Beyond the Glossy Flyer: How to Vet a School-Holiday Gymnastics Camp

The flyer arrives in the book bag somewhere around the May half-term, usually on the same day as a cake sale notice and a plea for empty yoghurt pots. It has a photo of a child mid-cartwheel, a font that looks like handwriting, and a price that sits somewhere between a day at a theme park and a week of swimming lessons.

And so begins the holiday camp question. Do you book the club your child already attends? The one with the big inflatable and the bouncy castle on Fridays? The cheaper one in the church hall? Or the one three towns over that keeps posting videos of back handsprings on Instagram?

Here is the unglamorous truth: brochures are marketing, and price tags are not a proxy for quality. What actually matters lives in the small print, the timetable and a five-minute phone call. So let's go through it properly.

First, work out what you're actually buying

Holiday camps fall into roughly three types, and they are not interchangeable.

The childcare-first camp is designed to cover your working day. Doors open at 8am, pick-up at 5.30pm, lunch and snacks included, a mix of gym time, crafts and films. The gymnastics is real but it's one ingredient, not the whole meal.

The gymnastics-first camp runs shorter hours and spends most of them in the gym. Expect rotations, conditioning, drills and skill work, closer in feel to a training day than a holiday club.

The taster camp is pitched at children who've never done gymnastics, or who do one recreational class a week. Lots of games, low pressure, heavy on fun.

None of these is better than the others — but they suit different families. If you need cover from 8 till 6, a gymnastics-first camp with a 9.30 start is no use to you, however good the coaching. Be honest about which one you need before you start comparing.

The ratio question — and why 'plenty of coaches' isn't an answer

Ask directly: how many children per coach, and what's the maximum group size? A club that can't give you a number is telling you something.

British Gymnastics publishes guidance on supervision ratios, and they tighten considerably for younger children. For a recreational holiday camp, anything around one coach to eight or ten children for the under-sevens is in sensible territory; older groups can stretch a little, but not endlessly. If your five-year-old is in a hall with thirty children and two teenagers in club hoodies, that's not a camp, that's a creche with a sprung floor.

Follow-up question, and this one matters more: are the people counting heads the same people coaching? A camp with one qualified coach and three helpers is a different proposition from one with three qualified coaches.

Safeguarding: the boring bits that do the heavy lifting

You don't need to interrogate anyone, but these are fair questions:

• Is the club affiliated to British Gymnastics?
• Are all staff DBS-checked, including the helpers and the holiday cover?
• Who is the designated safeguarding lead, and will they be on site?
• What's the procedure if a child is injured, and is there a first-aider present at all times?
• How do you handle collection — password, named adult, signing out sheet?

A well-run club will rattle these off without flinching. One that gets vague about collection arrangements deserves a second look, because that's the bit that keeps children safe at 5.15pm when everyone's tired and the car park is chaos.

Worth knowing too: many clubs are Ofsted-registered specifically so that holiday camp fees qualify for Tax-Free Childcare or childcare vouchers. Ask. It can knock a meaningful chunk off a week's fees — and a club that isn't registered may still be perfectly good, they just can't offer that saving.

What does a day actually look like?

Ask for a sample timetable and read it sceptically. How much of the day is genuinely on the mats? If the answer is two forty-minute sessions sandwiching five hours of colouring, that's fine — but don't pay gymnastics prices for it.

Also ask:

• How are groups split? By age, or by ability?
• Do children get time on bars, beam and vault, or is it floor and trampette only?
• What happens in bad weather, or if the hall is double-booked?
• Is there a quiet space for a child who needs to step out?

That last one is worth its weight in chalk. Camps are loud, long and stimulating. A club that has thought about the child who needs ten minutes in a corridor with a book has thought about children generally.

Kit, lunch and the small print

Check what's included. Some camps provide snacks but not lunch; some provide neither and the 'snack' is a squash and a biscuit at 3pm. Check whether leotards are required (they usually aren't — shorts and a t-shirt are fine for most recreational camps) and whether hair needs to be tied back.

Read the cancellation policy before you pay. Holiday illness happens. So do change of plans. A camp that refunds nothing for a child with chickenpox is within its rights, but you should know that going in.

The money, honestly

In most of the UK, expect somewhere between £22 and £45 a day for a full-day camp, with early-bird and sibling discounts common and multi-day blocks usually cheaper than single days. A high price does not guarantee better coaching, and a low price usually means the club is running on goodwill and a student coach rota — which can still be brilliant, but ask the ratio question extra carefully.

One short phone call sorts most of this

Ring the club. Say you're considering the summer camp and you've got three quick questions: ratios, timetabling, and collection. Listen to how they answer. Warm, specific, unhurried answers are the best signal you'll get — better than any brochure. Vague ones aren't necessarily a red flag, but they're a reason to ask again.

Then book the one that fits your week, your child and your budget, and let them get on with the important business of chalk, cartwheels and being thoroughly worn out by 4pm.