Your child's day
Q: What are the arrival and collection times?
Q: What if I am delayed?
Q: How is the day organised?
Q: How will my child be grouped?
Q: How are the groups organised?
Q: Can my child be in the same group as their friend?
Q: What if my child attends camp without their friends?
Q: What are the arrival and collection times? [back to top]
Children can arrive from 8.30am and stay until 5.30pm, with activities starting at 9.30am and finishing at 4.30pm. If you would like to drop your child off earlier or pick them up later, you may book them into our AM or PM clubs, which open from 8 - 9am and between 5 - 6pm. You don't need to book both clubs (unless of course you need them!) and you can book as few or as many days in the clubs as you require, subject to spaces being available.
Q: What if I am delayed?
Q: How is the day organised? [back to top]
All groups follow our programme of six one-hour long sessions, with a choice of at least two activities each session. The choices offered are attractive to children whether they prefer sports activities or more creative ones. Children may like to have a full range of both types of activities and their choices during the week will allow for this. During the day there are two short breaks, in addition to lunch.
Q: How will my child be grouped? [back to top]
4 1/2 - 5 year olds: Our Minnows group is exclusively for the youngest 24 children and depending on the number of children on camp they are usually aged between 4 1/2 and 5, although there may be some younger 6 year olds. (Children must be 5 years old by Dec 31st 2008 to attend summer camp or 5 years old by 31st August 2008 to attend Easter camp). Most of the Minnows will be at camp for the first time. Therefore, staff are sensitive to their needs, ensuring children become immediately involved in ice breaking games and making new friends. Staff lookout for any little ones who may be a bit shy and are finding their first day at camp difficult. If your child is not settling as we would expect them to, you will be contacted immediately. Young children have a short attention span! To accommodate this and ensure they do not finish the day completely exhausted, the timetable has to be flexible for the Minnows group. The staff allow for shorter sessions, unscheduled changes in the programme, quiet periods and frequent breaks. This ensures they are constantly occupied, but at the same time do not come home totally exhausted! You may find, when asked at the end of the day what they have done, they'll reply "I can't remember!" Don't worry: they'll bring home an attendance certificate at the end of the week, which will tell you what activities they've done. Also, you can always speak to your child's Group Co-ordinator to check on their progress.
6 and 7 year olds: Our next age groups are the 6 and 7 year olds, and again depending on the number of children at the camp there may be one, two or even three groups. We always keep groups to a maximum of 24 for this age group, and keep the children closest in age together. The staff ratios on activities are still maintained at 1:8, and 1:5 in the swimming pool.
8 year olds and over: This age group will be in groups of between 25 and 30 children, again keeping those children closest in age together. The staff ratio for these children is 1:10 with the 8-10s and 1:14 with the 11+ group.
Q: How are the groups organised? [back to top]
For children to get the most out of their time at Barracudas, they need to be grouped with children of the same age. There may be anything from four to nine groups according to the size of the camp. We give the groups appropriate names such as Starfish, Piranhas, Dolphins, Swordfish, and obviously our eldest group are always the Barracudas! This age system is by far the most practical method when organising creative and physical activities. Also, as most children come to camp on their own, it is the best way for them to make new friends easily. As we sometimes take bookings as late as the Monday morning if we still have places, we don't know until a very late stage exactly what the age profile of the camp will be. This profile often differs from week to week. For example, there may be lots of 8-year olds one week, but very few the next. This means that the actual age of children in each group differs from week to week, and children attending for more than one week may be in a different group each week. Please don't be concerned by this. The system is tried and tested and works very well!
Q: Can my child be in the same group as their friend? [back to top]
If your child has a friend who is close in age (within 18 months of each other), and if told in advance, we can generally group them together (in the younger of the two children's groups). If one of the friends is over 8 and one under 8 we can group them together only if the older child is happy going into the younger group as our staff:child ratios differ for the over 8s. Please be aware that there are some activities which the under 8 groups will not participate in. You can only supply the name of one friend for your child to be grouped with. However it is likely that children of the same age will be groupe together although this cannot be guaranteed. If we aren't given grouping requests in advance it may not be possible to move children to a different group on their first morning. Groups are created before the children arrive at camp, and there are a maximum number of children in each group. If a group is full, we cannot add extra children. If there is a larger age gap, grouping children together becomes more impractical. Many of the activities are physically challenging and it is inappropriate for two children with more than an eighteen-month age gap to be grouped together. It is not usually advisable to put brothers and sisters together as generally they will be more than eighteen months apart in age. In order to put children with a wider age gap together we have to put the older child in the younger child's group.
Q: What if my child attends camp without their friends? [back to top]
Every child is encouraged to play an active role in their group. This helps them build relationships and confidence, and for the group to develop as a team. On arrival at camp children are shown to their Base Rooms, where they meet the staff who will be with them for the week. This is when the Group Co-ordinators can encourage new friendships amongst children who have not arrived with a friend.
