P4HE Long Weekender (aka Summer School)

Who: This is open to all aged 11to 18.  Where: The Sir John Lowther Scout Centre, Kettering, located within it’s own 10 acre woodland with an adjoining conservation area of meadows, woodland and fields.  When: 5th to 9th August  Overnighters, arrive from 12.30 p.m. Monday 5th August for a welcome and buffet lunch at  1p.m., pick up 5 p.m. Friday.  Those with Daytime tickets are asked to arrive by 9.15 a.m. for a 9.30 a.m. start, but you are welcome to join us for breakfast which is 8.30 a.m. each day.. Please be picked up by 9 p.m. latest each evening – you can stay for dinner and the evening activities, or head off before dinner if you think someone else’s cooking will be better than ours.

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You’ll probably find you want to stay for the meals as they’re sociable and the food is good.

How much:  £599 for full residential tickets.  £549 for earlybird tickets paid in full by 1st June .  £150 for day tickets (all activities and meals, but staying elsewhere with family)

In all cases, payment of a £50 deposit secures your place.

Booking:  When you click through to booking, you can choose to pay a non-refundable holding deposit of £50 which will be followed by an invoice for the balance. Or you can choose one of the other three options described above. For EARLY BIRD price of £549, the balance must be paid in full by 1st June . Full price for residential will be £599.  Booking will close and balances must be paid by July 20th.  We will be operating a waiting list. 

Where you’ll be sleeping:  You’ll be sleeping in rooms that have between 2 and 6 beds with those of the same gender and roughly same age. Non-binary people let us know what you’re comfortable with. The venue provides bedding EXCEPT PILLOWS. If you know someone else who is coming and you’d particularly like to share a room with them, let us know and we’ll do our best to make the jigsaw work.

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What you'll be doing: Below are the first of the many choices on offer during the Long Weekender.  We’re awaiting course descriptions for a World-Building course that will appeal to writers and D&D enthusiasts, improv, a singing course from our opera singer Penny, a Play-in-a-Day course and lots more including some variations of old favourites - and of course D&D. Most courses run for a morning or afternoon, some are whole-day courses. Once all the courses have been announced we'll send out a form for you to list your preferences. With twice as much time there’ll be two whole menus of interesting courses to choose from.

Some other differences to the weekenders - Tuesday evening we'll be having a Masterchef competition, a chance to cook a delicious three course meal in a small group, with a tasting plate for the judges. Wednesday night will be film night, when you can take a break from more active activities and enjoy a choice of films (or just catch up on sleep!) We will also see the return of the traditional (pre covid) Thursday Evening "Entertainment."  Participation is absolutely voluntary. Tell a joke, share something you made/wrote/built in your courses during the week, play your ukelele, perform a magic trick, deliver a monologue, balance something on your head...  or just sit back and be entertained.

CHOICES FOR MONDAY - WEDNESDAY

Play in a Day

Ever dreamed of bringing a play to life in a single day? This whirlwind course takes you from script to stage in just 24 hours! Dive into the world of theatre as we pick an existing script and transform it into a live performance, all within one action-packed day. Experience the thrill of rehearsals and getting into character in double-quick time . It’s a whirlwind of creativity and collaboration that culminates in a memorable performance!

Life Squared

Ever wondered what lives in just one square meter of the great outdoors? This course will immerse you in the fascinating world of field biology as we use the classic quadrat method to explore and identify the myriad plants and creatures thriving within a 1 square meter area. Discover the hidden biodiversity of a local habitat, learn how to catalog and interpret your findings, and gain a deeper appreciation for the intricate ecosystems right under our feet. Grab your field notebook and get ready to dive into the tiny wonders of nature!

Finding the Shot

Photos that don’t look posed, that look like they’ve just captured a slice of life as it happens are usually anything but spontaneous. Finding the shot is about watching, seeing what’s going on, and working out where you need to be to capture what’s about to happen. This course is not about the technical stuff like exposure, ISOs and such – it’s about getting a sense for what makes a good photo. In the first half you’ll learn some simple principles that will change how you take photographs forever; in the second, you’ll be unleashed on the other courses happening at the same time to put your skills into practice. If you’ve got an SLR or similar camera, bring it along. If not, any phone with a camera is fine.

The Ethics Cup

In the teens online philosophy classes, we’ve used a few case studies from the Ethics Cup, a nationwide competition that pits the wits of teams of philosophers from schools across the country together. This is a chance to try out the full format of the competition, and if we end up with a core of people who enjoy it and would like to pursue it, we’ll enter a team into the real thing in 2025.

Stage Combat

Ever wondered how stage actors can take a punch without having to suffer for their art? In this course, you’ll learn the stagecraft of punches, slaps, hairpulls, stabs and swordfights, all skilfully done to create the impression of fights without any actual blood being spilled.

Games of the Future

Tom’s time-travelling journey through the games and sports of the past heads into the future! Play games described in sci-fi and then, after pondering how their lives might be different to ours and how that would change the games they play, create and try out your own predictions of how people will be entertaining themselves in the year 3000.

How To Be Heard

Anyone can read off a script. But making words your own, and nestle them into the minds of your listeners to the point they're standing on tables in support, is a craft. Whether it's trying to convince one person, or persuade an entire room, there are simple, tried-and-tested ways to relax yourself, connect with your listeners and deliver something compelling. We'll explore these techniques in a very low-stakes and non-scary way. For example, you'll always be talking about something close to your heart/your Mastermind specialist subject, so the content of what you're saying will be so second-nature, we can focus entirely on the how. The sizzle, rather than the sausage, if you will. Playwright Aaron Sorkin once said "oratory should blow the doors off the place"*. Let's learn how. *During this workshop, P4HE Management bears no responsibility for damage to the doors.

