Frequently Asked Questions

Yes - as long as there is space on the course you want to swap too, then this can be done.  Contact the office who will check availability, do the swap for you and adjust any costs the change may cause.

We aim to make cancellation as easy as possible.  Please see our payment terms to check your eligibility and then contact the office who will be able to help you.

Not generally - most of our courses are designed for complete beginners to those with experience, but check the course detail page to check.  The staff ratio makes sure that both beginners and experienced campers all get the best from the course.  All we ask for is a genuine enthusiasm and interest in technology, coding and engineering.  Have a look at the courses page with your child to see which general type of courses might suit - coding, engineering or game design!

At Tech Camp we find that a few campers with an interest in technology are also on the autistic spectrum, and parents worry about them feeling comfortable and “fitting in”. Our Senior Management Team has many years’ experience working with such campers and we aim to support specific needs on an individual basis. Our tutor ratio and training enable us to do this – but it is important that these needs are advised and discussed in advance so that tutors and other staff are aware of any particular requirements.

Often, we find that being surrounded by other campers who all like the same things reduces anxiety, improves self-esteem and is a great self-confidence boost!

Not for most courses but do check the course description carefully as it will tell you if this is the case.  We run small group sizes, so are usually able to cater for beginners and expert coders alike.  All we ask is they have a genuine interest in learning about the course they are taking.  We always recommend giving campers a say in what course they do as that generally leads to the highest-quality of engagement and enjoyment.

We aim to ensure that Tech Camp is as accessible as possible and many campers with a range of disabilities have attended.  Please call the office on 01183805678 or contact us so we can discuss any individual needs with you.

An 8-year-old can attend a course, so long as they are turning 9 in the calendar year the course is running. The same principle applies for other age ranges on advanced courses that are for ages 11-17  or 13-17.

We are an OFSTED-registered childcare provider. Further information about the OFSTED registration system can be found on their website

Our OFSTED registration number for Winchester Tech Camp is EY489833
Our OFSTED registration number for other non-residential Tech Camp venues is EY489806

Yes you can - simply contact us and let us know which course, venue and week you are interested in and we can let you know.

Yes you can - once we have allocated tutors which usually happens a few weeks before camp.  You can contact the office to find out.  Make sure you are also on our mailing list and follow us on social media as we sometimes have "meet the tutor" features.

Campers have used their experience at Tech Camp as part of the "residential" element, or as part of the "acquiring a new skill" element of a Duke of Edinburgh award.  It helps if we know this in advance so we can ensure that the Tutor/Manager complete the documentation required at the end of the course before the camper leaves.

Please contact us if you wish to use your Tech Camp course as part of a Duke of Edinburgh submission.

After registration on the first day, older campers are able to arrive and leave on their own if you select 'Can arrive/leave by themselves' checkbox at registration (or let us know in writing later and we'll update this for you). They must sign in/out with the Camp Manager when they arrive and before they leave each day.

If campers are doing the same course and are of a similar age then they can be in the same group.  Simply note this under "other info" when you make a booking.

If you have already made a booking, then log in and add this information to your booking under "other info".  If you need help, then contact the office who will be able to add this for you.

We have some flexibility regarding the versions of courses - generally if the camper is close to the age break point and/or has already gained the relevant knowledge then undertaking the senior version rather than the junior is not a problem, as long as the tutor feels this is appropriate after assessment on the first day.  If in doubt contact us to talk to the Tech Team in more detail.

We recommend not missing a day, as the courses are designed to last for the whole week and each day generally builds on the last, so missing a day would impact how much the camper would get out of the course.  However if a camper misses a day due to sickness for example, our ratio of a maximum of 8 students per tutor means the tutors can help them catch up. It does vary between courses and in many courses missing the last day is easier than missing one earlier in the week as campers are often working on their own projects by then or consolidating what they know. Feel free to contact us for advice if it looks like this may be unavoidable.

Parents or carers are generally not able to stay on site at any of our venues after registration. If there is a need for medical reasons then please contact us.

For non-residential campers there is the opportunity each day to speak to staff and daily updates are sent out for residential campers. There is the opportunity for all parents and carers to see what the campers have been up to on the Friday of the course, from 3.15pm.

Parents of some overseas students choose to stay in Winchester for the duration of the course as Sparsholt College is easily accessible by bus or taxi from the Town Centre, which is a cultural and historic city.

Tech Camp is not a conventional sport or "multi-activity" camp - but we encourage as much outside (and social!) activity as we can during the breaks (and during the evenings at Residential Camp) and this varies by venue based on the facilities available.  Games such as frisbee, football, Jenga, and chess are available and encouraged by the venue manager after lunch.

