So far, we have held five SuperTroop holidays, all hosted by Fettes College, Edinburgh.

What do we do on the holiday?

Our week-long holidays are hosted in Dalmeny boarding house at Fettes College, an independent boarding school in central Edinburgh. This is a modern, accessible building with dorm bedrooms, shared bathrooms and lots of relaxation space.

Our holidaymakers stay on campus, sleep in dorm rooms with their peers and 1:1 helpers, and eat meals as a group in the refectory. Fettes provides high-quality and accessible residential facilities, catering for the week, and facilities such as outdoor spaces, swimming pool and sports hall.  

We welcome 16 children and young people with learning disabilities to our holiday week. A main aim is to give our holiday-makers a chance to try new things. This year, trips out included The Yard, East Links Family Park, Gravity Trampoline centre, Fountain Park Ten Pin Bowling, The Raeburn, and Blair Drummond Safari Park!

Our staff are all volunteers. We recruit Fettes pupils, plus group leaders and senior helpers from the local community. Our volunteers attend training through the months leading up to the holiday and stay on-site during the week. Our team put huge amounts of energy into supporting children, and ensuring the highest standards of personal care, and developing innovative communication supports so everyone could express their needs and thoughts.

A parent of one of the young people wrote a heart-warming blogpost about our first ever holiday.

Future holidays

It is early days for our little charity.  However our goal is to expand our activities to provide multiple holidays at a range of locations across Scotland. Holidays may be hosted at boarding schools, and staffed by pupil volunteers - this is a model which has proven very successful elsewhere. We would also like to think about providing breaks in other locations with specific resources - for example giving young people from urban centres a chance to visit the Scottish Highlands.