13/06/2023
Keeping ahead of the curve!
Barracudas has been providing amazing experiences for children in the school holidays for over 30 years.
We’ve always aimed to be ahead of the pack and deliver high quality childcare and a smooth and easy experience for parents.
Each year Barracudas looks for new opportunities to develop and expand, making sure every child has such an amazing experience they can’t wait to come back!
Here are just some of the ways we’re growing this year...
Residential camps
We’re thrilled to announce that, in partnership with PGL, we have 3 residential camps available for the first time this summer! 4 night Marchants Hill and 7 night Marchants Hill in Surrey and 4 night Bawdsey Manor in Suffolk.
This is a fantastic opportunity to experience a multi-activity camp away from home for 8-16 year olds.
Our residential experience will give children and young people the opportunity to experience independence and develop new confidence as they take on new challenges and make life-long friendships.
With a wide range of exciting outdoor activities including abseiling, climbing, zip wires, raft building, paddle boarding, bushcraft and much more!
Find out more about residential camps.
Barracudas Specialist Courses
Barracudas is launching a new set of specialist courses for kids in the school holidays.
Available at selected camps, children will enjoy learning new specialist skills at Barracudas.
Tennis course!
Barracudas is partnering with Delgado Tennis who have been providing tennis coaching across the UK for over 10 years.Coding course!
Following the success of our coding courses launched in 2022, we've now introduced them to even more venues this year.
Lego Prime Coding is available at Cambridge Long Road (Sold out), Chelmsford (Sold out), Croydon (Sold out), Maidenhead (Sold out), Twickenham St Catherine's, Wokingham this summer and at Streatham for the October half term.
Micro Bit Coding is available at Horsham Millais (Sold out), Welwyn Ridgeway, Twickenham Waldegrave this summer and at Maidenhead for the October half term.
Delivered by the experts at Blue Shift Coding, these courses for 7 - 14 year old will teach children how to code and gain vital digital literacy skills.
Get full details.
Rocketeers Skills Builder course
Skills Builder courses are a firm favourite for kids at camp. These can be added to any full week booking. These courses take place each day, replacing one standard session throughout the week.
This year, we're excited to introduce a new rocket science course at selected camps.
With 5 progressive sessions throughout the week, they'll learn about the same principles that NASA and Space X use when they launch their space rockets. Group sizes will be limited to 12 children, so they’ll get maximum opportunities for learning and development.
Get full details.
Specialist soccer camp
Kids loved our football camps in 2022 so much that we were keen to find more opportunities for children to learn from the professionals!
We've introduced our specialist football camps at 2 new locations this summer with the professionals from Norwich City CSF now also at Bedford and Colchester.
Girls and boys aged 7-12 years will learn from coaches from official football club foundations in these full week courses. They'll learn skills and techniques from Norwich City CSF, Place for Life Foundation and West Ham United Foundation coaches.
These stand alone courses for children will be available at selected summer camps, with 28 places available on each course.
See our football courses.
New themed activities
Following the popularity of our end of week Theme Days, this year we're extending the fun into fun themed activities running throughout the week. There'll be a fun twist on popular favourites at camp to match the weekly theme. We can wait for the added excitement at camp this year!
See our summer Theme Days.
Each week will end with a special Friday Finale, celebrating the weekly theme in a unique way.
Kids will love being a part of something unique every week at Barracudas in 2023!
New camps
It's our aim to be able to offer as many children an amazing experience in the school holidays. With this in mind, we excited to introduce a number of new camps in 2023!
Crawley
We're delighted to have a camp for the first time in Crawley for Easter and summer 2023. With amazing facilities at Oriel High School, kids will enjoy our full range of activities. We're looking forward to a summer of fun in this new region.
See Crawley summer camp details.
Ely
We're excited to be offering bags of fun in Ely at Ely College this summer. Open for summer from 24th July to 18th August.
Ely College is the perfect venue for local parents and children. With great indoor and outdoor facilities, kids will enjoy our unrivalled range of activities.
See Ely summer camp details.
Maidenhead
Opening this Easter and summer for the first time in 2023! Our new venue in Maidenhead at St. Piran's School, offers convenience for parents and space and facilities kids will love!
With an amazing indoor pool, we'll be able to offer our full range of over 80 activities!
See Maidenhead summer camp details.
Milton Keynes
We're delighted to have secured a new summer camp in Milton Keynes. The Hazeley Academy offers fantastic facilities for us to run our full range of activities including fields, sports hall, drama studio and space for our archery range and motorsports track.
See Milton Keynes summer camp details.
Newbury
Opening this summer for the first time in 2023! Our new venue in Newbury at Horris Hill School, offers convenience for parents and space and facilities kids will love!
With an amazing outdoor pool, we'll be able to offer our full range of unrivalled activities!
See Newbury summer camp details.
Norwich (Langley Prep)
We're super excited to be opening another venue in Norwich. Langley Prep offers fantastic facilities for us to run our full range of activities including indoor swimming pool, beautiful grounds, sports hall, drama room and space for our archery range and motorsports track.
See Norwich Langley Prep summer camp details.
Other recent innovations
We consistently strive for offering the very best experience for children and parents. Here are some of our other significant recent developments.Investing in equipment
In 2022 we made a huge investment in electric go karts, replacing all our petrol vehicles. Kids still get all the fun, with less environmental impact. We can't wait to have use these again this summer!
24 hour booking system
We know things can change throughout the school holidays and parents want to make additional bookings right throughout the season.
We introduced 24 hour bookings, so even when our camps are running, you can book online where we have space. No need to call through to our customer service team, you can do this at your own convenience.
Online forms
Barracudas is committed to being ahead of the curve. Last year we developed our systems so you can access and fill in your Essential Information Form online, directly from your account.
Not only is this great news for parents, but also the environment with a dramatic decrease in paper printing!
Contactless check in
In response to the pandemic, we moved quickly to help keep parents, kids and staff safe with fully contactless check in and out of camp.
We sent individual QR codes to each booker to be scanned by our staff at registration and collection. We’re really pleased with the success of this development and parents now love our new procedures, making life easier and safer!
Parent App
As well as contactless check in, we introduced our parent app in 2021 which we’re continuing to develop.
Not only can you access your child’s booking and important information about camp on the go, you can also fill in your Essential Information form and get your QR code at the touch of your fingers.
We listen to our customers and this Easter we also provided daily timetables on our app. This summer we’re introducing accident forms to the app. We’re also looking to share camp specific promotions here this summer – definitely worth downloading!
This really represents one of our core values; innovation. All in all, we've got lots of things to look forward to at camp this summer. We can't wait to see you there!
Get more information on our contactless registration and parent app.