How to choose a summer camp
There are lots of summer camps around the world. We couldn’t find a figure anywhere but considering there are over 12,000 in the USA alone, we’re guessing at least 25,000! How an earth do you decide which one to pick? We have come up with five things you should research whilst choosing the perfect summer camp for your children...
Safety
Safety is our number one priority and we hope it is every other camps in the world too. Everything we do is risk assessed before, during and after. Our staff are trained in many different areas from Quad Biking to First Aid to ensure your children are in the safest hands during their stay with us.
All our staff team also undergo Safeguarding training before our campers arrive. For us, this is the most important part of training as we have a duty to protect our staff and your children. We cover topics such as how to safeguard yourself as a member of staff, what to do if a campers comes to you with a disclosure and we use real life case studies to demonstrate to our staff where negligence caused devastating effects to the vulnerable.
Questions to ask:
- What are the staff to camper ratios?
- Does the camp have exclusive use of the site?
Location
The beauty of residential summer camps is that once you are there, you are there until the end of your stay. If you are from the UK, you might want to consider driving time or taking advantage of our transfer services – do we offer an airport transfer from an airport close to home or are you London based and want to use our St Pancras pick up? If you are coming from further afield, then it’s worth checking we can collect from the airport your plane will be flying into...
Lots of summer camps are in rural areas. They are the perfect place to get away from city life and breathe in fresh, country air! All of our camps are in stunning locations, some more rural than others. Each camp boasts it’s own unique facilities. XUK Activity is surrounded by rolling hills with an onsite lake, XUK English is closer to town but has incredible on site facilities such as state of the art classrooms and a dance studio and XUK Excel is the home to a 500 seat theatre and on the doorstep of the Rive Wye.
Questions to ask:
- How can we get there?
- What facilities are on offer?
Programme
Different camps offer a variety of programmes – a range of activities, academic lessons, English lessons and add ons. Our three residential camps all offer different programmes. XUK Activity offers multi activities, XUK English offers fun, interactive English lessons and activities and XUK Excel is our specialist activity camp.
Have a look here for more details of their differences!
People
You could have the most stunning venue with the most outstanding facilities but without great campers and staff, camp just wouldn’t be the same! We are very proud of how international our camps are and our campers come from all over the world – last year from 60 different countries! Lots of our campers attend international or bilingual schools so a high level of English is spoken amongst the campers.
Our staff come from a range of background and that is what makes the team so successful. We have university students, qualified teachers, sports coaches and plenty of returners who take annual leave from their ‘real world’ jobs. It’s not easy to get a job at XUK Camps. After a successfully application form, interviewees go through a four hour interview proving their skills to us! Every member of staff is checked against the Police Bared List and has an enhanced DBS check.
Questions to ask:
- Where do other campers come from?
- How are your staff employed?
Recommendations
Find out which camps your friends children have been to. What did they love about the camp?
We are proud to say we are highly recommended by the Tutorful Education Experts.
So there you have it – if you want to find out more about the specifics of our residential camps, give us a call, drop us an email or speak to us on our LiveChat, we love talking to families!
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