05/08/2024
Summer camp weekly highlights
We had a great week at summer camp, with all 54 sites now open! We loved welcoming new comers and returners alike to our holiday clubs.
From specialist sessions to sports, creative sessions and teamwork activities, children have had maximum fun throughout our camps.
We were pleased to have lots of amazing indoor and outdoor facilities to entertain children during the hottest week of the year. Our water activities were a big hit in the heat, swimming sessions were popular at our camps with pools, and our inflatable water parks and aqua slides were perfect for cooling down.
We also welcomed the Ofsted inspectors to 10 of our camps last week and we look forward to sharing the results once these are published.
Weekly theme
Children and staff love taking part in our weekly theme. With fun twists on our popular activities and themed art sessions throughout the week and the main event of special celebrations with our Friday Finale.
Last week’s theme, Sports Stars, was perfectly timed for the start of the Olympics and we enjoyed lots of high energy and excitement at our summer camps.
Around camps
Children really loved cooling off on the aqua slide, with lots of fun sessions for the groups to enjoy.
The nature walk at Maidstone was a big hit with the Minnows and we enjoyed inspiring them to connect with nature and develop knowledge and understanding.
Cambridge Long Road went all out with the weekly theme and created a superb registration display as well as their own interpretation of the Olympic rings made from the hula hoops! Winning effort, Long Road!
Our other Cambridge site at St Faith’s also had lots of fun with Sports Stars, going all out with staff dressing up for Friday Finale.
High Wycombe and Wokingham both enjoyed an energetic week, with the Red Shirts leading fun sessions and developing great connections with children. Great to have such a great atmosphere on these busy camps!
One of our newer sites, Crawley, has really been enjoying the Motor Sports sessions. We loved seeing how children were helping one another with the protective clothing and helmets and enjoying fun activities whilst they waited for their turns.
A big shout out to the arts and crafts instructor at Colchester for some fantastic sessions throughout the week, including lots of clay work around the weekly theme. Children created some outstanding pieces to be proud of!
There's been a great atmosphere at Chelmsford camp. They created some amazing artwork last week and we were really impressed with their registration displays. Motor Sports was a big hit with the children. We’ve enjoyed high energy throughout the sessions at camp, with the red shirts bringing the vibe!
Barnet camp has got off to a flying start. We’ve seen some amazing Build a Fort creations and kids enjoyed fun swimming sessions, overlooked by our fantastic lifeguard, Joe.
ITV news visited 2 of our camps last week to interview parents about their thoughts on the length of summer holidays. It was lovely to hear how much they appreciated the Barracudas camp experience, keeping children active, engaged and developing in the school holidays!
Specialist courses
Last week children enjoyed developing their tech skills with Micro Bit Coding at Cambridge St Faith’s, Minecraft at High Wycombe and Roblox at Letchworth.
Photo of the day
We love sharing our moments from camp. Each day we chose our photo of the day. Last week Letchworth children reached top spot on Monday, swimming at Chigwell camp won on Tuesday, on Wednesday we chose the aqua slide at Norwich Langley Prep, Thursday was archery at Huntingdon and we ended the week with children loving Build a Fort at Bishop’s Stortford.
Session of the day
As well as our photo of the day, we have another chance to showcase our top moments with session of the day. On Monday it was a tennis session at Romford, on Tuesday we chose an archery session at Bedford, Motorsports at Newbury reached pole position on Wednesday, Ely nailed it on Thursday with this lovely creative session and we ended the week with girls cooling off on the aqua slide at Colchester.
Head over to Facebook or Instagram for our photo and session of the day along with our fun camp albums!
TikToks'
Our camps are full of unique adventures and we love to offer you a glimpse of what’s going on throughout the summer with our daily TikTok. Last week we enjoyed being entertained by Romford, Bedford and Ripley
Head over to TikTok to see more.
Instagram takeovers
We know parents don’t get to join their children at camp, so we also like to offer a behind the scenes preview with our camp Instagram takeovers. Head over to Instagram to see what we got up to last week at Chigwell, Salisbury, Ware and Twickenham St Catherine’s camps.
Staff member of the week
We know how important our staff on camp are. Each week we select our standout member to celebrate. Last week our Activity Leader at Huntingdon got top spot with the Camp Manager saying;
“Stan has shown extraordinary enthusiasm, creativity, and dedication to his role this week. Whether it’s organising fun sessions, ensuring every child feels included or going the extra mile to make sure everyone has a great time! Stan always has a smile on his face or a song to be singing. He certainly brings the vibes to camp. Stan's hard work and passion are deeply appreciated by everyone at camp”
Coming up at camp
This week we’re looking forward to our Marine Mayhem weekly theme, specialist courses including Minecraft coding at Chelmsford, Welwyn and Wokingham, and our official football camps at Croydon (Palace for Life Foundation) and Chelmsford (West Ham United Foundation).
We’ve got a very special guest visiting our Huntingdon camp. Mel Clarke, Paralympic archery medal winner will be talking to children about her experiences as part of the Path to Paris initiative. We look forward to sharing more in next week’s highlights!
Keep an eye out on our social media channels for our photo of the day, session of the day and camp takeovers and TikToks' throughout the week!