true for low attaining students.
• Paragraphing: the number of paragraphs used by students has increased with attainment in
2004, 2007 and 2014.
• There was an increase in the use of simple sentences, with a lower incidence of multiple
sentences, along with less subordination, showing a trend toward fewer complex sentence
structures being used by all students.
• The high attaining students improved their proportion of 'sophisticated vocabulary' compared to
2007 (but not as high as 2004).

So what can we take away from this evidence? First, I would say that the dizzying merry-go-round
of government writing initiatives, charted by the researchers, really does little to change the

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Worksheet 4: Aspects of Writing – We need to talk about

spelling continued

fundamental writing patterns of our teens. Policy makers should consider more sustainable
curriculum change in schools, with concurrent training for teachers, to improve upon the subtle
nuances of writing that emerge from such studies. Also, we should reflect on changes in
technology etc., but avoid quick blame for the 'Facebook effect' on all of our writing ills, as the
evidence is slim in this regard. Despite the shoddy standard of writing on Facebook and more,
there isn't much evidence to show that 'text-speak' was rife, nor that students were unable to
understand how to shift the formality and style of their writing across different contexts.
What can teachers take away from the study? Here are some prompts:

• How strong is our understanding, as teachers, of developing students to become accurate writers
– particularly those lowest attaining students?

• How consistent are we in teaching spelling, punctuation and grammar across English
departments and also across the whole school?

• How do we support our lower attaining students to craft their sentences more, use more
paragraphs and deploy a wider range of punctuation (those crucial aspects of writing from high
attaining students)?

Alex Quigley
English teacher, author of 'The Confident Teacher', and Director of Huntington Research School,
York

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Worksheet 5: Aspects of Writing – questions

A. Give two examples of things that were blamed for bad punctuation:

 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..

 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..

B. Using your own words, explain what the text means by:

i. ‘the headlines came thick and fast’………………………………………............……………

……………………………………………………………………………………………………..

ii. ‘raced to blaming the government’…..........................………………………….……………

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

C. Re-read paragraph 3 ‘So what can we take away…’

i. Identify two suggestions made in the text for improving the teenager’s writing:

 ……………………………………………………………………………………………

 …………………………………………………………………………………………….

ii. Explain why people blame Facebook and social media for poor spelling and grammar.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………

D. According to the text, what are the main issues with spelling, punctuation and grammar in
GCSE students and what can teachers do to help this situation?
You must use continuous writing (not note form) and use your own words as far as possible.
Your summary should be not more than 120 words.

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Worksheet 6: What is the text about?

Read through the following short stories and select the statement that best summarises what the
text is about. You should be able to explain why you have made that choice, backing up your ideas
with evidence.

1. Lester was lost. He didn't know where he was, or how to get where he was going. He had left
the directions at home and he didn't have a map. Now, he was in a strange neighbourhood and
he was confused. If he could find a familiar landmark, he might figure things out.

 Wanting a map
 Lester was lost
 Getting directions
 Going to a party

2. Baseball has been a part of American life for more than 100 years. There are 29 professional
teams in 27 American cities and hundreds of minor league teams throughout the 50 states.
More Americans attend major league baseball games than any other professional team sport in
the United States. Baseball is a part of American slang, fashion, music, and movies.

 Baseball stadiums
 Baseball in America
 Minor league baseball
 Baseball slang

3. For most of us, getting older means getting better. We might not have as much energy as we
used to, but we know how to use it more efficiently. We think more clearly. We have more
experience and get less intimidated. We're more focused on what we love best. That's what
maturity is all about.

