I am involved with the PTA at our kids primary school. This coming summer we are hoping to organise an overnight camp in the school playing field. I am sure I have read on here that someone else has done this, if so, any advice etc etc greatly received.
We are in the very early stage of planning this so have a lot to think about if it goes ahead.
thanks in advance
familyof4
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It was me who organised it and it was a HUGE success. In fact I'm in the process of arranging another one this year and it is now going to be an annual event at our school.
Would love to know everything!! what you charged, what was included in price, anything that went wrong...lol, did you allow parents to bring alcohol. I think we are going to have to hire toilets as cant see us being allowed access into school, really anything you can pass on to help us set it up and organise. Did you need any licence for camping for the night.
thanks so much in advance.
familyof4
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We started off by writing to everyone in school telling them what we were planning to do and asked them to reply if they were interested in attending to give us an idea of numbers - we got very positive feedback from this.
* We charged £5 per tent (having never done it before we weren't sure what to charge but thought we'd keep the price down to attract more people)
* We had a complete ban on charcoal BBQs and camp fires (for obvious reasons!)
* Some parents bought alcohol but everyone was very sensible and NOBODY got drunk at all. It was a real family event - a couple of glasses of wine once the kids had gone to bed was more than enough for most parents.
* I organised lots of quizzes and games to keep everyone entertained - orienteering competition, a treasure hunt, 3 legged race, wheelbarrow race and the most popular one was the egg throwing competetion! There was a bottle of champagne for the winner of the adult's quiz and a box of chocolates for the winner of the children's quiz (but every child who completed a quiz sheet, regardless of whether they got the questions right, got a small bag of Haribo sweets)
* We had arranged for a catering van to come on site at teatime - the hot roast pork buns were very popular!
* We are very fortunate in that we have shower and toilet facilites that we can access without having to go into the main part of the school and also an outdoor tap for drinking water.
* Once everyone had confirmed and paid, I wrote a letter to all the parents who were coming with a few guidelines with things like arrival times, where and how to pitch, quiet times etc...
I have to say that nothing really went wrong - the only slight hiccup we had was when a mum couldn't find her son. He had gone inside another tent to play a game of cards with a friend, but it was a tense few minutes!!
This year I am planning on doing quizzes, games/races, egg throwing and also junk modelling, newspaper scultures and den building activites to keep the campers entertained. I loved doing it all last year but I was pretty much on my own which was VERY hard work - this year I've got 3 other helpers which should make life easier!!
If you want to email me, I can forward some of these thing on to you if that would help? chhelen8 at aol dot com
When we went to Beeches Farm near Chepstow last June/July there were class groups from a couple of Bristol primaries there. They had their own cordoned off area ans campfire and apparently have done it for several years.
Wish I'd thought of it while our son was at primary!
We were thinking of charging between £10-£15 per tent/family but include a BBQ tea and Bacon sandwich breakfast with tea's and coffee etc in with the price? We have been thinking about writing a set of guide lines, and probably will allow alcohol, within reason. One thing that does concern us a little in security, luckily our school and field are surrounded by fence/gates, so we can "lock" ourselves in overnight to avoid any local bored teenagers joining us, lol.
I have also found your previous thread about it, so will have a good look through that!!
thanks
familoyf4
Post last edited on 16/01/2011 11:29:39
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We were talking about this at our PTA meeting last week, but decided too much trouble. We overlook farmfields so security was an issue. Will watch this topic and might suggest again at next meet. Did you have to obtain permission from anyone? Do you need a license to have alcohol as I know we can only buy 5 per year and use those all for various events throughout yr. Did you make any profit? Lots of questions sorry but useful if want to suggest. Like the idea of organising a rally off school, might look into this too
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Various weekends, weather and time permitting
April - Yorkshire and Yorkshire
June - Wiltshire and Oxfordshire
Autumn - North and Scotland
We are a small village primary school and are almost completely surrounded by fields but everyeone felt perfectly safe. The school field has a wooden fence round it.
We did look into charging more and including food but we felt that not everyone would want to eat what we provided so we kept the price low and invited the catering van on site so people could buy what they wanted.
The Head was in charge of any relevant permissions we needed, so can't tell you exactly what we had to do.
Yes we did make a profit as it didn't really cost us much to hold the camp out - the only outlay was the eggs, champagne, box of chocolates and the sweets (think I spent less than £30) The whole idea wasn't really a money making event, it was more of a community cohesion exercise, but as it proved so popular we are repeating it again this year.
Hi you can have more than 5 licences just apply in a different name. As chair of large school PTA I apply for half and our secretary applies for half. You wouldn't need a licence for alcohol by donation or bringing own.
We do a kids camp out for the Year 6s after SATs, I think we charge £5 which includs a BBQ and cereal and toast type breakfast. We do have a campfire and we get someone in to do a tug of war.
One thing no one has mentioned - we are a town ventre school and are a fairly secure site , but we always notify the Police and I think the Fire Service.
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: school camping advice needed....
