Logistics and FAQs

On arrival at your hotel on Friday, or at the Sports Ground if you’re staying at home, you’ll need to pick up your wristband (which you’ll need for the whole weekend). If you’re arriving on Saturday please pick up from the Sports Ground, or at Exeter College on arrival. This will be your ‘ticket’ for food and drink, and entry to venues. 

More information about childcare has been provided to those who requested it in the RSVP form. If you have any specific requirements, or have not been contacted about your requirements and are bringing children, please contact [email protected].

Toilets will be available at all venues.  

Travel is possible by public transport or by car. If you have mobility requirements regarding travel to Oxford, or within, please let us know so we can support you.  

Mobility around the venues will not require stairs, but will require walking. Please let us know any mobility requirements you have.  

For those that will be using wheelchairs and pushchairs at the Sports Ground – please be aware it is a grassy surface. We’ll have accessible toilets and baby changing facilities on site. 

We look forward to welcoming colleagues and families to this weekend – ultimately, we want everyone to have a great weekend full of fun, however it is a work event.  

As a reminder of the behaviour expectations our corporate code of conduct will be available on the events website, or can be found on HiBob. We have a zero-tolerance policy to any form of sexual harassment, or to any form of illegal substances. There will be bag checks on arrival, and we will be taking appropriate action in response to any misconduct. 

Any children attending the weekend remain the responsibility of their parents and/or guardians throughout. Please be aware that the site is large, with activities running across various locations, so we’d ask you to keep an eye on younger attendees at all times. 

Any misconduct will be taken seriously. Misconduct of partners will be the responsibility of their Newton partner.  

Once at the Summer Celebration you shouldn’t need to buy anything; food, drink and entertainment are included, so unless you want anything additional while in Oxford, you’ll be covered.  

Please note that travel and expenses related to travel to/from Oxford such as train fares, mileage, snacks, drinks and lunch cannot be expensed for partners and children. Once they arrive at the Summer Celebration, partner and family activities and food are covered so they can enjoy an all-inclusive weekend through to Sunday morning, including travel within Oxford.  

If you have a family member travelling with you to provide childcare as an alternative to our provided childcare, their accommodation and breakfast will be provided, but other food and drink will need to be covered by you/them.  

We would like to make you aware that there will be a videographer and photographer at the event who will be capturing the festivities on both Friday and Saturday.

If you don’t wish to be filmed or photographed, please let the Events Team know in advance by emailing: [email protected] 

Newton will be sharing posts on LinkedIn, and we encourage you to share, like and add comments around these posts. 

Whilst we encourage you to share your reflections on the weekend with your comments, please do be aware that clients and the wider Newton network will also see these posts. A good way to think about it is ‘would I be comfortable to present this comment to a client across any of our sectors?’ If in doubt, please check with [email protected] or your cluster marketing team. 

Yes, please let us know whether you’re able to attend or not before the closing date on Monday 1st June at 6pm. You can RSVP on this page or via the QR code on your physical invitation.

Yes, you need to complete all details on the form including family information. Further details will be shared shortly for details about the activities, dietaries, accommodation and childcare if required.

Everyone is encouraged to attend the full celebrations, but if you can only make part of the event, you are welcome to join for whatever elements you can. If you already have plans that weekend, we’ll miss you but we understand!

We would love you to attend as much of the weekend as you can, but we do appreciate that you may already have plans, and this is an encouraged but optional event! If you would prefer to attend certain parts of the event, that is fine. You can indicate on the RSVP form which elements you will be able to attend or not.

We extend the invitations to significant others and children to thank them for their support in enabling us to do the jobs we do. This is intended to be someone you’d count as a partner; it is not intended to be for a friend, a date or a general +1.

Lots of work is going on in the background to ensure we have the right accommodation, food and activities. Knowing whether or not you can attend is essential so we can plan accordingly, and minimise waste/ avoid over-catering wherever possible.

We understand that life happens, and plans may change, so if you do need to change your plans, please let us know as soon as possible so that we can plan accordingly.

In general, we do ask that you treat this RSVP as you would if it was a wedding – so if you reply yes, book it in your/your family diary and plan to be there! With an event of this scale, we do not get refunds for cancellations, and we want to reduce any waste where possible, so any changes after you RSVP we would expect to be things that weren’t known at the point when you RSVPed.

We are currently sourcing a range of accommodation options, with two bases in hotels on the outskirts of Oxford, one in the north, and one in the south including family rooms, and single accommodation at colleges in the town centre and family rooms in central Oxford. We’ll be providing more information on this soon.

If you are attending with a partner, we will assume you would prefer a double room unless you let us know otherwise.

Families will be contacted separately to confirm room requirements, but the hotels we have booked do not allow for under 18s to be in a room without an adult so plan for all rooms having appropriate beds/cots but one room per family.