You can easily add yourself by simply inputting your email here.  We only usually send out monthly newsletters and you can easily unsubscribe at any time.  We never pass you information on to a third party.

You can bring you own laptop to Camp - but this is not required or necessary.  At non-residential venues there is no wi-fi.  Some older residential campers sometimes bring their own laptops to residential camp (where there is wi-fi) but this is not necessary.

We don't recommend repeating a course, as although the hardware may have changed, the course content covered may be similar.  Sometimes however, campers have good reason for repeating a course and we can accommodate this - we suggest you contact the office to discuss it further with the Tech Team.

Sure - just drop us an email at the end of the event and we'll create one for you and email it through so you can print it yourself.

Possibly, but we go to great lengths to put all of our information on our website. Technology changes so quickly that are courses are always being updated, so we find it best to keep the latest information on this website.

We pride ourselves on building skills and knowledge through practical projects, and most of our courses involve taking things home – from a functioning 3D printer to a new computer game. There is often access to follow-up activities and online links too! Please see the individual course pages for details on exactly what campers take home after each course.

No. Absolutely everything is provided on all of our courses, including computer facilities.

At most of our non-residential venues, campers bring their own lunches.  At Winchester, food is provided and we can cater for pretty much any diet, allergy or religious requirement, but do send us an email if you want to check.

Our residential weekly camps are only available at Sparsholt College, Winchester, where you can also attend as a day student.

Our non-residential weekly camps are also available at other venues.  Click the venues menu above to see where we are running camps in the coming season.

You can log-in here using the email and password you registered with.  If you have forgotten your password then you can easily reset this.

We want everyone to enjoy the camp in a productive and safe environment. Our staff ratios and experienced camp managers usually means that issues are diffused promptly.

If there is an issue within the classroom we have a strict procedure. Tutors will first let the disruptive child know that their behaviour is not appropriate and call the Camp Manager, so this is noted.  If the issue persists it will escalate to the Camp Manager who will decide on suitable intervention. We don’t want to exclude anyone, but if a camper is disruptive, damaging equipment or consistently behaving inappropriately we would exclude them and contact the parents of the camper concerned.

The Camp Manager at each venue reports daily to the Camp Director, who is made aware of significant or recurring issues.

We are pleased to see this increasing year on year and is reflected in our increasing number of female tutors, which was over 35% last season. The number of girls varies by course and ranges from 10% to over 20%, but there is always the chance that no girls may register for a particular week. There are usually slightly more girls on our residential courses and they are all roomed together with female staff.

We can help in the office and let parents know which courses/weeks have girls, and what age they are when parents want to book.

About a week before camp starts parents are sent an email with detailed joining instructions, which includes the direct contact details for your chosen venue.

You can also find contact details in the Parents’ Guide for Residential Camps and the Parents’ Guide for Non-Residential Venues (scroll down to “Communication”).

Winchester - lunch and snacks are included for day campers. All meals and snacks are included for residential campers.

All other venues - please bring a packed lunch (and snacks if you want!)

There is only WiFi available at residential camps. Although it goes through the college's filtering system, please note this is designed for students aged 16+ and we cannot supervise campers individually in their rooms so if you don't think your child may make the right decisions about what to do on the internet (or when to use it!) then we recommend not sending them with a device.

We are generally happy to allow juniors to undertake the senior course as long as the tutor is happy after assessment on the first day, or if this has been discussed with the Tech Team in advance.  If you wish to discuss this further then do please contact the office.

We can usually help with spares and technical advice.  Please contact us with what you need or what has broken - or call to talk through a technical issue and one of the team will help.

for many children on our camps it can be the first time they have been away from home for more than a day or two. Please see the homesickness page for more information.

Please see the relevant Parents' Guides on the Info menu for in-depth information about the running of our camps.

Our student to tutor ratio is never higher than 8:1 and averages 6:1.  We rarely have groups with more than two tutors (meaning no more than 16 students are in most classrooms).

If you have not fully paid for your course, then you will receive a reminder 28 days before camp starts.  Then about a week before camp starts parents are sent an email with detailed joining instructions, which includes the direct contact details for your chosen venue.

There is more general information in the Parents’ Guide for Residential Camps and the Parents’ Guide for Non-Residential Venues.

Each camp has a manager – usually an experienced teacher and always first aid qualified and DBS checked. The manager is contactable throughout the day.  Head office is also available to deal with any further issues that may arise.

Yes - if they are doing the same course.

We can certainly help you.   We have used a local taxi company - Wessex Cars for many years. There is more information here.  If you still need assistance, then do contact us.

Overseas students often need a letter confirming the dates/course booked and the residential details in order to support their Visa Application, and this varies by country.  We can certainly help with this (but not with the Visa Application itself) - just contact the office.

