In second grade, Zion Graham bounded to school. He loved maths. His favourite book was about a slow turtle who took all day to get dressed. Then came the pandemic, and months of joyless remote learning. Zion lost confidence in reading. His performance in third grade plummeted. Advertisement Zion, now 8, is spending his summer racing to catch up, back at Hunter Elementary School in Greensboro, North Carolina. When Zion and his schoolmates arrive by 7.45am each morning, they face a challenge — and a deadline. How much can they learn before fourth grade starts, to avoid falling even further behind? Around the US, children are attending summer school like never before, as the country pushes billions of dollars into education to help children recover from the pandemic. From San Diego to New York City to Miami, hundreds of thousands of children are attending programmes this year, some for the first time. In Guilford County, North Carolina, the school district that includes Greensboro, summer school enrolment has skyrocketed to 12,000 from 1,200 two years ago.