A counsellor training day before camp opens
One paid day that heads off most first-week problems: the schedule, the emergency plan, allergies, the pick-up rule, behaviour, and role play.
Jun 16, 2026 · 5 min read
Monday, 8:52 AM, the first day of camp. A parent's at the door with a grandfather nobody's met. A camper's EpiPen is in a backpack, and the backpack is somewhere. Two eight-year-olds are already arguing over the red ball. Your newest counsellor is looking at you.
Every one of those moments is a question you could have answered the Friday before. A training day doesn't make camp perfect, but it means that on Monday, everybody already knows what to do, and you're not the only one who does.
The day, hour by hour
Hold it the weekday before camp opens, in the rooms you'll use, and pay everyone for it. A day that works:
- 8:30 Coffee, name tags, a game. Start with one you'll use with campers, so they learn it by playing it.
- 9:00 A camp day, walked through. Drop-off, the morning, snack, lunch, outside time, the afternoon, pick-up. Walk it, room by room.
- 9:45 The emergency plan.
- 10:30 Break.
- 10:45 Allergies, medical needs and the first aid kit.
- 11:30 The pick-up rule.
- 12:00 Lunch, which you provide.
- 12:45 Behaviour: what we do, what we never do.
- 1:45 Role play.
- 2:45 Setting up the rooms for Monday.
- 3:30 Questions, then home.
Experienced counsellors can lead parts of it. A returning counsellor explaining the noon handover is worth more than you explaining it twice.
The emergency plan
Don't hand it out; walk it. Stand at each exit. Walk to the meeting point outside, and count yourselves when you get there.
Cover:
- Fire. Which exit each group uses, who takes the attendance list, who checks the washrooms.
- A missing camper. The first five minutes, written down: the counsellor tells the lead at once, the others hold their groups still and count, one adult checks the washrooms and exits, and you decide when to call 911. A camp that's practised this finds the camper in the washroom in two minutes instead of ten.
- Weather. Where everyone goes at the first thunder, and how long you wait before going back out. Heat: water every 30 minutes, shade at lunch, and the signs someone is overheated.
- Who calls whom. Who phones 911, who phones the family, who phones you. Put the camp's address on the wall by every phone, because in a panic people forget it.
End with the headcount rule: count at every transition. Leaving the room, arriving outside, after the washroom, at lunch. Counsellors should be sick of counting by Friday.
Allergies and medical needs
Go through every camper with a medical note, by name and photo if you have one, with only the staff who need to know. For each: what it is, what it looks like when something's wrong, and what to do.
- Where the epinephrine is. With the camper, with their counsellor, or in a labelled bag that leaves the room whenever the camper does. Everyone handles a trainer pen.
- Food rules. No sharing, ever, and washing hands before and after eating. Counsellors eat what campers eat, or eat away from them.
- The first aid kit. Where it is, what's in it, and the incident form: what happened, when, who saw, what was done, and the parent told at pick-up.
Check that everyone's first aid certificate is current. Some will have expired in May.
The pick-up rule
One rule, said the same way by everyone: a camper only leaves with an adult on their list. Not a grandparent who seems lovely, not an older sibling who says Mom sent them, not a neighbour with a car seat.
What to say, practised out loud:
"I'm sorry, I can't let Leo go until I've reached his mom. It'll only take a couple of minutes. Would you like to wait here?"
Then: keep the camper with you, call the lead, and the lead calls the family. Counsellors never argue at the door and never make the call themselves.
Cover late pick-ups too: who stays, and the number they call. Two adults stay with the last camper, always.
Behaviour
Give counsellors three steps and practise them:
- Redirect. "Let's see who can get to the fence first."
- A quiet reminder, close by. "At camp, we keep our hands to ourselves."
- A short break beside an adult. Never alone, never out of sight. "Sit with me for two minutes, then you can go back in."
Then the things nobody does: no taking away food or water, no shouting, no leaving a child out of a whole activity, and no being alone with a camper behind a closed door. If it's past step three, they get the lead.
Ask counsellors to tell the lead about anything that needed step three, so you can tell the parent the same day, kindly, before they hear another version.
Role play
This is the hour counsellors remember. Write each scene on a card, play it in pairs in front of the group, then swap roles:
- An adult not on the list arrives for pick-up, friendly and in a hurry.
- A camper won't come in from the field.
- A camper says their lips feel funny after lunch.
- A parent wants a fifteen-minute talk at drop-off, with twelve campers waiting.
- Two campers both want to be the lead in Friday's show.
Ten minutes each. It's awkward, people laugh, and on Monday, the counsellor who played the adult at pick-up knows exactly what to say.
The day's list in their hands
In Caletan, each camp day has its own list on a counsellor's phone: each camper with their option and care, Medical when there are medical notes, and No photos when the family said no. Tap a camper to check them in; tap again at pick-up, and only the adults their family says may pick them up are shown. Print the day's list gives you the paper copy for the emergency bag. The day's campers guide shows it, and hiring counsellors covers the months before.
