How to Keep Your Child Active This Summer in Hitchin

How to Keep Your Child Active This Summer in Hitchin

The summer holidays are six weeks long. That is a lot of time to fill, a lot of screens to compete with and a lot of energy to channel productively. For parents in Hitchin, whether you are in the town centre, Bearton, Walsworth, Oughton, Westmill, Purwell or any of the villages surrounding North Hertfordshire, keeping children active during the summer is one of the most common challenges families face.

The good news is that Hitchin and the surrounding area has a lot to offer. And for families who want structured, high-quality activity with real developmental benefit, Swan Academy's summer holiday camps in Stevenage are one of the best options available to Hitchin families, just a short drive up the A602.

Here are our top tips for keeping children active, engaged and thriving this summer.

1. Book a Gymnastics Summer Holiday Camp

There is no better way to keep children active during the summer than a properly structured holiday camp. Swan Academy runs gymnastics holiday camps at Nobel School Sports Centre in Stevenage throughout the summer holidays, and we welcome children from Hitchin and across North Hertfordshire.

A full day at Swan Academy's summer camp means coached gymnastics sessions across floor, beam, bars and vault, active games, skill challenges and a buzzing social environment where children make new friends and push themselves in a safe, professional setting. Children come home genuinely tired, in the best possible way, having developed real skills and had real fun.

Our camps are open to children from age 4 and are suitable for all abilities, from complete beginners trying gymnastics for the first time to more experienced gymnasts who want to keep their training going through the holidays.

For Hitchin families, Stevenage is a straightforward 15-minute drive up the A602. Swan Academy is well worth the journey for the quality of coaching your child will receive.

Book a summer camp place today

2. Build a Routine That Includes Daily Movement

Children thrive with structure. Without the routine of the school day, many children become more sedentary during the summer, not because they do not want to be active, but because there is no natural prompt to get moving.

Building a simple daily routine that includes at least one block of physical activity makes a significant difference. It does not need to be intense or formal. A morning walk, a trip to a local park, a bike ride, a garden game or a swim at Hitchin Swimming Centre all count. What matters is that movement is a planned, expected part of the day rather than something that happens by chance.

Hitchin is genuinely well placed for this. Priory Park is one of the best town parks in Hertfordshire, a brilliant free resource right in the heart of Hitchin with open green space, a paddling area and plenty of room for active play. The countryside between Hitchin and the surrounding villages of Ickleford, Pirton, Offley and Wymondley is perfect for family cycling and walking routes throughout the summer.

3. Make Movement Part of Games and Challenges

Children do not respond well to being told to exercise. They respond brilliantly to games, challenges and competition. The trick is to build physical activity into play rather than presenting it as exercise.

Some ideas that work well across all age groups:

A movement jar, where you write different physical challenges on pieces of paper (10 star jumps, run to the end of the garden and back, do your best cartwheel, hold a balance for ten seconds) and pick one out every hour throughout the day. A weekly sticker chart where children earn stickers for each active session completed, with a small reward at the end of the week. A family step challenge using a free phone app, setting a daily step target and seeing who hits it first. Active treasure hunts around Priory Park or your local neighbourhood with physical challenges at each clue.

The key is that movement becomes associated with fun, achievement and family time rather than obligation.

4. Use Hitchin's Parks and Outdoor Spaces

Hitchin families are genuinely well served for outdoor space. Priory Park alone offers a full summer's worth of active days out, but there is plenty more within easy reach.

The Hitchin Lavender fields at Cadwell Farm are a brilliant seasonal outing in July. The countryside around Pirton, Ickleford and the Chiltern fringes offers excellent walking and cycling routes. The Hiz riverside path through Hitchin town is an easy active route for younger children. For slightly longer trips, the countryside around Knebworth, Codicote and the Mimram Valley is a short drive and well worth it for a proper family walk.

None of this costs anything. Regular outdoor activity, particularly in natural environments, has well-documented benefits for children's physical health, mental wellbeing and sleep quality.

5. Sign Up for Weekly Classes

Summer is an excellent time to try a new activity or continue an existing one. Many children drop structured activities during the holidays and come back to school in September having lost fitness, flexibility and physical confidence. The children who maintain regular physical activity through the summer return noticeably better prepared, both physically and mentally.

Swan Academy runs weekly gymnastics and dance classes throughout the summer holidays in Stevenage. Whether your child is an existing Swan Academy gymnast or wants to try gymnastics for the first time, there are classes available across the week for every age group from 4 upwards.

For Hitchin families, the journey to Nobel School Sports Centre is quick and straightforward. Many of our current gymnasts travel from Hitchin, Letchworth and Baldock regularly. It is a well-worn route and very much worth it for the standard of coaching on offer.

View available classes and book online

6. Inspire Your Child With the Olympics

With the 2027 World Gymnastics Championships on the horizon and the Olympic Games coming to the United States in Los Angeles in 2028, there has never been a better time for children to fall in love with gymnastics. Interest in the sport always spikes around major international events, and families across the country are looking for clubs that can give their children a genuine foundation in the sport.

Swan Academy head coach Svetlana Lebedinskaya trained and competed at Olympic level, which means the children who train with us are learning from someone who has been there. That connection to the very top of the sport is rare, and it is something Hitchin families have right on their doorstep.

If your child has been watching gymnastics and wants to give it a try, this summer is the perfect moment to start.

7. Get the Whole Family Moving

The single biggest predictor of whether a child is physically active is whether their parents are physically active. Children who see movement as a normal, enjoyable part of family life are far more likely to stay active throughout childhood and into adulthood.

Summer is the perfect time to build family activity habits. Cycling as a family around the North Hertfordshire countryside, swimming sessions at Hitchin Swimming Centre, walks through Priory Park or out to Oughton Head nature reserve, active days out to Knebworth House grounds. All of these build a shared culture of movement that benefits the whole family, not just the children.

8. Celebrate Every Achievement

Children are more likely to continue being active when they feel good about what they are doing. Celebrating effort and achievement, however small, reinforces the habit and builds the positive relationship with physical activity that lasts a lifetime.

At Swan Academy we do this through our badge and assessment scheme, where gymnasts earn recognised achievements at every level of the programme. But you can do the same at home. Acknowledge when your child tries something new, pushes through something difficult or shows up consistently. That recognition matters enormously at this age.

Swan Academy Summer Holidays 2026

Swan Academy is the leading gymnastics club in Hertfordshire, founded and led by Svetlana Lebedinskaya, Olympic gymnast, Olympic-level coach and the most credentialled gymnastics coach in the county. Our summer holiday camps and weekly classes are open to children from across the region, from age 4 through to competitive squad level.

We are conveniently located at Nobel School Sports Centre in Stevenage, just 15 minutes from Hitchin via the A602, and we welcome families from Hitchin, Letchworth, Baldock, Knebworth, Stevenage and all the towns and villages across North Hertfordshire.

Book a summer camp place or weekly class today or contact us at info@swangymnastics.co.uk.

Swan Academy. Nobel School Sports Centre, Mobbsbury Way, Stevenage, SG2 0HS. Phone: +44 7418 610429.