 A bad situation
 Problems of the elderly
 Getting more experience
 Positive side of maturity

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Worksheet 7: The popularity of overpriced Center Parcs

is truly baffling

The first time I went to Center Parcs, I told my children we were off to spend a weekend in the forest.
Being fans of Winnie the Pooh, they were excited.
The second time we visited, we had no such illusions; we were heading for a weekend of high prices
at a really rather suburban campus, set in what is, at best, a decidedly bijou wood.
Center Parcs occupies a solid position in the British middle class portfolio of what constitutes a family
holiday. And yet, its tendency to disappoint in areas of cost, design and food is consistent.
The cost
A weekend break at the new Waterside Lodges at Elveden Forest starts - starts! - at £1,999 for a
family of three this month. And that’s self-catering.
Sure, that’s the highest end of the British group’s accommodation. But it’s also equivalent to the cost
of a suite at one of Britain’s best hotels.
And the lower end of Center Parcs housing isn’t cheap, either. Three nights (for you must book a
minimum of three nights, which is awkward during term time) at the Sherwood Forest campus in late
November costs from £579 for two adults and a child. And that’s before you have booked anything
else.
The add-ons add up at Center Parcs. For example, bicycles are virtually essential when navigating
the spread out car-free campus, particularly if you are with young children who do not stroll. But
hiring them adds significantly to your mini-break costs: at £30 for an adult bike and £22 for a child’s
cycle, you’re adding more than £100 to your bill for a family of four before you’ve even arrived. If you
want to visit the gym, unlike at a hotel, it’s another £13.
As the costs add up, you long for a free-of-charge, unstructured moment in an unlandscaped wood.
The design
And that is the second sin of Center Parcs: marketed as luxury lodges set in 400 acres of “natural
landscapes” across Britain (there are locations in Cumbria, Nottinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Suffolk
and Wiltshire, with the group’s first Irish park coming next year), the reality is more like a suburban
estate. Long walks from identikit lodges take you to shopping and activity hubs which feel like
shopping malls.
The well-maintained lodges are spacious and functional, upholstered in various woods, plastics and
synthetic fabrics that can withstand the hard wear of young children. But there is nothing here to
interest the aesthete. And there’s little to lure the outdoorsman, either. You and your family are not
embarking on a Thoreauvian deliberate, woodland life; for all of its marketing as time away in the
woods, this is not a place for kids to wildly pursue their independent adventures; it’s a place to book
slots far in advance: organised leisure. In the same way that you know what you’re getting with a
mid-level chain restaurant – Center Parcs delivers a consistent but predictable product.
The food
And chains are what the group banks on: the on-site restaurants – a key detail for such a captive
audience – are a disappointing line-up of the blandest of the high street. But while you may feel as
if you’re dining in your local high street, you will note inflated prices at Center Parcs – as much as
60 per cent more than what the same dish would cost in a city centre outlet of the chain.
Parenting chat groups are full of advice to head to the Continent over British versions (the Center
Parcs concept originated in Holland in 1967, with the first UK outlet opening in 1987. Center Parcs
is now a separate entity in the UK). Prices in the Netherlands and Germany in particular (there are
also parks in France and Belgium and plans to open in China) can cost half as much as the same
amount of time in a UK park. You can also save money by booking far in advance which, indeed,
most people do in order to get the lodge location and activities that they want.

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Worksheet 7: The popularity of overpriced Center Parcs

is truly baffling – continued

Is it worth visiting Center Parcs?

Center Parcs’ popularity endures: occupancy levels are high, and 2.2 million visitors flock to the
parks each year in Britain. I find this baffling.
Perhaps most peculiar is Center Parcs’ popularity with hen and stag parties. The Woburn campus,
which is closest to London and has the group’s largest spa, is particularly a draw for the former. If a
spa is what you’re after, stay in London, where you have half a chance of a nice meal after a day in
the sauna.
If a weekend in the woods is what you crave, again, I’d head elsewhere. For the money, I’d hire a
truly well-designed cottage in a pretty part of the countryside and book a morning at Go Ape instead.
Where Center Parcs shines is in its activities staff: these young, bright and engaging people have a
Disney-like zeal for entertaining children, particularly aged around four to eight. So if what you want
is to outsource the childcare for a weekend, book far in advance. And bring a friend, because there
is very little for adults to do here, while they're busy avoiding their own kids.

