Registered
Childcare Vouchers Accepted
We run very specialist courses that need a great deal of preparation, equipment, technical facilities and expertise. Tech Camp is not set up to provide childminding.
We sometimes get asked why our prices are so high compared with something like a summer childcare programme put on by a school. We try to keep our courses as low-priced as possible, and for what we offer our prices are among the lowest in the industry, but what we put on is very expensive to run. Some of the factors that make courses like ours expensive include:
An average 1:6 ratio of staff to students, and a maximum of 1:8
Hiring facilities with individual computers for each student, for most courses
All the take-home kit, like the robots and gadgets campers make, always included
Only the best young tutors, skilled in both the tech and teaching it, and trained extensively
If you are comparing our costs with something like a multi-activity camp, they typically have none of these costly complications. They also don't usually have to develop their own course materials intensively each season to keep up with technology: teaching a child to paint or play football doesn't change much from one year to the next.
We are a small private organisation and make minimal profit, but being private means we are charged commercial rates to hire classroom space from schools, and usually have to pay thousands of pounds for a single location for a couple of weeks. When schools run a summer childcare session themselves, they already have their own facilities, so don't need to add in these commercial hire rates. Many schools also run these at a loss, partly for their own students to attend.
Being a small organisation that generates little profit, we have limited ability to fund many bursaries ourselves, but we do try to help some students each year who couldn't otherwise afford to come. Lots of people ask for help, so we usually commit to funding any subsidised places we can offer very early in the year.
Does the provider charge extra to hire computers on top of the course fees? Many do. We don't.
Do campers take home, say, the robot they've built, so the learning can continue? We do. Most don't.
A few suggestions that might help.
Do you have childcare vouchers with your job? You can use them to pay for our courses. Details are emailed when you register for an event.
Would smaller regular payments every month help? Some parents set up regular payments to make budgeting easier.
Ask to be put on our last-minute waiting list, and email us again 7 days before an event starts. We can often offer discounts for unfilled places, but only from a week (at most) to a couple of days before the event begins.
We may be limited in what we can do with subsidised places, but if you explain your situation we may be able to offer a small discount, even if all our official subsidised places are taken.
Every year we run occasional shorter, cheaper courses, and people on our mailing list hear about them first. We also often share low-cost or free events that others run.
If there's no way you could afford it even with a small discount, do send us a message explaining your circumstances, and we can explore other options to make it more affordable.
We may be able to put you in touch with organisations set up to help in these situations. Some we work with have provided greatly subsidised places at Tech Camp for young people who couldn't otherwise afford to come.
One we have worked with closely over the years is the Potential Trust, who offer bursaries to help children with high potential come to events like ours. Please check their website for the support currently available.