Heathfield Day Summer Camp

It’s for girls aged 7 to 15. Heathfield started its own Summer Camp for local girls so they could enjoy the high quality activities and sports that we were already offering to overseas students on our International Summer School (ISS). Over the years more than a thousand girls have attended the camp, many returning year after year and bringing sisters and friends with them. Returning students receive a 10% discount from their second year. Day girls arrive between 08:45 and 09:15 when activities start. An Early Morning option with Breakfast is available at 08:00. At 5:30 girls are collected and signed out by parents or can take our Late Stay option until 6:30.

Heathfield’s teachers offer the girls a fun-packed and educational daily program, balancing creative, artistic and sporting skills. Campers are grouped together according to age and move together between activities. There’re different programs for junior and senior groups.

Girls enjoy the opportunity to spend time as a day girl and as a boarder. They can stay from one day to four weeks. But residential stays are for a minimum of one week. Each Thursday afternoon we invite parents to an exhibition or show to see what the girls are doing. The exhibitions include cookery, art, craft and photography in weeks 1 and 3, and in weeks 2 and 4, music, dance and drama shows take place. Two or three afternoons a week girls mix with the students from the ISS and take part in sports and games.

There’s an hour’s lunch break. Our dining-room service offers a great range of hot and cold dishes.

Have you heard about “Survival Holidays”? It is for children to go into the lonely place for exciting activities. Now about 1, 100 companies are allowed to take children into the great outdoors without their parents.

The reason why people like “Survival Holidays” is that they think being close to nature is good for children. Many children in big cities spend all time watching TV and playing computer games. “Survival Holidays” gives them an important change.

Is “Survival Holidays” a wonderful idea? Maybe it is. Children need more free time to play. They need to be left on their own, without adults disturbing(干扰)them. Parents care too much about their children. They like to see the children being busy with activities that are controlled(控制)by adults, which causes many problems. Children don't know what to do when they are in danger. Even something like crossing a small river seems to be a hard challenge. Children are not comfortable with danger. Even slight danger like getting their feet wet or falling down seems very terrible to them.

Many people think the survival activities are good for children. Even years later, they will still remember what they have learned. Some have learned to stay calm in dangerous times. Some have learned how to keep safe. Others have learned how to work in a team. All these skills will help them a lot in their lives.

When 16-year-old Violet Brill looks out her window, she doesn’t see only grass and trees—she sees a great meal. Her father, famous plant expert Steve “Wildman” Brill, carried her along on his foraging(觅食)tours from the time she was a little girl.

In the past decade or so, a renewed interest in foraging for edible(可食用的) plants has begun to appear—an interest that has truly blossomed recently.

“I think we’ve had a lot of time to get outdoors, and look around,” says Adele Nozedar, author of Foraging for Kids. “There is rapid growth in foraging in the past year.”

Kids are natural-born foragers. Take them out into the woods and they’ll happily gather fallen leaves, or root around in the undergrowth for hidden treasures. Foraging is definitely a gateway to nature. Kids learn quickly that it’s not just a bunch of green stuff outside. All those plants have a purpose.

And by encouraging a love of nature, foraging also encourages a love of the environment. “Having a strong connection to the land means you’re more likely to protect it,” says Dave Hamilton, author of Family Foraging. “And you can’t get much more connected to the land than eating from it.”

Plus, foraging brings good news for parents of picky eaters: When kids search for and pick their own food, they’re more likely to be invested in it. Foraging for wild edibles encourages kids to try new, nutritious foods—especially kids who tend to turn their noses up at the vegetables on their plates.

For instance, Hamilton remembers taking a group of boys camping and asking them to gather enough lambsquarters for dinner. They came back with three days’ worth of the greens, which he turned into a pesto(青酱).

“They absolutely loved it,” he says. “There’s something empowering about finding your own food, especially for kids.”