These continue to be difficult and distressing times for us all. As an experienced childcare provider we have looked in detail at ways in which we can continue to operate in order to not only keep children happy and healthy and enhance their well-being during this unusual time. But also to help support key workers and parents return to work during the school summer holidays.
For summer 2020, we will only be offering Day Camps at 2 locations.
In order to operate, we have put in place safety measures to conform with Government guidance and advice, allowing children to still participate in our activities whilst maintaining their safety, and the safety of others.
This of course has meant some significant changes to how we will be operating for summer 2020, which we ask for your understanding and patience with.
Please also note that camps we are offering during summer 2020 are subject to change, dependent on the Government directives on Covid-19.
We will be sure to keep this website and customers informed of any changes as and when they occur.
In line with Government directives, we will be operating slightly differently to normal. Firstly, activity groups will be separated by age, these will form “bubbles”. In each bubble will be 8-12 children along with a member of Xplore staff who will stay with the group.
The children will remain together in their bubble for the whole week, participating in the same schedule of activities as one another. Xplore staff will endeavour to keep children apart and will constantly remind all campers within their bubble that they must still remain 2 metres apart, however we ask for your understanding that especially with young children this may prove difficult to uphold at times but all efforts will be made.
During group activities, equipment will also be separated by 2 metres. Other activities that are ‘individually’ based may require a member of Xplore staff to come within 2 metres in order to check safety equipment such as (but not limited to) buoyancy aids, harnesses or helmets. In these instances, Xplore staff will be wearing PPE and trained in applying and removing this safely.
We will continue to review government guidance for educational and childcare settings to ensure what protective measures are required to ensure a safe experience for children, parents and staff, these are subject to change as restrictions are eased.
For 2020, only a whole week (Monday to Friday) can be booked for day camps.
This is to ensure we are following government guidance on being covid-secure and to ensure easy track and trace should any symptoms occur amongst our campers. Each week, the campers will be split into small groups or bubbles, and will stay together during the entire week following the same programme of activities rather than the whole camp interacting and mixing together, each and every single day. The problem with allowing new bookings on a daily basis is that we would then be unable to track who potentially came into contact with who; whereas by closely monitoring small groups, we can contain any transmission to a small number.
We are also taking preventative steps to ensure no body with any signs or symptoms of Covid-19 are on-site, but bubbles and asking parents to only book a week at time strengthens this protection even further.
Morning drop off/ sign-in and afternoon pick up/collection times will be staggered by age group in order for us to manage and maintain social distancing for our parents. This approach will also help to avoid queues getting too long and prevent age groups mixing
We kindly ask parents to support us in upholding these times.
Sign-In
Ages 8 to 11: 09:10 – 09:30
Ages 12 to 14: 08:50 – 09:10
Ages 15 to 16: 08:30 – 08:50
Collection
Ages 8 to 11: 17:00 – 17:10
Ages 12 to 14: 17:10 – 17:20
Ages 15 to 16: 17:20 – 17:30
Each Monday, on the ‘first day’ of camp, parents will be asked to complete a ‘symptom checker’ for their child/ren attending. This form is designed to audit all children in our care to ensure safety for all.
Our Camps and high-contact areas will be cleaned thoroughly and regularly.
Increased hand washing and sanitising for children throughout the day, before and following each activity.
All equipment will be cleaned at the start of the day and following every activity session. In addition to this, we will aim to minimise sharing of equipment between children in the same bubble.
In instances where sharing is required, our instructors will clean and disinfect shared equipment frequently.
Please do not bring your child to camp. Instead call our Head Office on 01449 742700 to let us know your child will not be attending.
Please see our booking T&C’s for more details on cancellation due to illness or Covid-19.
We will ask every parent upon arrival on first day at camp to complete a ‘symptom checker’ form to ensure that no child under our care has had any signs of Covid-19 symptoms prior to attending our camps.
If a child shows any Covid-19 symptoms whilst in our care (high temperature, new continuous cough), they must be sent home, Government
guidance should then be followed.
If another child has shown symptoms and been sent home, we will notify the other parents with children in the same bubble. There is no need to remove or cancel children from camp who have not shown any symptoms.
More information can be found in our booking terms & conditions
Kit list can be downloaded here
We recommend wearing comfortable, weather-appropriate clothing that doesn’t matter too much if it gets muddy or wet, layers are a good idea and it is always best to bring a change of clothes, just in case (including socks!) Trainers or shoes with a good grip and that covers the whole foot are best, wellies or sandals are not suitable. Waterproof raincoats for wet weather, sun hat and sun cream for hot weather. Water bottle – we will ensure lots of breaks throughout the day to make sure this is filled up. Please make sure all items have your child’s name clearly printed inside. There is no need to bring any electrical items or items of high worth – it is likely that you won’t get time to use them and we would hate for anything to get broken or lost!
Unfortunately due to Covid-19 restrictions at the host schools we take over, we are unable to provide lunch for 2020.
All those attending Day Camps will need to bring a packed lunch with them.
In an aim to protect those with nut allergies, we operate a nut-free policy and ask all parents to refrain from packing any nuts or nut products in their child’s lunchbox.
COVID-19 UPDATE
We will be unable to move any child between groups/bubbles, this is for the safety of your child and the safety of others to prevent potential transmission between groups.
We can offer some flexibility (ie. a more mature 11 year old joining the 12-14 year old group) but this will be at the camp managers discretion as we will have staffed the activities according to the age of the children we are expecting to attend and to allow us to operate with correct staffing ratios.
We are Ofsted registered as a provider of childcare on on-domestic premises on the voluntary part of the Childcare Register.
Our Ofsted setting reference numbers are:
Camp Finborough: EY386593
Camp Pangbourne: EY2591582
Camp Taverham:
If your child is at Day Camp, please call Head Office on 01449 742700 and we will speak to the relevant member of staff at the camp.
We endeavour to offer the opportunity for all children to attend camp however this can only be achieved if we have the correct information about a child’s needs upon booking. We would appreciate it if you are able to let us know if there is anything currently affecting your child so we can better meet their needs and help them interact with others.
It is the responsibility of the parent(s)/guardian(s) to fully advise Xplore of any disability, social or behavioural problem that the child has or recently had which might affect them or others during their time with us. If your child has additional needs, we are happy to discuss how we can accommodate them at camp.
However unfortunately, Xplore is unable to provide 1:1 support for children with additional needs. We are happy for children with 1:1 support to join us if this can be organised or provided by the parent/guardian, however Xplore cannot take responsibility for children and carers following Covid-19 guidance.
We also reserve the right to not accept a child in our care if full information about medical or physical conditions or behavioural matters is not provided at the time of booking or they are deemed incompatible with the well-being of the camp and others.
Safety is fundamental in the activities we provide and our extensive list of external accreditations and internal safety processes ensures activities only pose a ‘perceived’ risk. Each activity session begins with the issuing of appropriate safety equipment and the safety briefing.
For all activities, the appropriate safety equipment is provided for all participants. For example, harnesses or buoyancy aids.
Our equipment standards are high, and a logbook system is in place to monitor all safety-critical items.
You can see a full list of activities that are available here
We monitor our bookings constantly and adjust our staffing accordingly, however we can reach capacity and can get fully booked in which case the option to book will be removed from our system.
If spaces remain, booking availability will stay open until Thursday evening/ Friday morning before the week you wish to book. The reason for this, is to allow us the Friday to organise programming and staffing for the following week.
For example, bookings for week commencing Monday 17th August, must be made by 9am Friday 14th July.
By booking you verify that you have read our T&C’s, please could we ask that you make yourself familiar with them. Please click here to read a copy
