Next Thing Education Ltd. Avis 

Awful!

My son has come away from the camp with nightmares and ongoing anxiety as he was given a VR headset with in person sniper fighting with blood effects. He is 8.

5 year old children were in this group as well.

I have complained to the company about serious safeguarding issues, no signing in or out, inappropriate content etc. No response.

The school counselor has had to get involved to give my son support.

Equipment not charged, played on tablets all day so had to entertain themselves with tag. Too much help needed by younger children that any other children didn't get a look in.

They have been reported to Ofsted.

We read the reviews, have benefit of the doubt, worst decision we have ever made. Avoid completely.

First time hoping to send my child to a Tech Camp in Berkshire.

The camp was cancelled a week before my child was due to attend. A 20% discount was offered to transfer to another venue (not appropriate) but no recompense for not accepting that unhelpful offer.

Of course there are no spaces left at other venues, at this short notice.

Bad first impression-NextThing Education. Perhaps this is why local parents don't book their children a place on your camps.

Edited to add: two weeks on and three emails and a call later, I am yet to receive either response or money back.

My 3 children (9,6 and 6) had a brilliant time at camp - this is their favourite one out of the (many!!) we have tried and the only one all 3 have loved - result! They raved about the activities and the club leader was incredibly welcoming and loads of fun. Felt assured as a parent they were in safe hands and enjoying their day.

Great to have the kids occupied, but the VR Headsets whilst 'guaranteed' when asked by specific email did not materialise at all during the week.
In addition, my son said that some of the equipment and games were broken.
Overall, very disappointing, and when asked for a refund (just for one day, at least!) I've been ignored.
On the plus side, the organisers there, though young, seemed to keep things under control.

This is just childcare with access to minecraft and lego. Keep your child with you and save £300 for a better use.

We barely did anything we were supposed to do
Coding no
Minecraft engineering no just chucked us on tablets
Lego engineering only once
Laser tag no
We wasted £300 for this good for nothing camp the only thing it's good for is for the vr that you can only have 4mins on

I have to say I'm really disappointed with this tech club. I shelled out £150 thinking my kids would learn some cool tech stuff but all they did was play games! If wanted them to do that I could've just let them stay home and play for free. It's such a rip-off. They didn't learn anything and it's nothing like what they advertised. Save your money folks. Avoid this place like the plague!

Dreadful misadvertising. Just childcare with no tuition and very little tech. The headsets, stop animation and coding never materialised and on Friday lunchtime all activities were removed. Kids were offered colouring instead!! Absolutely nothing was learnt so it's a waste of money, a waste of some valuable time with my son (I had taken leave but the tech camp looked good) and a scam, presumably to secure HAF funding from LAs for the free child places they offer.

The best holiday camp you could wish your children to go to. My son has additional needs and the camp are so caring and considerate towards him. Nothing is too much trouble, and the activities they put on for the children is outstanding. Wouldn’t go anywhere else. Colleen

Booked our 11 year old son onto the so-called Tech Holiday Camp at Stamford Junior School run by nextthing education for 4 days this week. Quite simply a complete waste of money and a con.
To show what a rip off it was, the flyer advertises the following activities and in the 4 days my son did the following:
Media Madness (e.g. Green screens)- not done at all
Minecraft Engineering - done every day
Rocking Robots - not done at all
3D creations - not done at all
Virtual Reality - done on two occasions
Curious Coders - not done at all
Ingenious Inventions - not done at all
Expert Engineers - did some lego with motors on one day
Tech Fun - not done at all
Why would I pay £200 so my son can do minecraft everyday. He could have stayed at home and done that for nothing.

Clearly, as they run during school holidays they run a number of camps at the same time in different locations. Based on our son's experience they obviously don't have enough kit to go round so some camps are so basic it's embarrassing. To advertise this as a Tech Holiday Camp is disgusting. Also, the organisers didn't seem to be very tech savvy.

The camp covers 5-11 year olds and all the kids were together. This age range is far too broad. The kids should have been split up into age-related groups. Then the older kids could do activities more appropriate to them (like coding) and the younger kids likewise. Instead my son was doing activities in groups with 5-year olds who were homesick and he was having to try and look after them.

So don't believe any of the hype you see on this company's website and socials pages where children seem to be coding and using robots - our son's experience was the complete opposite of that. You've been warned, this company's offering is a farce and a con.