Campus Projects

Hippocampus

Hippocampus is a day project for 6-11 year-olds and 12-13 year-olds with special needs. It runs over 5 weeks every summer. With a helper to child ratio of 3:4, and only 12 or so children, the project allows a great deal of individual adult attention, which the kids love. The morning is spent on site, playing games, doing craft activities and cooking. In the afternoon the children are taken swimming, horse-riding, and, on the last day, to Camelot Theme Park, before returning home for dinner.

Residential Project

Aimed at older children (8-13), and running concurrently with Hippocampus, Residential Project takes place out of the city, though within easy driving distance. The 30-odd kids are divided into 6 groups by age and sex, and there is a busy timetable of activities, from canoeing and horseriding to skiing and swimming. The site is chosen to allow for plenty more running round afterwards, with space for football and a bouncy castle, as well as a craft room for the quieter kids. Evening activities whisk everyone away again for campfires, barbeques and fish & chips. Each week climaxes with a trip to a theme park such as Alton Towers.

Winter Project

Between Christmas and New Year, each week of kids from the summer is invited back for a day of this reunion project. Campus takes over a site somewhere in Liverpool, and bewildered helpers are deluged with 30-50 kids a day – any experienced helper who might know their names is welcome, new helpers hang on for dear life! The morning is spent on site, the afternoon either swimming or having a party.

Young Helper Project

Every year, we are impressed by how much responsibility some of our 13-year-olds demonstrate. Rather than simply waving a fond farewell as they grow too old for Residential, we bring them back, and teach them how to become Young Helpers. Only a couple of summers after leaving themselves, it is amazing to see them taking care of the younger kids, often keeping them far more firmly in check than any adult helper could manage!

Older Kids’ Project

For those who do not become Young Helpers straight after leaving, if at all, but who we feel would particularly benefit from another year of Campus, we run OKP in late May / early June. A high helper to kid ratio and greater flexibility in the activities – the kids always have a choice of 2 – lends this a very different feel from any other project. At an often difficult age, the children still relish the opportunity to run around madly, or just sit and chat with their favourite helpers.