About Acorn
Acorn is one of the best known specialists of school and youth group travel. Established in 1982, our original purpose was to enable those working with young people to take them away from their normal environment and offer them something unique, life changing and educational. This is still the driving force behind everything we do.
Over one million young people have travelled with Acorn and we regularly get letters telling us of how much the trips have meant to our customers over the years (the most recent was from someone who travelled with us 20 years ago!). We are so proud to help teachers and group leaders offer young people these exciting opportunities, that are obviously such a source of inspiration to so many. Learning Outside the Classroom really does make a difference.
We always aim to provide a service that is efficient, personal, and above all, focused on ensuring the experience for all our groups is positive and memorable.
We are best known for our outdoor adventure camps in the UK, France, Italy and Spain. We also organise many other Educational, Ski and Sports trips throughout Europe and Northern America.
If you have a destination or specific type of trip in mind, do let us know. With a wide choice of destinations and trips available we have something to suit all interests and budgets. We can also tailor make a trip to ensure it meets all your requirements.
Widely known for offering a personal and friendly service, customers tell us they come back year after year because of how easy it is to organise a trip with us. With direct access to your own specialist tour organiser, you can be assured of our full support every step of the way. This, combined with our strong reputation and comprehensive list of accreditations means you can have complete peace of mind when travelling with us.
"I have been organising residentials for 25 years and this has been the best one ever! "
Nona, Farringdon Community College
"I would like to thank you for your help in guiding me through the whole process with such patience. You have been brilliant, always ready with an answer and help".
Claire, Southwater Junior School
"Because of you, I had the best day of my life".
Nathan, aged 8
“On behalf of the staff, pupils and their parents, thank you for the care and attention you gave to organising and managing our trip. This, our second trip with Acorn Ski, is certainly not going to be our last.”
Ibstock Place School
To speak to one of our specialists call 0121 504 2070.
We look forward to helping you plan your trip.
Safety will always be our most important responsibility
We set our standards at the highest level and never compromise and our unsurpassed Safety Management System has been developed in conjunction with RoSPA, following Health & Safety Executive guidelines.
Acorn has consistently been at the forefront of driving up safety awareness and standards in the school and group travel industry. We are assured members of the School Travel Forum, dedicated to promoting best practice and safety in school travel. All Full Members of the STF adhere to a rigorous Code of Practice and Safety Management Standards that are externally verified each year by leading Health and Safety consultants.
The STF Code of Practice provides assurances on safety provisions made by tour operators in connection with third-party accommodation, transport and visits. It is not, however intended to cover the safety of activity or accommodation aspects of adventure centres, for which an appropriate Code of Practice is operated by the British Activity Holiday Association (BAHA). Products operated by our company and which comply to standards operated by BAHA, as opposed to the STF Code, are clearly marked as such in our product descriptions.
All our procedures are in line with DfES guide 'Health and Safety of Pupils on Educational Visits' (HASPEV) and our Health and Safety policy covers all aspects of safety on your trip.
Learning Outside the Classroom
We are very proud that Acorn was one of the very first organisations in the country to be awarded the new Learning Outside the Classroom Quality Badge for its educational and skiing trips worldwide and adventure centres in the UK, recognising us as a provider of high-quality, safely managed educational experiences for young people.
Learning for life
Our adventure camps extend learning beyond the classroom, helping young people of different ages and abilities develop new interests, new skills and a new confidence in themselves and what they can achieve.
Education outside the classroom
'High quality education outside the classroom can stimulate and inspire; foster independence; aid personal and social development; and can often motivate reluctant learners. These experiences should be stimulating, safely managed and enjoyable, and contribute to meeting the needs of every child.'
Education Outside the Classroom Manifesto – Consultation Document
The importance of outdoor education is now being understood better than ever and recent government initiatives such as ‘Every Child Matters’ and the ‘Education outside the classroom’ manifesto are a testament to it.
The national curriculum & Key Stages 2-4
The nature of the outdoor experience, together with professionally instructed activity sessions, can satisfy several requirements of the National Curriculum at Key Stages 2, 3 & 4:
· Personal, social and health education
· Citizenship
· Physical Education
· Extending opportunity
Our Privacy Policy
We are committed to maintaining customer privacy and maintaining the security of any personal data which we receive from you.
We are committed to responsible data management and subscribe to the principles of data protection legislation in the United Kingdom. Visitors that purchase, promote or use our services will be asked to enter basic personal information. This information on our database is not available for sale and use by third parties, beyond the essential requirement for credit card validation during purchase. The information is used solely for our billing and payment purposes, and notifying customers and partners of future updates to our products or services. We do not receive or store any credit card information.
What are Cookies?
When you enter our websites your computer may automatically be issued with a cookie. Cookies are text files that identify your computer to our server. Cookies in themselves do not identify the individual user, just the computer used. Many sites do this whenever a user visits their site in order to track traffic flows.
Cookies themselves only record those areas of the site that have been visited by the computer in question, and for how long. Users have the opportunity to set their computers to accept all cookies, to notify them when a cookie is issued, or not to receive cookies at any time. If you choose to set your browser not to accept cookies then we will not be able to provide you with certain personalised services although most of the features of our site will still be available.
Each web page access is recorded in a log file. The contents of the log file are analyzed periodically to determine how many visitors we serve, what pages they look at most, and from where they connect. This information is not shared with anyone outside our company.
Will Acorn disclose the information it collects to outside parties?
We only pass your booking information to suppliers as necessary to fulfil your programme. Acorn may offer travel products from reputable hotel, airline, insurance, finance and car hire suppliers but we have not placed limitations on these suppliers from using or disclosing your information without your permission. Therefore, we encourage you to review the privacy policies of any such suppliers whose products or services you purchase via us.
Acorn does not sell, trade or rent your personal information to others. We may provide aggregate statistics about our customers, sales, traffic patterns and related site information to reputable third-party vendors, but these statistics will include no personally identifying information.
We may on occasion employ other companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf. Examples include promoting our services, sending postal mail and e-mails, analysing data, providing marketing assistance and providing customer services. Such companies and individuals will have access to personal information needed to perform these functions, but may not use it for any other purposes and are required to process the data in accordance with the UK's Data Protection legislation.
Your consent
By using our website, you consent to the collection and use of this information by us. If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page so that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances we disclose it. Your personal information may also be used by us and our affiliates to notify you about important functionality changes to our website, new services and special offers we think you'll find valuable.