As we start making our final preparations for our holiday camp next week, I’ve been reflecting on over a decade of running camps at the school.
We first started our partnership with The Elmgreen in Easter 2012 when we ran our first ever sports camp with just 3 coaches, myself included. It’s incredible to think of all the coaches who have worked there over the years and the thousands, yes thousands of children who have walked through those doors.
Last year we welcomed over 2800 to our camps and this year we have the goal to increase participation by 30% across our two sites.
I believe that we offer incredible value at our Elmgreen camp. The facilities are fantastic and particularly for our soccer camp, which will now be taking place on the brand new 3G astro turf pitch. However it is our staff and our approach that separates us from other camps locally.
When I set up that first camp back in 2012, the vision was to provide a safe, welcoming environment for local children in the Tulse Hill/West Norwood area where they could learn new skills and develop their sporting capabilities through the influence of familiar faced coaches who taught them PE in their schools.
10 years later that remains the vision and a realistic aim. At present we work at lots of the local primary schools near to The Elmgreen; Julians, Elmwood, Paxton, Kingswood, St Judes, Orchard, Dunraven, Richard Atkins, Sunnyhill teaching PE to the children at those schools.
For those same people to then coach at camp, provides the children with even better outcomes as they are known and understood by our team.
We also want to make sure that those children continue to develop and improve through the provision at camp and as outstanding practitioners, hugely experienced delivering PE across the national curriculum, they are incredibly equipped to do so. Of course the way we coach at camp is different to in schools but it is still with a focus on highly active, developmental and engaging activities.
Due to the re-surfacing of the 3G astro this summer, we had to take a break from The Elmgreen but we’re delighted to be back this October half term and hope to see lots of new and of course all our regular attendees too.
– Rob Wilkinson, Director
Moving Matters