Will holiday camps run this Easter?

*UPDATED 24/2/21*

We are delighted to confirm that our Easter holiday camps will go ahead after the UK Government rubber stamped guidance for out of school childcare settings as part of the recent roadmap to recovery.

As it stands, holiday camp providers can run in Easter providing care for children as long as parents meet a certain criteria. Here’s the Department for Education statement…

“As set out in the COVID-19 response spring 2021 guidance, from 29 March, and in line with when schools close for the Easter holidays, out-of-school settings and wraparound providers will be able to offer:

• outdoor provision to all children, without restrictions on the purpose for which they may attend
• indoor provision to:
  • vulnerable children and young people
  • children on free school meals, where they are attending as part of the Department for Education’s holiday activities and food programme
  • other children, where the provision is:
    • reasonably necessary to enable their parents and carers to work, search for work, undertake education or training, or attend a medical appointment or address a medical need
    • being used by electively home educating parents as part of their arrangements for their child to receive a suitable full-time education
    • for the purposes of obtaining a regulated qualification, meeting the entry requirements for an education institution, or to undertake exams and assessments” (see: Guidance for parents and carers of children attending out-of-school settings during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak)

This guidance allows Activate Camps to operate both indoor and outdoor provision over the Easter break to all children as long as parents meet the specifications listed.

Our Easter programme will once again be adapted from the true ‘normal‘ of camps to ensure we offer a COVID-19 safe environment for all including socially distanced activities, small groups and maintaining school bubbles where possible.

Last year, with minimal guidance provided for holiday camp providers in the run up to the summer, we decided to adapt our programme in to 90-minute sessional sports coaching so that we could deliver a safe, fun and ultimately permitted product. As we developed towards October half term in 2020 we became increasingly confident that a full 9.30am-4.30am childcare camp could be delivered safely without compromising on quality.

You can see below the steps we took in October to remain safe. An updated Easter safety guide will follow once we have confirmed our processes.

As we know by now, the landscape is ever changing, so to ease fears and “what ifs” we are dedicated to offering a COVID Moneyback Guarantee that will provide a FULL REFUND (or credit note if preferred) for any holiday camp cancelled due to any changes in COVID guidelines that impact our ability to run a camp or the school’s ability to host us.

We can’t wait for Easter and the opportunity to engage children in much needed physical activity, social interaction, creative challenges and much more that is involved on our amazing camps!