21/04/2022
What we got up to at Easter camp
As the last of our Easter camps are closing for the season, we’re reflecting on all the fun we’ve had at our Easter holiday camps.
Having now entered our 30th year of offering amazing experiences for children in the school holidays, we’ve loved every minute!
With over 3,000 children per day and over 300 groups, supported by over 1,000 seasonal staff, Barracudas camps have delivered more than 3,500 individual sessions, and more life long memories than we care to count!
Here’s just a snapshot of what we’ve enjoyed this Easter:
New camps
We were excited to introduce new venues in some of our locations this Easter. Our new host school in Canterbury, St Edmunds School, proved a great location for our local customers and Presdales School is a great new site for us in Hertford. We moved to Millais School in Horsham and operated at Watford Grammar School for Girls for the first time this year. Children have loved these new sites.
Specialist Football camps
We introduced specialist football camps for the first time in 2021 and were pleased to be able to offer these again this Easter. Football fanatics got the chance to take part in a full week of fun, learning techniques and improving their skills all under the guidance of professional coaches.
West Ham United Foundation returned to Chelmsford, Chigwell and Harlow. Palace For Life Foundation returned to Croydon and we launched our Norwich City CSF football camp in Huntingdon.
Who knows, maybe this could the beginnings for the next Mohamed Salah or Sam Kerr!
Skill Zone
We launched a new kind of offering in Welwyn this Easter. Barracudas Skill Zone offered alternative school holiday activities at Ridgeway Academy.
With shorter hours to match the usual school hours, kids got the chance to take part in our 3 day cooking course, Let’s Bake as well at join us for mixed activity sessions on Barracudas Bite Size course.
New equipment
We were super excited to introduce our brand new electric go karts at all our camps this year. The kids loved taking part in these specialist sessions and we were pleased to be able to offer new, environmentally responsible equipment.
Activities
Our timetable is all about promoting an active lifestyle. We offer a huge range of activities that will always be fun, varied and built on our ACTIVE motto: Athletic, Creative, Teamwork, Inspiring, Variety, Energetic!
We had lots of fun taking part in a range of activities from sports sessions and science experiments to spring arts and crafts and scavenger hunts, as well as swimming at camps with indoor pools and our specialist sessions.
As our Theme Day Fridays are so popular, we extended the fun this year with themed activities running throughout the week. With fun twists on our already popular sessions, kids loved the new approach to firm favourites.
There were so many exciting things happening at Easter camps and our teams are already planning more fun activities and getting excited for summer!
Here’s just a small selection of what the kids loved this Easter:
Theme Days
Speaking of Theme Days, we were pleased that children and staff fully embraced our Friday dress up’s! Even Billy Barracuda got in on the act – looks like he really enjoyed our PJ’s day!
Billy’s Big Sports Day
To celebrate Barracudas turning 30 years old this year, we held a fun sports day event at our Huntingdon camp.
Earlier in the year, we invited children to name a friend for Billy Barracuda and design them a T-Shirt. We were thrilled with the entries and it was super tough to choose just 5 winners.
Billy’s 5 new friends joined him at camp on 13th April to battle it out in a number of fun races. All the kids at camp loved getting involved, cheering on their favourite character and voting for who they thought would win each race.
The atmosphere on camp was electric and we were are also pleased to have raised over £300 for Save The Children’s Ukraine appeal.
Inter camp competitions
Each season, we enjoy a bit of healthy competition! With our photo of day, session of the day and staff member of the week.
We’d like to thank all our teams for being so enthusiastic again this year.
Twickenham Waldegrave camp won overall top spot, but we had 4 other camps coming in a close (and even) second! Cambridge Long Road, Hertford, Huntingdon and Woking were worthy runners up. Congratulations to all these camps - but we're proud of everything all our other camps achieved too. Well done, all!
Charlie, at our Harlow camp won our overall Staff Member, with the Camp Manager saying:
“Charlie has been a valued member of the team who always shows great enthusiasm through every session. Children are always coming back from Charlie's motorsports and archery sessions raving about what an amazing time they've had. Charlie takes pride in ensuring everyone is happy and having fun during his sessions whilst remaining safe. Well done Charlie!”
Parent App development
As well as promising children an amazing experience at camp, we know how important the parent experience is too.
In response to COVID we introduced fully contactless check in and collection in 2021, to keep children, parents and staff safe. With QR codes used to scan children in and out, we’re pleased that our registration process is smooth and safe.
As well as this, we also developed our parent app to make our bookers lives easier. Last year this meant that parents could get easy access to useful information about their booking, camp information and parent guides.
This Easter we were pleased to respond to customer feedback and added the daily timetable feature. Parents really appreciated being able to see what their child’s group were offered for each session throughout the day they joined us.
Parent reviews
We’re only as good as you say we are. We work hard to make sure our parents and children have the best experience with us every season.
Our independent Trustpilot reviews, happily, reflect that we’re hitting the mark and delivering on expectations. With over 100 reviews being given this Easter, we’re chuffed with our Excellent rating.
Here’s just some of the comments:
The Long Road Barracudas holiday club is great. The activities are brilliant and varied, from Go Karting to yoga there is such a great mix. The staff are caring and kind. My son was going through a tricky time and the manager and the leader managing his group were so understanding and supportive. They checked in with my son and made sure he was ok so he felt happy and secure. I am so grateful for all their help. Nancy
We’ve tried all the holiday camps and Barracudas always comes out tops for us. The surroundings at Wycombe Abbey are serene and the staff are always welcoming and bubbly and seem to really love the job which makes such a difference. Most importantly our daughter comes home tired and happy and is always excited to go back the next day. The range of activities helps meaning it doesn’t get samey which we’ve found with the others. Book early because places are always in demand! Paul
Wow! My two daughters had an amazing week at Barracudas Barnet, they came home shattered everyday but smiling and full of stories about all the different activities they were able to take part in. They brought home some fantastic art work and were showing me the dance routines they learnt. The team at the desk are fantastic too. I am a working parent and it’s great to know my girls are safe and happy. Already booked for the summer holidays and told my friends to book in too. Sarah
Sent my son to Barracudas in Welwyn Garden City throughout the Easter school holidays and he has loved every minute. Coming home everyday telling me about all the exciting activities he has been doing throughout the day. Making new friends and having loads of fun.
Thank you to the team of staff that have helped create such an enjoyable experience for him. Douglas
What can I say!! If I could give a higher score I would, it's an absolute 10/10.
Wonderfully professional, fun, nurturing and above all, the most important person in all of this is my 10yr old foster son, who told me everyday he goes to Barracudas is 'AWESOME'.
Thank you all at Hayes Camp, Bromley....👍👍👍 Bridget
A big thank you to all the children, parents and staff who made this another Easter of fun and one to remember!
We're looking forward to an exceptional summer and hope to see you there!