Modern life does tend to militate against this however and many children, for a wide variety of reasons, will not be able to tick of anywhere near as many of those items as they would like to.

It is a sad fact that, whilst in France, and in the USA attendance on residential ‘summer camps’ for children is common, and the activities listed by the National Trust will play a significant part of their programme, in the UK such camps are virtually unknown, and it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that UK children are missing out on some very valuable educational experiences as a result.

In the 1960s and 70s, a UK organisation called ‘Colony Holidays’ briefly popularised the French model of Summer Camps with great success, and children were encouraged by trained young adults, working as enthusiastic volunteers, to engage in the sort of activities promoted by the National Trust, and to leave behind the trappings of a modern society for just a short while.

A much smaller organisation known as Active Training and Education is still doing this with their incredible ‘Superweeks’ and one can only hope that this timely campaign by the National Trust will help their cause.