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Worksheet 8: Summary Venn diagram

What might appeal to someone visiting Why would Centre Parcs not appeal
Centre Parcs for the first time? to families?

What facilities are available

at Centre Parcs?

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Teaching Pack: Summary skills

Worksheet 9: The Dutch alternative to Center Parcs has

arrived in Britain – but is it any good?

Landal Greenparks is perfect for a short family break and connecting with nature – without
sacrificing the home comforts.

Best for: Multi-generational family groups

Worst for: Families with kids who like a busy, structured activity programme

“En garde!” Our instructor threw down the gauntlet and my two daughters, padded up like a couple
of navy-blue ninjas, dashed to pick it up. A flash of foil here, a lunge there and dad was soon left
huffing and puffing while Maya, 11, and Olivia, 7, ran rings around me with a couple of bendy swords.

Gina, our instructor, observed: “It’s just like a scene from Pirates of the Caribbean.” If so, I was
definitely more Keith Richards than Orlando Bloom.

Fencing is just one of the timetabled activities at Landal. The Dutch-owned group opened its first
British campuses at the start of this year, in the Peak District and Northumberland. The company
pitches its family breaks, based on a four-night midweek or three-night weekend holiday, squarely
between Forest Holidays and Center Parcs. Think a range of pine-built lodges, on-site activities and
some mobile-signal-free time in nature.

We were spending a busy spring bank holiday at Landal Darwin Forest, a wooded site in the rolling
hills of the Peak District National Park. Unlike other holiday parks, Landal encourages visitors to
stray beyond the front gate and explore the local area — hence discounted tickets at reception for
nearby Chatsworth House and flyers for the food festival in the charming nearby town of Bakewell.

But, primarily, we were here for some family quiet time. Like most of the visitors that weekend, we
had driven within a three-hour radius of home but, we found, they were more savvy to the holiday
park model: fellow guests had pre-booked activities and dinner reservations, as well as stocking up
on supplies en–route to the park.

We were less well prepared, and ate primarily at Foresters Bar and Restaurant, which served decent
pub-grub style food at pub prices, albeit with a slightly limited menu. The three options on the kids'
menu were quickly exhausted after a weekend of lunches and dinners.

Our accommodation for the weekend was an attractive pine lodge with open-plan kitchen-living-
dining area, a mix of twin and double bedrooms and a rustic decking area outside. The Chatsworth
Elite lodge style was spacious, homely and warm on a chilly evening, sleeping up to eight people.
Cheaper options offer less space, while top-of-the-range lodges come with outdoor hot tubs.

The park publishes a weekly timetable of activities, many based at the Evolution pool and health
centre, and encourages visiting families to try offbeat sports. All these are charged as extra and are
held at fixed times. So if you fancy hurling yourself around the grounds in a giant bubble, you must
plan ahead for BodyZorbing (ages six+, £8pp). My girls were disappointed that a WaterWalkerz
session (ages five+, £5pp) was cancelled on us at short notice due to lack of numbers.

Outside of timetabled activities, there's a soft-play centre for toddlers and exercise classes for adults
in the small on-site gym, the use of which, as with the pool, is free of charge.

I noticed during the weekend that many of the visitors were multi-generational groups and Landal is
a good option for extended families. Not only can grandparents keep an eye on kids while parents
catch a spa treatment, but it also offers parents the welcome prospect of sampling some of the
excellent local microbrewery ales at a country pub one evening. With no organised childcare on site,
the best I could manage was a short but welcome express back rub (£22) while the girls were
engaged in an activity nearby.
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Back at the fencing session, the girls perfected their swordplay. Captain Jack Sparrow better watch
his back. There’s a couple of swashbuckling young ladies with newfound penchant for a parry on his
trail.

Landal (landal.co.uk) prices from £299 (weekend) and £449 (midweek), based on a family of four in
a Haddon Classic 2 lodge, excluding meals and activities.

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