Running events with childcare...
Finally, the teachers can all stop emailing me. An event on during the school holidays!! As I always say to people who say “mid-week events?”, not everyone works M-F, 9-5 and if they do they can just take a day off. As a former teacher I’m painfully aware they are the exception to this! I know the next lot of emails I get will be telling me that “I’m away then”…!!!
There is more to it than just an event in the holidays for teachers tough. This is going to be an event with on-site childcare for 4-13 year olds. So if you’ve got younger school age kids you can bring them to the forest, they can have a fun day in the forest and you can run! I’m really excited about this.
Firstly, don’t worry, we aren’t just letting kids roam the forest alone with a map and a packet of Hula Hoops. Acorn Nursery run an incredibly popular Forest School at Salcey Forest from 08:30-16:00 throughout the holidays. The child care aspect of it is 100% being dealt with by them. On the day you’ll drop them off and then have time to sort yourself out and register with us. Once you’re done you can grab a coffee, sort yourself out a little then pick up your tired children and all drive home having all had a great day!
I’m very excited about this! Childcare is often seen as the biggest barrier to female participation in ultra running and the summer holidays can be especially difficult. I’m hoping that this one day in the middle of the holidays will give some respite during the holidays and an opportunity to get out and run while your children enjoy the forest.
This does require some planning on your part however. Entries for the Big Bear Challenge will be open if you’re reading this. On the entry form I’ve added a question along the lines of “will you be applying for childcare?”. This is so I have an idea of numbers and can let Acorn know. They only have a maximum of 20 places available to us however. They will give me around a months notice as to when they will be opening their booking system before anyone else. This is likely to be in late May. I’ll then give you more prompts in the build up. You will then have 1 day to book your child(ren) on to their session. The day after it’ll be open to the public and will sell out (they normally sell out the whole summer in hours). If you haven’t signed up to the Big Bear Challenge you won’t be given the special site/codes to get the childcare. You need to sign up to the Big Bear Challenge first and then secure the childcare.
If you miss out on childcare for any reason you can transfer your entry, or get vouchers, as you can in any event up to 7 days before the event, this is no different to any other Big Bear Event. However, if you sign up to the childcare and then decide you can’t run you will not be able to get a refund on your childcare (at least not via Big Bear anyway!)
I think this is a great set up. I’ll likely be brining my own kids down too as I’m the one responsible for them during the summer holidays (hence why I don’t normally have events on!). It’s not cheap, £38 per child a day, but it’s not sitting around for 7 hours with colouring books either. I can only see the speed at which they sell out as evidence it’s good and value for money. I trust the other parents!
As the event is during the holidays it should be noted that no children are allowed to “hover” or be dumped at HQ however short your run is or however lovely your child is. I’m not doing childcare! The minimum age for running is 13, however the parent needs to be on site if not running and sign a disclaimer. There will be distance limits for different ages too in line with UKA/TRA regulations, please check the event page for those limits.
Any points I’ve not covered do ask – I’m keen you have all the info you need to be confident in booking up!