STEAM and adventure summer camp at Petersburg, Connemara

Mornings belong to STEAM. From ten to one students work through hands-on workshops in science, technology, engineering, art and maths: AI model building, robotics, coding, music tech, stop motion animation, science experiments, entrepreneurship, 3D scanning, modelling and printing, website design, movie making, rockets, micro bits, and solar, wind and hydro projects. No particular level of maths is needed - the academy accepts all levels and abilities, and groups students by age. The approach is building and discovery first, with key concepts explored through practical work rather than lessons at a desk.

The weekly residential rate covers tuition and workshops, accommodation in the campus dormitories, all meals, adventure activities and team sports, evening social events and night supervision. A non-refundable deposit secures a place and the balance is due before the season. Students staying more than one week keep their accommodation and meals over the weekend and join a full-day excursion on the Saturday between weeks. The school offers a special discount - ask us for details.

Students sleep on campus at the Petersburg estate. Dormitories come as four-bed en-suite rooms and as two-bed and eight-bed rooms with adjoining bathrooms; configurations vary from week to week. Boys and girls have two separate dormitory sections. Bed linen is provided and students bring their own towels. Staff are on duty in the dormitory areas every night until the morning, and lights go out at eleven.

Four meals a day are included: breakfast at nine, lunch at one, dinner at six and supper at nine. Vegetables are sourced locally and cooked on site by the camp chef. Dietary needs and food allergies are accommodated and parents state them when booking. There is no evening meal on the arrival day for students arriving in the evening.

Afternoons are for adventure and sport. On and around Lough Mask students kayak, canoe, paddleboard, build rafts and reach the private island by canoe; on land there is archery, an obstacle course, orienteering and hiking. Team sports run through the week - basketball, volleyball, football, tag rugby, hurling, tennis, badminton and dodgeball among them. Evenings are organised: karaoke, a table quiz, Dragons' Den, cinema night and multi-sports, followed by supervised social time in the games rooms and common rooms.

The camp occupies an eighteen-acre estate on the shore of Lough Mask, originally the ancestral home of the Lynch family and later owned by the Guinness family, and now a residential education centre. It has classrooms and workshop rooms, a dining hall, a games room with pool tables and table tennis, an indoor gym, a conference centre, playing fields, volleyball and basketball courts, fast WiFi, private lake access and a canoe route to a private island. A full-sized GAA stadium and playing fields are a short walk from the main building.

A week here is spent outdoors and in company. Students arrive on Sunday evening to ice-breakers and challenges, settle into a rhythm of workshops, lake and sport, and finish with a presentation for families on the last morning. Roughly half of each intake comes from outside Ireland, so Irish and international students mix from the first evening. Staff are Garda vetted and supervise at all times, including overnight.