Imaginative summer camps for children aged 8-16 ...

We think summer is a brilliant time for being creative, so on our Make and Create Superweek at Bedstone we put time aside each day to put some music on and get artistic!

We have expert led sessions offering help and instruction with crafts you might not have seen before as well as time to yourself or in small groups to explore the kind of art that you like to make. The art and craft Superweek in other years has been quite adventurous with it’s projects – there’s been land art which ended up in the local paper, plaster casts of people, tie dying, silk painting, sculpture, clothes and bag making, carnival-mask making for a big party, making a terracotta army and lots more. You’ll be able to take everything you make home to impress your friends and family.

Bedstone’s art department is really well equipped and even has a kiln so we won’t we short of things to do. There’s loads of indoor and outdoor space for you to get creative – and don’t worry, you don’t need to be a fantastic artist to enjoy yourself, all you need is imagination!

Make and Create is for 8-14 year olds; 12th - 19th August.

The ATE Factor is an ambitious performing arts holiday at Bredenbury Court, offering sessions of singing, dancing and drama to Superweekers and building up to a Final Performance for parents and special guests at the end of the holiday.

This performance needs to be written and auditioned for. There are costumes to make, sets to create, dances to choreograph and learn, songs to practice and lines to memorise, as well as all the ATE fun and games. There wasn’t any way that was all going to fit into a 7 day Superweek so this holiday is extra long! As with all the Superweek Plus holidays, you don’t need any expertise to come on this holiday – just enthusiasm.

Bredenbury is perfect for the ATE Factor, it’s one of our larger centres, there’s loads of indoor rehearsal and workshop space, and a stage. Final Performances in the past have used the whole site (woods, fields, entrance halls, the chapel - the lot), with the audience moving between scenes – very atmospheric!

The ATE Factor is for the 10-15 year old age groups; 27th July - 3rd August.

Making use of the incredible facilities at Bedstone including the technology block, laboratories, and swimming pool, this week is designed for anyone interested in taking things apart and working out how they work, carrying out messy experiments, being set scientific and technological problems, conundrums and challenges, and wanting to know about robot and machine building.

There will be experts on site to run workshops each day – previous Young Inventor Superweekers have built mechanical fish to race in the pool, dragonflies that flap in the sunlight, and giant leaping frogs.

The workshop sessions will just be for small groups at a time so there’ll always be someone there to help you, answer your questions or engage in an engineering debate. Along with all the other strange and wacky contraptions, everyone on this holiday makes their very own Brainibot. This programmable robot moves, flashes and beeps and can be told to find the lightest part of a room.

Young Inventors is for 8-14 year olds; 12th – 19th August.

If you fancy a particularly active holiday then we can most definitely recommend Mission: Olympic at Moor Park.

As well as all the usual ATE fun and games, this holiday will have a focus on all things outdoorsy, active and sporty. So there’ll be tournaments, leagues and competitions in games and sports you already know and those unique to ATE.

There’ll be whole afternoons of tactical games in the woods where you’ll need to get camouflaged up and be at your very sneakyest.  We’ll do some of our own Bush Tucker Trials and learn about survival in the outdoors – if the weather was ok we could even make tipees and sleep outside!

Moor Park is a fantastic venue for this Superweek as it comes with woods for mornings of orienteering, countless sports fields and pitches, an indoor swimming pool, and a huge sports gym.

Misson:Olympic is for 10 - 15 year olds; 4th - 11th August.

This holiday is especially for older Superweekers. We thought carefully about where to have this holiday and decided that Bockleton should be home this year to what could potentially be some Superweekers’ very last Superweek.

TThis Superweek will be packed with as much ATE magic as is possible, and make sure that the last week of the 2009 summer holidays is one to remember. Because this is the older holiday, Superweekers will be revisiting their favourite ATE activities as well as being challenged by new ones and maybe even coming up with new fun things to add to the ATE repertoire and leave as their legacy!

This week will allow Superweekers more responsibility over the structure of the week, and will have emphasis on team building and group challenges. And because it’s at Bockleton, we’ll have to find time to squeeze in the ropes courses, zip wire, climbing wall, underground labyrinth and team challenges!

The Final Fling is for 14-16 year olds; 20th-27th August.

‘Fancy a sleepover with fellow AQUILA readers? Think you can handle a whole week of AQUILA challenges? Would you like to meet the AQUILA team?

This summer, ATE Superweeks are teaming up with AQUILA to put on a 7 day camp especially for AQUILA readers. If you get bored in the long summer holidays, this could be just the thing! We’ll be taking over Hatherop Castle for a week long AQUILA adventure. It will be all the mischief, trickery and hocus pocus of an ATE Superweek, with a never-before-seen AQUILA theme. Each day will have a different topic, just like an issue of your favourite magazine.

So we thought there could be a Spying and Code Breaking day where you’ll get the opportunity to learn about forensic science, practice finger printing, make bugging devices and solve mysteries. Or an Olympic day, with 101 games to compete in. Or an Eco day with shelter building, an expedition to the local town and measuring the carbon footprint of our dinner. Or a Space and Science day, where you get to try out AQUILA challenges alongside other AQUILA friends. We just don’t know how to choose just 7 topics from all the possibilities – if you have any recommendations or favourites, let us know! There will be challenges, making and creating, stories, brain teasers, riddles and puzzles, themed evenings, competitions, and even the opportunity to write an article to be published in AQUILA. There will be special guests calling in throughout the week – who knows? We might even meet Astra, Polly Chrome and the team!

The AQUILA adventure is for 8 – 14 year olds; 20th – 27th August.

For more info about AQUILA check out ... www.aquila.co.uk’

The Final Fling is for 8-14 year olds; 4th-11th August.

Do you fancy yourself as a bit of a chocolate connoisseur? Come along and learn everything there is to know about your favourite foodstuff! We’ll be testing chocolate, cooking with chocolate, making sweets, learning about the history of chocolate, trying sweets from around the world and having a thoroughly chocolatey time. Did you know you can make jewellery and board games from chocolate? We’ll show you how! And we’ll also be having a very special day trip .... Cadbury World, here we come!

Mum and Dad - please be assured this won’t be a chocolate free-for all! Chocolate and sweet consumption will be in line with healthy eating / dental hygiene guidelines, do call for further reassurance!

We flatter ourselves here at ATE that we are experts in all things Super so we thought it was time to share our knowledge for anyone who wants to hone their skills, abilities and powers. You'll be tutored in all things Super and Heroish - there are costumes to be made, logos to be designed, secret identities to be developed, crime-fighting to be done, secret headquarters to be brainstormed, arch nemeses to be thwarted, moral codes to be tested and unsuspecting members of the public to be saved. And it will all be recorded for all eternity in your very own Superhero Academy comic.