22/11/2022
30 years of fun at Barracudas Activity Day Camps!
2022 was an exciting year for our holiday camps. Whilst every year is special at Barracudas, we were thrilled to be able to celebrate 30 years of entertaining children in the school holidays.
From birthday celebrations, investment in greener motorsports vehicles and new courses and camps, to fully funded spaces for Ukrainian kids, great parent reviews and Ofsted ratings, see our highlights from 2022.
New camps
Barracudas opened in 3 completely new locations in 2022. We operated for the first time in Andover, Canterbury and Colchester.
We also saw new venues in 2 of our locations. We were delighted to open at Millais School in Horsham and Watford Grammar School for Girls.
Additional specialist courses
Football camps
Following the success of the specialist football courses from Palace for Life Foundation and West Ham United Foundation we were delighted to welcome an additional professional coaching body to our family.
Norwich City CSF offered professional coaching courses at our Cambridge Long Road, Huntingdon and Norwich camps.
We hope to build on this success and confirm our courses for 2023 soon.
Barracudas Skill Zone
Barracudas are introducing a brand new offering to Welwyn kids this year.
Let's Bake! was a 3 day course is ideal for mini chef's looking to hone their skills. The professional's from Smart Raspberry tutored kids in a range of kitchen skills with each day based around a different fun theme.
Let's Code! was delivered by the experts at Blue Shift Coding offering specialist robotics and coding activities for 8 - 13 year olds. Kids loved developing a passion for coding and robots through a balance of learning and playing.
Watch this space for opportunities in 2023!
New equipment
We were delighted to roll out fantastic new electric vehicles at all of our activity camps this year.
This investment was a commitment to the future. We replaced all our existing motor vehicles with greener electric versions. Kids loved the new upgrades and we're proud that we're making strides to become a more eco-friendly childcare provider.
Get more information on our electric vehicles.
30th Birthday celebrations
To mark the amazing mile stone of running the UK's favourite activity day camps for 30 years, we held a fun filled sports day this Easter.
We invited children to design a friend for Billy Barracuda. It was lovely to see his friend's come to life and join Billy at Huntingdon camp to compete in a fun afternoon of sports day events. See what we got up to on Billy's sports day.
We also ran a fun social media event in May sharing '30 days for 30 years'. We offered fantastic prizes in fun competitions as well as activities and fun facts. We were so pleased with how much our followers enjoyed these.
An exciting Easter
With over 3,000 children per day and over 300 groups, supported by over 1,000 seasonal staff, Barracudas camps delivered more than 3,500 individual sessions, and more life long memories than we care to count at Easter!
Get our Easter highlights and see the results of our Easter camp parent survey.
A summer of fun
We celebrated 30 years with our biggest summer yet. We ran 195 weeks across 45 camps, that’s a whole heap of fun!
From new camps, new activities and fantastic results for charity to so much more. See our highlights from summer 2022 and get the results of our summer camp parent survey.
Half term camps
We ran more half term camps this year than ever before! We were delighted to entertain even more children at more locations this February, May and October.
Our half term camps had fun weekly themes that the kids loved.
We're looking forward to building on more half term fun in 2023.
Ofsted ratings
This year, a number of camps were visited by the officials from Ofsted.
Cobham, Hemel Hempstead and Streatham were visited this summer and all recieved a 'Met' rating (the highest rating available for holiday activity camps). Get the results here.
We couldn’t be more proud of our seasonal staff and children as well as all our Head Office team who work so hard throughout the year to make sure we’re offering the best experience at all of our camps.
Trustpilot reviews
Barracudas welcomes independent parent reviews.
This year we've reached over 1.2k Trustpilot ratings from our bookers. It's satisfying to know we're delivering on our promises and meeting expectations and we're proud to have an excellent rating.
Get more on what parents and kids think about their Barracudas experience.
Fully funded places for Ukrainian children
Barracudas was proud to work with Mail Force charity to offer fully funded places at our activity camps this summer and October half term.
We had 650 places in our 45 summer camps and 60 places at October half term. Each child was able to join us for 2 full weeks in the summer and the full week in October. This was a great opportunity for the children to take part in our unrivalled range of activities. What's more, it helped them improve their English and settle in the UK ahead of the new school year.
We've loved being a part of this and having an opportunity to help.
We were excited that the press picked up on this. Just take a look at what they reported:
Surrey Live Facebook Live interview at Farnham camp
Local news article about fully funded places for Ukrainian children at Barracudas Huntingdon
Local news article about fully places for Ukrainian children at Barracudas Winchester
Giving back
Barracudas is proud to have partnered with Save The Children in 2022. We helped to raise money for this fantastic charity through online booking donations and fun activities at camp.
We’re delighted that parents helped us to raise over £4k this year. This will make a huge difference to many children around the world.
A big thank you to our bookers, children and staff for making a difference. We look forward to supporting Save the Children as our chosen charity in 2023.
2022 roundup
It's been an amazing year at Barracudas. We welcomed more children than ever to our school holiday activity day camps.
We've enjoyed celebrating 30 years of fun whilst also introducing new activities and offering even more opportunties for adventures.
Our children, parents and staff have been a part of something special. We'd like to thank everyone who has made it another exceptional year.
We're excited that our camps are open for 2023 bookings and places are available at fantastic Early Bird rates.