The first of our Barretstown events is coming up at the end of the month, Saturday June 29th.
Barretstown have said they hope to kick off at 7pm so have asked that we be on site by 6:30pm. If we aim to leave Ballymore Eustace by 6:20pm all should be fine.
Due to increased health and safety Barretstown have asked me to make you aware of their rules. One of the rules states every person must be wearing a safety belt but I rang Barretstown just now to explain that many of these old VWs do not have belts so that's fine, we can ignore that one. The below may look like a lot but for anyone that has been there before they are just normal rules.
Safety Guidelines:
At Barretstown we have a duty to adhere to safety guidelines and best practice to ensure all children who come to camp are supervised and safe at all times.
The following guidelines give an overview of our policies and procedures for any car group who are interested in supporting Barretstown by donating their time and services.
- Visitors on site: to adhere to our child protection policy all visitors on site must be accompanied by a staff member for the duration of their visit to camp. Drivers of cars/ visitors will always be with a staff member in the car, and we ask that drivers inform staff if they need to go anywhere else aside from designated routes/ areas on camp grounds.
- 2 adult policy. At Barretstown all public providers of activities must adhere to our two adult policy. This means at least two adults, when in the company of children, must be with a child or group of children, at all times. This policy is strictly enforced on camp and ensures the safety of both the child and the adult. If taking campers on a drive through camp, 2 adults must be present in the car at all times; one adult can be the driver of the car, and one a Barretstown staff member.
- All cars need to be able to accommodate an adult passenger along with one or more child passengers. Children and adult passengers must have one seat each. For example, for safety reasons we cannot have two passengers trying to share one front seat.
- All cars are to remain in camp grounds and follow the designated route. The route will be advised when the group arrives at camp.
- All staff and campers are required to wear seatbelts during the drive.
- The onsite speed limit of 20km/hr must be adhered to at all times.
- Smoking. Barretstown is a no smoking site. Smoking is only permitted at the designated smoking area. (smoking shed beside the car park.)
- Language, conversation and songs must be kept ‘camp appropriate’ for the duration of your time at camp. This means keeping conversations child friendly. This means no foul language and avoiding inappropriate conversations with campers. For example: conversations involving alcohol, violence, topics of a sexual nature, and asking direct questions to a child about their illness.
- Clothing must be kept appropriate. i.e. no slogan t-shirts or pictures of anything that would be regarded unsuitable for wearing around children.
- Photography at camp. Due to respecting the child’s right to privacy and adhering to child protection policy; staff, volunteers, or any guests on site are not permitted to use their own personal camera to take photographs of children. Personal cameras can be used to take photographs of the grounds, but no children should be present in the area where photographs are being taken. This policy is strictly enforced on camp and staff will approach anyone they notice who may be taking photographs of children with personal cameras.
- Barretstown does not take responsibility for any damage to personal property brought on site by public providers.
- Guests with drivers; due to all guests having to be accompanied by staff at all times it would be a huge help if a group could inform Barretstown of the number of guests they will be bringing on site. If additional guests are accompanying the group on site (spouse, children etc.), we ask that these guests are also made aware of the guidelines included in this document; particularly in relation to photography and being accompanied on site by a staff member.