If you are attending without a partner, you are likely to be allocated a single room in a college in central Oxford.

Yes – everyone is invited to attend Newton’s 25th Summer Celebration.

To help you prepare and plan your trip to the UK, we’ll be sending out further information and FAQs to those working internationally soon.

If you have any questions in the meantime, please contact the Events Team.

Our principle is to support parents and carers to attend the event and enjoy it with their families, while recognising that all families are different and will engage with the event in different ways. We are committed to doing this in a way that is inclusive and supportive, while also ensuring good value for money.

You are welcome to spend your extra day off on Friday however you’d like!  On the Friday evening, we are having a more relaxed affair and as such children and dependents are welcome to join us at the venue for the evening. There will be food available from 5:30pm and the space will be mostly outside with some cover available.  There will also be childcare available if you prefer.

On the Saturday daytime, we will have a range of family friendly activities catering for children aged 0-18. Please note this is not childcare, and parents remain responsible for their children at all times. Food for children will also be available, further details will follow.  

For the Saturday evening, we request that children and dependents are not present, in line with our usual events. Childcare will be available. The evening is intended as an adult event, and not designed with children or dependents in mind, also on this occasion the venue insurance dictates that under 18s are not allowed on site.  The hotel is approximately a 15 minute drive from the venue. We appreciate this could make things tricky with some situations (for example breastfeeding, caring responsibilities) – please talk to us if this affects you and we’ll work with you to come up with a solution.

When considering how best to make the event work for you, please consider the following options:

• On Friday night; bring your children with you, and use the provided transport to return together to the hotel when you’re ready to leave.
• Both nights; Use the childcare provided (free) at the hotel and attend the event without them.
• Both nights; Bring a trusted friend or family member to look after your children in your room at the hotel. They must be over 18, and we will provide accommodation for them at a different venue in Oxford (there are no spare rooms in the hotel with family rooms).
• Both nights; If you live in a commutable distance from the venue, we can support you to have a taxi back to your home so you could use a local/familiar childcare service rather than staying in the hotel. We can provide some funding for this (capped at the cost of the childcare provision on site) so speak to us for more details.

We have typically found very low demand for evening activities for older children, and that they usually end up staying in hotel rooms in the evening.  On this occasion, the hotel have a policy that states under 18s must be in a room with an adult.  This is achieved through the childcare service who would place a childcare provider in the room with your child, or through the trusted friend/family option.

If you are not sure yet, please RSVP that you will be bringing your children and or dependents, and we will get in touch to discuss in more detail so you can make the right choice for you.

If you have let us know about your plans to bring your child(ren) when RSVP’ing, we will be in touch to discuss in more detail plans for parents and carers.  

The majority of the hotels we are using have a policy that under 18s need to be in a room with an adult, so you will instead be in one family room.

Yes, this will include your choice of in-room cover (1 childcare provider per family, for children 0-18), or a supervised group session (for children 4+).  Additionally, we are offering the option to have a trusted friend or family member look after your children in your hotel, and we will put them up for the evening (in a separate hotel due to capacity), or also if you are local enough to return home and use an at home service you are familiar with – paid for capped at the price of the on-site service.  On the Friday evening, children are also welcome to join us at the venue as it is a more relaxed affair.  We’ll be in touch to discuss your family’s requirements and ensure we’re catering to your needs as best as possible.

If you submit a timecard, please enter your time under the Activity Days / Parties code. This is a non working day for everyone, whether or not you are attending the event. 

You’re free to travel at a time that works best for you (your partner/family) and make your way to join us in the evening. The first official get together is the Friday evening event at Keble College & St Hughs Sports Ground, where everyone will come together to kick off the weekend from 5.00pm. It’s a relaxed evening – so arriving later on Friday will be fine too.

Friday evening and Saturday will have a casual dress code. We’ll share more information about the activities on Saturday so you can pack accordingly based on which activities you will want to take part in. We’ll have everything from crafting to punting to sports.

We want you to have a wonderful evening and feel your best. The dress code is formal, so we encourage attire in the style of a summer ball – such as a tuxedo, suit, or national dress – while still allowing you to express your personal style. Many parts of the evening will be outside, so we’d suggest bringing layers for the cooler late evening.

That’s fine – just please be clear in your RSVP which parts of the weekend you can attend.

Friday evening starts at 5:30pm, Saturday daytime starts from 10:00am, and the ball on Saturday evening will start from 6:00pm. For the ball on Saturday evening, please aim to arrive on time – you need to be there by 6.30pm to enjoy the full event.

Yes, as this is a non-working day, all employees can expense their travel to/from Oxford. We would expect everyone to try to book advanced tickets for trains, and use public transport where appropriate.