A summer camp website parents can register from in one sitting
Parents booking a holiday camp are juggling work, siblings and dates. They need the weeks, the ages, the daily hours, the cost and enough about safety to leave their child with you. A summer camp website should put those in that order and then take a registration. Anticode handles pages, forms and payment links; it doesn't count places per week, so you confirm each one.
The weeks grid comes first
The fastest way to lose a parent is to make them hunt for dates. Show a single grid of weeks near the top of the page:
| Week | Dates | Ages | Theme or focus | Places |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Monday to Friday, with the dates | 5 to 8 | Multi-activity | Available |
| Week 2 | Monday to Friday, with the dates | 8 to 12 | Sport and outdoors | Few left |
| Week 3 | Monday to Thursday (bank holiday) | 5 to 12 | Art and drama | Full: waiting list |
Keep the "Places" column honest and update it as weeks fill. A CMS collection for weeks, with fields for dates, ages, theme, daily hours and status, lets a camp coordinator change "Few left" to "Full" from the dashboard without touching the layout.
Hours, extended care and the daily schedule
Working parents check drop-off and pick-up times before anything else. Give the core hours and any early drop-off or late club, with its cost. Then show a sample day: arrival and registration, the morning activity block, snack, lunch (packed or provided), afternoon activities, a quiet time for younger children, and pick-up. A sample day reassures parents more than a list of thirty activities, because they can picture their child in it.
Safety and staffing, specifically
- Staff checks
- The background checks your staff hold for working with children, in the terms used in your country.
- Ratios
- Staff to children by age group, and how groups are organised.
- First aid
- Who is trained, where the first-aid kit is, and how you contact parents.
- Collection
- Who can collect a child, passwords for collection, late pick-up policy.
- Medical and dietary needs
- How you handle allergies, medication and additional needs, and who to talk to before the camp.
- Registration and inspection
- Any registration or inspection that applies to holiday childcare where you are, with a link to the report.
The camp is responsible for its own safeguarding wording and regulatory status. The website's job is to state them clearly and keep them current.
Registration when each week has many places
Camp registration isn't a slot booking: each week has many places, and parents often book several weeks and siblings together. Anticode's booking calendar takes one booking per service per slot, so it isn't the right tool here. A registration form is.
A custom form tied to a site function can carry up to 30 plain-text fields: parent name, phone and email, each child's name and age, the weeks wanted, extended care, emergency contact, and a short field for allergies or needs to discuss. A formula can work out the total for the weeks and children chosen and show it on the thank-you page, along with your sibling discount if you have one. It can also refuse a registration when the age entered is outside the range, with a message pointing to the right week. Formulas only read numbers, so ages, weeks and the number of children must be typed as numbers.
The form doesn't know how many places are left, so treat every registration as a request: check the week, confirm by email, then send a payment link for the fee or deposit. A connector can add each registration to a Google Sheet or Airtable base, which becomes your register. See take class bookings online for a similar flow.
Fees and refunds
Show the price per week and per day if you sell days, what it includes (lunch, trips, a T-shirt), and discounts for siblings or multiple weeks. State the refund and transfer policy for illness and cancellation, and whether you accept childcare vouchers or tax-free childcare schemes where those exist; payment through such schemes happens outside the website.
Design for busy parents
Playful (Fredoka) suits camps for younger children; Organic (Figtree) suits outdoor and nature camps. Keep the register button visible on a phone and use photos from your own past camps, with parents' consent. Related: daycares and sports clubs.
Limits
- No place counting or automatic waiting lists; registrations are requests you confirm.
- No parent accounts or online consent forms with signatures.
- No card payments on the site; payment links from your provider.
- No file uploads for medical or consent documents.
Questions people ask
Can parents register for summer camp online with Anticode?
Yes, through a registration form that can show the total due. You confirm the place and send a payment link, because the site doesn't count places.
Can the form handle siblings and several weeks?
Yes. A custom form can have fields for each child and the weeks chosen, and a formula can total the fee with a sibling discount.
Where should safety information go?
On its own page linked from the weeks grid and the registration form, covering staff checks, ratios, first aid, collection and medical needs.