by Joe Jeffrey
Get ready for National Camping and Caravanning Week with the Camping and Caravanning Club
The Camping and Caravanning Club is challenging families and schools to get kids off the sofa and into the great outdoors for National Camping and Caravanning Week (NCCW).
NCCW is the Club’s major annual campaign to get the British public engaged with camping and caravanning, and to raise the profile of our great hobby. Its theme for 2016 is ‘Get Kids Outdoors with Camping’.
To promote this, the Club invites schools and families to try the ‘Get Kids Outdoors Camping Challenge’. An activity pack, listing 50 activities kids can undertake while camping, was sent to thousands of schools around the UK, and can also be downloaded here.
Participants could win some great prizes. Winning schools will receive camping equipment and vouchers to the value of £250 for a retailer of their choice.
There’s still time to join the fun in the run up to NCCW, and enter the challenge, whether with a school or as a family – the deadline is 13 May.
To support the ‘Get Kids Outdoors with Camping’ theme, the Club has conducted research that shows camping helps improve kids’ overall mental health and physical fitness. The full results will be published and promoted during the week-long schedule of activities.
The research findings follow last year’s NCCW, which showed that children who camp at least once a year go on to do better at school, as well as being happier and healthier, according to their parents.*
The Club will promote the theme and research findings with a pop-up campsite roadshow in England, Wales and Scotland from 30 May to 5 June.
It begins in the Midlands at Twycross Zoo, home to the largest collection of monkeys and apes in the western world, on Monday 30 May. It heads to Roald Dahl Plass in Cardiff Bay on Thursday 2 June and on to Blair Drummond Safari and Adventure Park in Scotland on Saturday 4 June.
Robert Louden MBE, director general at the Club, said: “Once again we’re aiming to get kids active and into the outdoors, and I hope many have a go at completing our Get Kids Outdoors Camping Challenge, either at school or home.
“Activities span the entire curriculum, including subjects like science and maths. Our research last year showed these ranked highly among the subjects better understood by children that camp.”