Campers do not need to sit a language test or produce a certificate to attend a course - but these are technical courses and not language courses. We recommend campers have a level of around B1 to make sure they make the most of the course.

It's very unlikely as we plan our events around 1 year in advance.  At our Winchester venue, we've never changed the dates.  If you are looking to come to another venue, do feel free to drop us a line and ask us if you need any more assurance.

Yes! Most of our equipment is relatively small and can easily be packed safely in a case travelling in the hold rather than as hand luggage.  We suggest that international campers bring a large case that is not fully packed with personal items and we will make sure that the car/drone/laser taggers/robotics kit are safely packed.

The largest item is the 3D printer.  If you are travelling home after camp on a flight or by rail, we will help you pack up your printer for transport. You will need an extra standard hand luggage size case.  We suggest packing one inside a large case on your travel to camp - the minimum size for the printer is 53cm x 38cm x 20cm.  We will help campers safely pack the printer for transport

If you are travelling on a train or otherwise can't take your printer home fully assembled, it can be packed down into the cardboard box it comes in for you to take home.

You will be able to access the assembly instructions after the course to help you put it back together again.

During a season we would expect to have visitors from several countries, primarily at our residential camps, but around 90% of our campers are either from the UK or native English speakers.  

These are technical courses so overseas students need a level of English of around B1 or equivalent.

Yes - you can log-in easily with the email and password that you used to register on the Tech Camp site and check the balance owing and make an on-line payment with a card.  You will be sent a balance reminder email 28 days before the course is due to start, but you can log-in and pay at any time.

If you prefer to ask a question directly, check availability or make a payment over the phone then either contact us or call the office on 0118380 5678.

Yes you can - either with vouchers or card payments and transfers.  

You can log-in easily with the email and password that you used to register on the Tech Camp site, check the balance owing and make an on-line payment with a card.  You can make a bank transfer using your child's surname as a reference. If you log into your voucher account to pay with childcare vouchers, then please also use your child's surname as a reference and follow the instructions in your booking confirmation email.

If you prefer to ask a question directly, check availability or make a payment over the phone then either contact us or call the office on 0118 380 5678.

A deposit of £50 per course is required to secure your place.  This can be paid on-line with a card, via bank transfer, or using childcare vouchers.

We accept vouchers from all major providers.  You can pay for some or all of your course with childcare vouchers or using the new Childcare Choices Scheme.

Make your booking and at checkout choose the option to pay using vouchers. This will reserve your place, but not take payment.  You will receive a confirmation email with the relevant details to enable you to log in to your provider’s site, and make a payment using the camper's surname or the individual reference number shown on your booking confirmation as a reference.  You should not need any other information. When that payment credits our account (it usually takes a day or two) receipt will be confirmed via email.

If you are unsure - then do contact the office.

Click on the 'My Bookings' link at the top of this web site and login.  You'll be able to see your outstanding balance and pay via credit card.  If you'd like to pay using childcare vouchers or electronic transfer, you should have details in an email that was sent when you checked out the first time.  The Email has the title 'Tech Camp Booking'.  If you can't find it, just login and checkout again.

You can log-in an make a payment at any time, but you will be send a reminder 28 days before the event starts.  This payment can be paid on-line with a card, via bank transfer, or you can phone the office on 0118 380 5678 and payment can be made with a card over the phone.  You will be sent a payment confirmation.

If you are using childcare vouchers details of the codes you need for your provider will be in the confirmation email you received when you booked.  When the transfer hits our account, you will be sent a confirmation.

You can always contact us.

If a course is full, we don't officially run a waiting list as we find that rarely people drop-out of our courses.  However there is sometimes a chance someone may or that we may be able to increase capacity, so feel free to contact us.

We are a small organisation so struggle to run anything for free - our courses are highly technical and quite expensive to put on.  However we do usually let people know of other tech events for kids, some of them free, in our monthly mail-out.

We are limited in what we can do, but we usually support a number of campers each year.  We suggest you first have a look at our Pricing & Discounts page for further information.

Unfortunately our events are not cheap to put on, but we try to keep the prices of our courses as reasonable as possible rather than to artificially inflate them and then discount places.  For more information on pricing and discounts, have a look here.

If you have a discount code and have not yet booked, then type in the code when prompted as follows:

If you have already booked you place and not used your code then contact the office who can apply this retrospectively

They vary depending on course, location and length, but generally start at around £600 per week for non-residential campers and around twice this for residential campers.  Pricing varies by course as some courses have no consumable fee (game design for example), whereas others (like drone racing or 3D printing), involve some expensive take-home equipment that can add up to £250.  We realise there are many cheaper options if you're up for a week of entertainment in the summer holidays, but that's not what we're about.  We want to make a lasting effect on young people and inspire them to be tomorrow's engineers, designers, inventors and makers, which is why we always include high-quality equipment and supplies that are taken home after the camp finishes so the learning can continue.  To find out a more accurate cost, have a look on our Event Calendar and Booking System.

