13/06/2024

Parent guide for Barracudas activity camp

Have you booked your child a space at Barracudas, or are you thinking about school holiday activities for the future? Either way, there might be some things you’d like to know about our summer camps before they join us.

From Barracudas parent experience and the activity day, to Barracudas staff, here’s what you'll want to know:

A strong history

Barracudas Activity Day Camps have been operating fun holiday camps for kids for over 30 years now. Each year we welcome over 16k children to our camps with over 222 operating weeks between our camps over summer. That’s a whole lot of fun to be had in the school holidays!

Barracudas runs holiday clubs in the South East of England. This year we offered 44 Easter camps and have 54 summer camps. We also have 15 camps running in October this year.

Making it easy for parents

Barracudas camp locations are chosen to be convenient for parents. Operating in key towns and cities in the South East, all our sites are close to transport links and public transport.

Our standard hours, from 8.30am to 5.30pm mean your children are well cared for during average working hours and our Early and Late Clubs from 8am to 6pm offer additional flexibility.

Parents can also safely and securely check their children in and out of camp with our new contactless check in. We send the unique QR to you ahead of camp via email, or you can access this in our parent app.

Barracudas parent app was also introduced during Easter 2021. Designed to offer a smooth customer experience and give you useful information on the go. The app provides you with easy access to check your bookings, complete your child’s Essential Information form, get directions to the camp, find your contactless registration details plus a handy pre camp checklist. We're constantly finding ways to make life easier for parents and have also introduced our Daily Timetables to the app. Get more details on Barracudas contactless registration and parent app.

An amazing experience for kids

It’s our promise to give every child such an amazing experience they can’t wait to come back!

Barracudas offers unrivalled activities, with over 80 options available at our camps. With 6 sessions a day and a choice for each one, they'll be sure to be doing something they love every minute they're with us!

Many of our camps have indoor or outdoor swimming pools and for those that don’t, we offer fun outdoor water activities such as aqua slide or our water parks. We also offer specialist sessions such as motor sports, fencing (at selected venues) and archery (with age appropriate alternatives for the under 7s) at our Easter camps and summer camps. Of course, these sessions are led by specialist trained instructors. We love to see children do things at camp that they wouldn’t usually get the chance to and see them develop new skills and passions.

Kids also really enjoy a mixture of team activities, sports, science experiments and arts and crafts at our camps. Whatever they’re into, there’ll always be something for them to enjoy.

Our timetables are carefully designed around our ACTIVE motto to ensure kids are always growing at camp. Barracudas has 6 main activity sessions during the day and a choice for every one. The timetables are confirmed on the morning of camp. You can see what they’re up to and chat to them about the fun they’ve had by accessing the daily timetable in our parent app.

High quality staff

Our rigorous staffing procedures and practices are just one of the reasons why we’ve been rated Outstanding by Ofsted more times than any other comparable provider.

All of our camp staff have an enhanced level DBS check. Over 70% of Barracudas staff are fully or nearly qualified teaching professionals or specialist instructors, familiar with the strict guidelines of a childcare setting.

We insist our staff have specialist qualifications for specific activities such as archery, fencing, inflatables, motorsports, swimming and the waterpark. Every staff member also needs to attend a Barracudas assessment day before they’re able to work at camp. Only after this can we be sure that they meet our high standards.

More information

We offer parents all the information they need along the way, from first glance to what to pack for camp.

Whatever stage you’re at, you can find a whole host of useful information in our FAQ’s. We're committed to keeping kids safe as well as having fun.

Looking forward to a summer of fun for your kids? Here are just 5 key benefits they’ll get from camp . What’s more camp will help to grow their confidence!

It's no surprise that with all this, Barracudas has an excellent Trustpilot rating.

Take a look at our handy parent guide for more information and tips.