Frequently Asked Questions
Wellspring is committed to your child’s success. Below are some common questions we hear from families considering a summer at Wellspring. Please call anytime at 0799 965 7120 or email admissions@wellspringcamps.com for additional answers to questions. You can also click here to see more general questions about Wellspring Camps.
- When and how often will my child be calling home?
- Can students bring their iphone/itouch/laptop?
- Can I visit my child while at Wellspring UK?
- How do you decide roommates? What happens if they don’t like their roommate?
- What happens if my child gets sick? What medical facilities are there available?
- How do you deal with homesickness?
- How do you screen and select your staff?
- What if my child does not want to participate in an activity?
- When and how often will my child be calling home?
- Can students bring their iPhone / iPod / laptop?
- Can I visit my child while at Wellspring UK?
- How do you decide roommates? What happens if they don’t like their roommate?
- What happens if my child gets sick? What medical facilities are there available?
- How do you deal with homesickness?
- How do you screen and select your staff?
- What if my child does not want to participate in an activity?
Initially students have one phone call home a week and you are informed of when they will be calling by email at least six days in advance so you can be sure to be home. Once the students are settled in, phone calls become more frequent and of longer duration.
Students can also earn extra phone call time as part of the camp rewards structure.
Students also have email time each week and are encouraged to send letters and postcards home.
You can also send you child emails which they are then delivered by camp staff. And receiving mail and care packages (please no food!) is a big part of daily life at camp. You will receive information about where to send mail before your child leaves for camp
Students can bring their own cell phones to make their calls, but we do not have Wi-Fi access on the Exeter Campus. We do not recommend you bring a laptop or any other electrical item of value. Things often get lost and broken at camp and we prefer that you don’t take the risk with such valuable items.
Yes! And in fact, family involvement is strongly encouraged. The visiting weekend for Wellspring UK occurs on the Family Workshop weekend only; the date is provided in the enrolment packet. It is highly recommended that you attend the Family Workshop so that you can learn how best to support your child once he or she returns home. Your child may also go to your hotel with you in the evenings during the Family Workshop weekend if you’d like.
Students are roomed with one other student of the same sex, similar age and similar length of stay. We carefully read the information you provide and the answers your child gives to the student questionnaire in the enrolment packet and match up students of similar interests and background.
Students spend very little time in their rooms and very rarely do we have conflicts with roommates; when we do, we work to resolve them immediately. More often, camp roommates form a close friendship that lasts long after camp has finished.
All staff are trained in basic First Aid and CPR. We also have a camp nurse on-staff.
Camp staff deal with all minor first aid issues and non-emergency situations. For anything more serious, students are taken to the local clinic.
Homesickness is inevitable at some point at camp and may last 5 minutes or 5 days. It affects old and young alike. We find that keeping the students happy and busy is the best cure for homesickness and we also ask that parents maintain an upbeat and positive attitude when talking with their children. Whilst no doubt you are missing them greatly, focussing on the positive aspects of them being at camp – making friends, having fun, becoming healthier – helps greatly in enabling your child to readjust to camp life. The ironic thing is that students are often camp-sick when they return home!
We take a great deal of care when selecting and interviewing our camp staff. Our staff members have expertise in nutrition, fitness and health. We always take extensive references from former employers and also conduct thorough background checks on every staff member. We also require our staff to have clean driving records and further test them ourselves. All staff complete our mandatory staff training and we do not hesitate to dismiss a member of staff who does not meet our high standards. Our staff are role models to the campers and many return year after year for one of the most rewarding jobs in the world.
At Wellspring we never ask a student to do an activity that has not already been done on many occasions by our own staff. Our staff participate in everything from basketball to rock climbing and we always adhere to the strictest safety codes. If a student is scared to try something new, like canoeing or surfing, then we will provide extra support and enable them to participate as much as they can. We rarely have students refusing to participate because they simply don’t want to. We make sure that we make the activities as fun as possible and work with the students to ensure that we do more of the activities they like. However, you can’t always please everyone and if a student simply doesn’t like baseball then we remind them of why they came to camp and what they hope to achieve and make sure they enjoy doing the activity that comes next!
You can also click here to see more general questions about Wellspring Camps.
