“My teen had a great time here and came back with lots of knowledge and loads of things to do at home afterwards. They felt well included and their support needs were met. I had regular correspondence with the camp about any issues and it was very reassuring to see the photos each night also. The only reason it's 4 stars not 5 is for the pre-camp communication, which was all a bit last minute for people travelling a long distance needing to make arrangements many weeks in advance. The actual camp experience was 5 stars, but I have to include the slightly stressful lead-up when we weren't sure what was happening. If you are local or driving there, 5 stars indeed. With earlier pre-camp communication to let people make hotel and accommodation bookings, that's the 5th star.”
Thanks for your review and really glad he had a great time.
We do set all our dates, times and arrangements in stone at least a year ahead to give parents all of the information they need to plan travel and include a link to this detailed guide (https://www.techcamp.org.uk/info/parents-guide-to-residential-camps) in the emails that go out when you book, when we request the balances (around 28 days before) and also in the 'week before' email.
I wonder whether an email or two might have gone into your spam folder or similar. We do everything we can on our end to minimise this chance but it's always a possibility unfortunately with some email providers.
“My son had an amazing time for his first time at Tech Camp. He was so busy with all the activities and they ensured he had plenty of fun and fresh air. I was a bit worried about him staying over but they settled him in so quickly. He said everyone was super friendly and made friends quickly. His tutor Luke was fabulous. The food was excellent. Thoroughly recommend!”
“My daughter has been going to tech camp at Winchester for a couple of years now and loves it. She gets to spend time with other kids who like the things she likes and comes home with something awesome. She had built a 3D printer, made laser guns, and a racing drone. This is proper tech and she learns loads while doing it. The sparsholt campus is lovely and each child has their own room if they are residential which is perfect for any kids who need some time and space for themselves to recharge. The camp managers and staff are lovely, knowledgeable, and great at sharing their interests and excitement with the kids.
It's particularly great for kids who maybe don't enjoy more traditional holiday camps so much and would rather spend their time geeking out alongside their peers.”
“My son enjoyed Tech Camp and making his 3D printer. However, he would have got more from the course if the tutors had lead the teaching sessions, rather than students listening to online lessons. Also, he got bored waiting (sometimes hours) for things to print, so perhaps having other activities available through those times would enhance their time at camp. It felt isolating for him at times.”
Glad to hear he enjoyed the camp. Unfortunately 3D printing is a slow process but the course is designed so they are always able to design the next project whilst waiting for a previous one to print. If they choose to print something very large it can indeed take some hours to print. This is why we're one of the only camps worldwide where each camper builds their own printer rather than sharing them in the class. Unfortunately there's no faster way to run a class, but we do show the campers how they can speed up their prints as much as possible with techniques like customising the infill and changing the print mode.
We do indeed use an online learning platform for the classes (as well as interactive sessions with the tutors every day to make sure it's as lively as possible) and some students do find this quite different from school if they're used to having the teacher always teaching from the front.
We realised after seeing this comment in your review that it would be helpful to parents to have a detailed page on our teaching style and why we do it the way we do, so we've added it here: https://www.techcamp.org.uk/info/teaching-style We've developed this over 15 years to enable all students to progress as fast as they can when we're dealing with some very high-tech projects and a wide experience base from the campers, but it definitely did need an explanation on our web site so thanks for flagging this up. There are already quite a few interactive sessions in the 3D printing course but we'll see if we can incorporate any more in our post-Easter review.
