Last minute summer childcare with Super Camps

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Summer holidays are tough. It’s amazing to be able to enjoy time as a family. Playing outdoors, hitting the beach, theme parks, climbing trees or just watching a favourite movie. But that’s not real life, is it? So, what happens when you have to work? When you take on an unexpected contract or, quite frankly, when you can’t stand another moment of trying to keep the children entertained?

About Super Camps

Super Camps provide OFSTED registered holiday camps for children aged from 4 to 14 during school holidays. Camps are held at 83 locations around the UK, and they are totally flexible. Children can be booked into a camp for one day, a week or the whole Summer. You can book them in at the last minute as long as space is available, and wraparound care can also be provided flexibly.

Super Camps offer both multi-activity camps and specialist courses. Standard hours are 9am to 5pm, with wraparound care available from 8am and until 6pm. Multi-activity Super Camps allow children to get involved in a variety of activities that they might not usually do. From art and crafts to muggle quidditch (yes, really) to swimming and karting.

If children are very focussed on one particular area, they might prefer a specialist course. Eight to fourteen year olds can take part in Raw Outdoor Adventure, learning survival and bushcraft techniques and taking on a special mission. Children in the same age group can also undertake a five day cookery course, learning basic food and hygiene skills and going on to cook a variety of dishes.

Six to twelve year old LEGO® fans will love the five day LEGO® course with a different theme each day. From how to speed build to learning to create vehicles, everyone will pick up new skills.

Our Super Camps experience

Libby was delighted to be asked to try out the Super Camps multi-activity course at Malvern College. She was given the choice between this and the LEGO® course. Much as she loves LEGO®, we knew multi-activity was right for her. She’s an incredibly active child and the variety offered really appealed to her.

At Malvern College, the lower age limit is six, so Libby was one of the youngest in her group. However, the multi-activity group is split down further by age, so she was with six to eight year olds. She thinks there were around nine or ten children in her group, with some changes each day due to the flexibility.

Activities were drawn up on a board each morning so they knew what they’d be doing. Libby’s first day was Monday and she was spectacularly excited to be there, but also a little nervous. She knew nobody and was one of the youngest. The staff told me that she was quite quiet to start with, which is incredibly unusual for her. But with a little encouragement, she soon got going and was back to her usual chatty self.

So much so, that she was awarded a ‘star of the day’ certificate for her positive attitude on her first day. I thought this was a lovely touch by the staff, that clearly gave her a real sense of achievement for overcoming her nerves.

Libby’s thoughts on the Super Camps multi-activity camp

The Super Camps venue at Malvern College is absolutely stunning. The sports complex is new, immaculately maintained and state of the art. Other buildings around the college, along with the outdoor facilities, look like Hogwarts set at the foot of the beautiful Malvern Hills. Even the dining room is like a miniature Great Hall.

Libby came home from her camp on Monday absolutely raving about all the amazing things she’d been doing. They’d spent a lot of time in the sports hall and her favourite activities were giant cricket, shuffle ball and athletics. As a break from all the sport, she’d made two fish out of paper plates.

The second day was all about the karting. Because younger children aren’t allowed to go swimming, the six to eight year olds have karting instead. Apparently the karts are amazing and of course, Libby is brilliant at driving them. They also played ‘muggle quidditch’. No flying involved, but apparently very exciting nonetheless. Besides these, tag rugby almost paled into insignificance despite the fact that she thought it was amazing and has been desperate to try rugby for months.

Day three was water activity day. Libby was excited about this as soon as she heard that she had to take a full change of clothes because she was going to get soaked. And soaked is exactly what she got! They had a great water fight with the staff and Libby came home raving about it. Other activities on Wednesday included more karting, building clay castles and escape and evasion.

The verdict

I had thought about booking Libby into Super Camps before they got in touch to ask if she wanted to go. The only reason I didn’t is because Lia wasn’t old enough. For me Super Camps isn’t about childcare, I’m here anyway. Balancing working from home with looking after the children is tough, but it’s doable.

The reason I booked Libby in was for the opportunity it provided her with. To meet other children, experience the incredible setting of Malvern College and take part in activities she wouldn’t usually do. Would I do it again? Absolutely.

When I was a child, I went to a similar course at Malvern College for a week each Summer. It was probably my favourite week of the whole year and Libby feels the same about Super Camps. Next year, I will have the same dilemma about sending Libby. I’ll want her to have the opportunity, but I’ll feel terrible for Lia that she can’t go.

But when they are both over six, I will definitely be sending them for at least a week each year. Libby has had the best time this week and I would highly recommend Super Camps to anybody with a child who gets bored during the school holidays. She has learnt new skills, made some good friends and had an experience that she will look back on fondly for years to come.

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