The Idea summer camp encourages children to follow their interests through play

At Ireland’s first academy of creative play children are given the freedom to explore their subject of choice, says Margaret Jennings.

MOST Irish children aged eight to 12 no doubt skipped their way out of the school gates when the summer holidays began, so the idea of spending a week learning more ‘stuff’ shortly afterwards, should be a total turnoff.

This is not the case however, for the 150 children who have vied for a place on the five-day Idea Camp, described as Ireland’s first academy of creative play, which runs for two separate weeks at Dublin Institute of Technology from July 4 and which encourages learning through creativity.