What to expect
- Separate dormitory accommodation for up to 24 girls and 24 boys. With provision for adult carers in separate adjacent rooms.
- Fully equipped kitchen and dining room, complete with catering services (provisioning, menu planning, cooking etc) if required.
- Large indoor sports hall suitable for a wide range of ball and other games.
- Extensive sports fields
- Comprehensive selection of indoor and outdoor sports clothing and equipment.
- Superb heated open-air swimming pool, with adjacent shower rooms and clothes drying facilities.
- Large well-equipped indoor activity centre and separate area for smaller study groups.
- Play chalet exclusively for younger children.
- Harvey Centre offers flexible and fully self-contained accommodation for up to 34 children and their carers, including kitchen, dining and relaxation areas.
- Small arboretum, nature trail and play areas.
- Barbecue terrace and extensive seated relaxation areas.
- On site maintenance staff available as required.
- Coach and car park.
What you can do at Barton
Nature Trail
The Trail is designed to help Key Stage 2 children develop a better understanding of a part of their world, about which few of them may have direct knowledge, and gain awareness of nature, outside and inside the classroom. The Trail covers the entire 7 acre site, on which there are 8 locations. Each is explained in the Teacher's Pack, which should be downloaded as there are no hard copies available.
There are numerous copies of the Children's Pack, which with the other items ( plaster of Paris for making plaster casts of animal tracks, plastic bugs for a Big Bug Hunt, etc. ) you might wish to use, are stored in the filing cabinet in the Staff Room overlooking the swimming pool.
It would be very helpful if you would complete the Nature Trail Report Form, and leave it in the filing cabinet; your comments and suggestions would be welcomed. The Nature Trail was funded by a Sustainable Development Grant, administered by Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Download Barton Camp Kids V3 (PDF 4.9mb)
Download Teachers Pack V2 (PDF 2.2mb)
Wild Life Hut
The Wild Life Hut is situated at the very top of the field above the swimming pool, and overlooks the track leading to the peak of Wavering Down. There is seating provided, and the best time to see some of the many roe deer, badgers, foxes and rabbits who frequent the area is either very early morning or dusk. Buzzards, kestrels and other birds can also be seen, but it is essential to keep as quiet as possible. The key for the hut is kept in the key safe behind the kitchen door; when leaving, please lower the observation shutters and secure, and do not let unattended children use the hut.
The Wild Life Hut was funded by a Sustainable Development Grant, administered by Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and was erected with the assistance of the Vale of Wrington Rotary Club.
Living Willow Maze
The Maze is half way up the field above the swimming pool and was planted in 2008, thanks to the generosity and efforts of the Vale of Wrington Rotary Club. It consists of 2 tunnels, an open space with a bench giving excellent views of the surrounding countryside, and 2 enclosed domes. The willow grows very considerably every year, and the branches are then woven into the sides, the roofs of the tunnels and domes, making it completely enclosed.