Having settled back into the school year and with autumn upon us, it seems the perfect time to reflect on a successful summer programme of holiday camps. We enjoyed a fantastic summer of camps across Plymouth and South Devon, delivering fun and active days filled with sport, crafts, games and education.
Each of our 13 venues welcomed children from all backgrounds together to enjoy various activities designed to encourage a healthy lifestyle and life-long involvement in physical activity. Across the summer, we welcomed over 4000 children to our camps, with a large percentage of these places given free of charge courtesy of our partnerships with Plymouth City Council and South Devon Council, through the wider “Holiday activities and food” (HAF) scheme.
After the success of the Easter holiday camps in line with this funding initiative, we were eager to deliver holiday provision to even more areas within our local community.
A big part of the HAF programme is to provide balanced and healthy lunch options as part of the camps, with an element of nutritional education. With the help of Tamar Fresh, and a lot of hard work from our coaches, we were able to offer a variety of lunch options throughout the summer.
The feedback we had from parents and children alike regarding lunches was very positive.
Our Venues
We were lucky enough to work with many very good venues through the summer, all of whom were very accommodating. This made planning and delivering camps a smooth process. 13 venues, from Tavistock to Teignmouth, opened their doors to host our camps, each with their own unique facilities and equipment. Having the support of local schools and other leisure facilities enabled us to offer a wide range of activities and sports, no matter the weather or number of children. Camps are not only a good opportunity to learn new skills, they are also a chance to try new sports and activities that may be limited within PE curriculum.
Our Coaches
With the number of camps and venues expanding, the opportunity to grow our fantastic team of coaches was another exciting benefit of this summer. Building our team is always exciting; as a community interest company, we place great value on being able to offer employment and development opportunities. We were lucky enough to unearth some superb coaches, all with their own varied experiences and sporting knowledge. Our team included coaches with backgrounds in Rugby, Football, Dance, Basketball, Volleyball, Athletics, Boccia and many more sports. It was great to see the energy and positivity that was apparent at each and every one of our camps. Creating good role models and rapport is something we believe strongly in.
What's Next?
After an exciting and successful summer, we cannot wait to get going with our next block of camps. We are running a small number of half-term camps this October. Our main focus however, is the Christmas holiday block at the end of the school term. Plans are coming together for some seasonal activities, as well as the fun inclusive sports and activities regularly enjoyed at our camps. We look forward to continuing our partnerships with local councils, venues and providers, as well as forging new relationships as we look to expand our programme.
As always, a huge thank you to everyone who has attended our camps this year so far. We look forward to seeing some familiar faces at future camps, and hopefully plenty of new faces too!
