My Seasonal Camps
Hello everyone,
I have had a lot of emails regarding the post I put up about the summer camps I run. I am sorry I couldn’t reply, I had a busy weekend. So here’s your questions answered:
First of all, if you are running camps to make money, then you may be disappointed! I didn’t make a penny the first time I ran a camp. I made a loss if anything. This is my third year organising and running camps and it is only now that I am turning a slight profit. Remember if you are setting up your own camp, you must have insurance! It is so so important. It’s just not worth the risk of not having it. Children can be very accident prone! There is a huge amount of hard work involved when you run it yourself, but if you genuinely love working with children it’s worth it and it’s very rewarding and fun! Just be prepared for the workload. These are some of the questions I received:
1. Do we need to have insurance?
Yes! It is not even that expensive and there’s a lot of providers to choose from. It would be no more than 5euro per child usually. If it is a sports camp it may cost more insurance wise however.
2 Where do you hold your camps?
I hold mine in the local hall. You can also use the local school I’d imagine. Remember you have to pay for the premises too, it is quite a big expense, though it depends on each individual hall. I have been quoted from 15 a day to 50 a day!
3. Are there many overheads involved?
Yes unfortunately! There is the insurance, premises, and supplies. Don’t underestimate the cost of the supplies and materials. Take for example paint. You’ll need to buy the primary colours at least. Then there’s the paint brushes, which for a decent set can be surprisingly expensive! You will also need table protectors, and paint bibs. That’s just for one activity. I use a lot of recyclable materials but you’ll always need to buy the ususal googly eyes, fabric and fibre supplies, paper plates, glue, scissors, crayons etc. Remember you’ll need enough scissors and glue for a whole group of children!
I also bought jigsaws, play dough, PE equipment, building blocks, puppets, small world toys, colouring books, farm sets, costumes for drama, instruments for music and so on! I spent A LOT but you’ll always have the stuff for other camps so I didn’t mind.
4. What do you do with the children?
I do a range of subjects, usually art, music, PE, drama and science. I think it’s important not to focus on just art, even the children who love art will tire of doing it all day every day!
5. What do you charge?
That’s completely at your own discretion!
6. How do you advertise?
I put posters in the local schools and shops and through facebook.
I hope that helps and answers your questions sufficiently! Good luck if you set one up!
Valerie
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