Science, history, and fun: this is how school camps have been reinvented.

Nearly twenty years ago, Eva Boix took over Can Joval, a 12th-century farmhouse in Clariana del Cardener, in Solsonès, and forged a family-run summer camp project that, with 120 beds surrounded by forest and nature, offers family stays, burrows, esplais, and schools. It's a rustic farmhouse where they focus on personalized service and take care of every detail, both in the house and in the activities they offer. In the field of school camps, for several years now, they've offered themed stays and educational projects so children and young people can make the most of this break in their daily lives. It's a transformation they've also had to undergo to adapt to changing regulations in the sector, which restrict certain activities and games to avoid risks, which affects the design of these stays.

Patrícia Canut is one of the people in charge of Can Joval and explains that, previously, summer camps were organized with instructors and leisure activities complemented by specific workshops. "If a basket-weaving workshop was scheduled, an expert would be available and offer it, and the same with paper recycling or ceramics," explains Canut, who is clear that "this doesn't work like that anymore." Currently, school camps are offered that follow the current curriculum.

These days, there are children in 2nd and 3rd grade from the Escola Bogatell in Barcelona. They chose this house because they prioritized "the authenticity" of the place, and Can Joval seemed to meet their expectations: natural surroundings, instructors, and local food. As Marta Portell, head of studies, explains, the trend among organizations is this: to offer an experience that goes beyond summer camps. They understand that outings serve to foster coexistence and group cohesion, as well as relationships between people, but they also value the fact that all the activities carried out during summer camps have a common purpose and purpose, rather than being disjointed.

Thematic axes, the new trend

The example of Can Joval is an example of a specialized offering to improve the options available to schools. This is how Pep Montes, manager of the Catalan Association of Leisure Companies (ACELLEC), sees it. He emphasizes that large non-profit leisure organizations have been focusing on offering camps for years, focusing on theater, music, science, or other topics. Montes believes that "camps that cover everything" are still being found, but admits that small and medium-sized leisure companies also end up responding to the requests they receive from schools and institutes, which sometimes want to supplement the curriculum with these getaways.

Ocio y Aventura is a company that organizes camps, but does not have its own facilities. Despite this difference, they work with a similar philosophy: that children learn through play and experience. As Jordi Soguero, the school's administrator, explains, the goal is to combine physical and nature activities with other curricular content developed based on teacher demands. "Learning about types of hunting, for example, with the tools and implements they used, in the midst of a sporting activity, is a good way to assimilate concepts without sacrificing fun," says Soguero, who also emphasizes that this specialization is "very guided" by the specific needs of schools and institutes.

In this way, Leisure and Adventure has been adapting its offerings based on demand. They see that schools want "a wide range" to choose from, and at the end of each season, they analyze the feedback received from groups to rework the program for the following year. They now offer colonies on Native Americans, elves, magic, and pirates in preschool courses, while in primary school, other programs on history, the environment, adventure sports, biodiversity, and even English language immersion are gaining ground.

The training of monitors

A trend that ACELLEC has also noticed is that schools tend to increasingly request more services, meaning more activities and more hours of supervision. Montes warns that, despite the team of instructors being professional and qualified, the teaching staff should not lose ties with the camps, since the priority is to ensure continuity of the educational project. "Normally, companies provide everything they have at the schools' disposal to coordinate with the teaching teams," Montes emphasizes.

To meet these demands from schools, organizations and companies need a good team of instructors. Ocio y Aventura has stable teams of instructors in their twenties and thirties who can be available for four or five years at most. At the beginning of each season, they advertise new positions through social media, esplais, or other similar environments, and they are trained to be competent in the thematic area they develop. "There are instructors who haven't worked on the topics, so we give them demonstrations over three days," explains Soguero. Training capsules are created for each project proposal and shared with all team members so they understand the content through graphic resources and quick access. "It's about ongoing training," explains the Leisure and Adventure administrator. This training is passed on to more experienced and novice staff.

At Can Joval, they also strive to maintain a base throughout the season, with a busy period at the start of the season and another from March to June, and gradually recruit new staff based on specific needs. Moving is often an added challenge for organizations like Can Joval, but they try to resolve it through word of mouth and the "name" they've made within the sector. They're constantly reinventing themselves, says Canut, who also acknowledges that the new generations need new types of activity, and above all, more limits.