Yes, we can add this retrospectively - contact the office who can help you.

There are no formal daily updates from non-residential venues - although the manager and tutors are available for you to talk to each day of course.  Do like us on Facebook, and Instagram as managers post regularly during camp.

At residential camp each morning we send out a detailed email (usually with a secure link to the previous days’ photos) to all parents.  We try and capture a visual snapshot of the on-camp activities

There is more general information on our Communication Policy in the Parents’ Guide for Residential Camps and the Parents’ Guide for Non-Residential Venues (scroll down to “Communication”).

For summer residential events, you can book the escorted service from and/or to London Waterloo either when you first book - or subsequently if the need arises.  There is more information here.

If you have already booked your tech camp place and wish to add on a train transfer - then please contact the office who will be able to add this to your booking.

All residential campers have their own study/bedrooms and bathrooms in “houses” as Sparsholt College is a residential Sixth Form College. We can however locate similar aged friends and siblings (of the same gender) close to each other. Please make a note of any friends you wish your child to be roomed close to under “other info” when you book.

Our "menu" of evening activities at residential camp are always a highlight.  There is more information (and a brief video you may find helpful) here.

Please see the Residential Camps Parents' Guide for a suggested packing list.

On the first evening (in the summer, normally a Sunday) the campers settle in, unpack and start with a fun evening of different icebreaker activities, usually involving an "engineering challenge" of some sort. This gives time for everyone to get to know each other before the courses start on Monday, and allows our many overseas campers to arrive in good time so they don't miss anything on the Monday morning.

If arrival on the Sunday is particularly difficult, it is possible for a residential camper to arrive on the Monday - please contact us in advance of the camp starting however!

It's possible but unlikely as we plan our events around 1 year in advance.  Do feel free to drop us a line and ask us if you need any more assurance as we can usually let you know if it's a possibility.

Perhaps, but normally we suggest showing your child the courses and find out what interests them the most.  Learning is the most deep and meaningful if children are highly engaged in what they're doing.  We try to make all our courses highly engaging, but it's even better if they're coming to a camp that they chose themselves.  You may like to see all our courses here and look at the bar graphs .  These give a quick visual indication of how much Making/Designing/Coding/Electronics/Skill-building a course has, which often helps narrow down the options if your child has a particular interest.

Planning a new event takes a lot of time and organisation - we normally have our venues and courses planned around a year ahead.  We sometimes look for new venues, so do make a suggestion if you think you're missing out where you are!

We normally run a camp at Easter, but only at our Winchester venue.  This is where we try out our new courses.  Whilst we try to make our courses appear simple for the students to follow, they are highly complex to organise with thousands of components being shipped to various venues around the UK, and many highly-skilled tutors joining us, so we run our main events in the UK summer holidays.

Not currently, but we may in the future.

We normally run a camp at Easter, but only at our Winchester venue.  This is where we try out our new courses.  Whilst we try to make our courses appear simple for the students to follow, they are highly complex to organise with thousands of components being shipped to various venues around the UK, and many highly-skilled tutors joining us, so we run our main events in the UK summer holidays.  This is normally in July/August.

I'm afraid not. Our courses normally involve a huge amount of hardware and skilled people being in the same place at the same time, so we concentrate on week-long courses in the main UK school holidays.

All of our courses are normally a full week because we like to give the campers a variety of experiences and have them leave with an in-depth understanding of the topic (and normally with their own equipment they have built during the event).  We have occasionally run shorter courses and sometimes recommend weekend tech activities to those that receive our monthly mail-out - we suggest you sign-up to receive this.

We send out information about this in the 'week-before' email.

You can also find timings in the Parents’ Guide for Residential Camps and the Parents’ Guide for Non-Residential Venues.

We send out information about this in the 'week-before' email.

You can also find timings in the Parents’ Guide for Residential Camps and the Parents’ Guide for Non-Residential Venues.

Most of our courses are designed for complete beginners to those with experience.  The staff ratio makes sure that both beginners and experienced campers all get the best from the course.  All we ask for is a genuine enthusiasm and interest in technology, coding and engineering.  Have a look at the courses page with your potential camper to see which general type of courses might suit - coding, engineering or game design! Also look out for the 'Suitable For' info at the top of each course.

They vary from season to season. You can always see our complete list from the 'Venues' menu above.