Build Your Own Brainbox

Brainbox's popularity has skyrocketed in recent years thanks to having the perfect mix of jeopardy, competition and challenge. It's a kind of card game, but instead of being made up of Spades and Hearts etc., they're covered with general knowledge which you must be memorised before being quizzed. It's brilliant fun to play, but even better to make your own cards for each other. In this session, we'll spend the first half constructing our own games, which cover any topics you like, getting the level of challenge just right so everyone is at tested to the very edge of their thinking. We'll then launch into a Brainbox tournament in the second half, ultimately crowning someone Champion Brainboxer.

Blood on the Clocktower

A demon has been unleashed upon the sleepy town of Ravenswood Bluff, killing by night and taking on human form by day! Led by a devious storyteller, Blood on the Clocktower is a game of murder and mystery, lies and logic, deduction and deception. Each player receives either a ‘good’ or ‘evil’ token with their unique character on it. Good players share information to solve the mystery whilst evil players lie about who they are and what they know. Can good find the demon in time? Or will evil overrun this once peaceful town?

Latin in a Day

Think Latin is a dead language? On the contrary, it is the key to the living vocabulary of scientists, linguists and historians who all take their job titles from this ancient tongue. Grasp its grammar and see how Latin gives you XXV words for the price of I, as a single word from the streets of ancient Rome, such as currere, “to run”, occurs and recurs in the curriculum down to the cursor currently blinking at “course”. A little Latin goes a long way! After this course you will see Latin everywhere.

D&D

A weekender wouldn't be a weekender without the opportunity for some D&D - every time a new adventure. If you’ve never tried Dungeons & Dragons before, this session is an ideal time to try it out; if you have, you’ve probably signed up already! Join others in a fantasy role-playing micro-adventure to enjoy face-to-face with an expert Dungeon Master (DM). Bring a character you've already created for our online classes or be someone new. New adventurers, you'll have a chance to check in with our DM before the session to talk you through the basics so you are ready for the adventure!

Flash Fiction

Can you tell a captivating story in just a few sentences? "Flash Fiction" is your chance to dive into the art of very short creative writing. From six-word stories to micro-novels, you’ll explore a variety of short forms that pack a punch. Through engaging exercises and inspiring prompts, you’ll learn to craft compelling narratives, develop memorable characters, and create vivid settings—all in a flash. By the end of the course, you’ll have a portfolio of bite-sized masterpieces and the skills to convey powerful stories with brevity and clarity.

On Wednesday afternoon, we'll all be heading outside for....

Escape Artists 

A series of challenges that will involve teamwork, initiative, ingenuity and lateral, horizontal, vertical and diagonal thinking! Wednesday night is film night, which will be a chance to chill out (or zonk out altogether) so you can get a second wind for the second half of the week...

THURSDAY AND FRIDAY CHOICES

You'll see that Blood on the Clocktower and D&D are shown both here and on Monday/Tuesday. You'll likely only get to do those once but it gives us a bit of wiggle room in wrangling the schedules, so please include them both times if you like.

The Meaning of Life

What's the meaning of life? Is it to ask, 'What's the meaning of, "What's the meaning of life?"?'? A full-day course of discovery, deliberation and discussion, drawing on philosophers from the Ancient Greeks to the present day, with some psychology and theology thrown in. If things go as we mean, each of us will emerge with some sense of what life means for us right now, which is no mean feat.

Parodies, Satires and April Fools

Picture a prehistoric campfire with someone telling a story of how they bravely hunted down whatever they were eating. Now picture someone else retelling the story in an exaggerated way, poking fun at how brave the hunter was claiming to be – “But it was only one pride of lions, nothing for me to worry about…” That’s parody for you, a type of writing that has always attracted sharp wits who have created delight from playfully (or sometimes cruelly) mocking every style of writing. We’ll be looking at some classic parodies from the Jetlag travel guides to Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey before creating our own send-ups of our favourite (or loathed) genres. Plus some classic April Fools’ tricks that work in the same way.

D&D

If you’ve never tried Dungeons & Dragons before, this session is an ideal time to try it out; if you have, you’ve probably signed up already! Join others in a fantasy role-playing micro-adventure to enjoy face-to-face with an expert Dungeon Master (DM). Bring a character you've already created for our online classes or be someone new. If you've not D&Ded before, you'll have a chance to check in with our DM before the session to talk you through the basics so you are ready for the adventure!

Amble, Ramble, Bramble 

When you walk around a city, you recognise hundreds of the ebrands you see around you, and you can use Google Maps to get around. But when you walk through the countryside, how many of the trees and plants do you know, and could you find your way along footpaths and across country without roads to help? This course which will take you offsite for a morning or afternoon is about getting handy with map and compass as you learn to navigate, and to identify and appreciate some of the plants and trees you pass on the way. You’ll need walking boots and waterproofs for this one.

Fire and blade

Setting fire to things, and throwing sharp things at things. An opportunity to get back to basics with an instructor trained in axe and knife throwing and in the bushcraft skills of firelighting.

Choose Your Own Adventure!

You’re going to pen a pick-a-path story. Beginning with everyone else from a shared starting point, you’ll then branch off into as many different plot threads as you wish. Do you wish to…

Write independently?

Write with a partner?

Write in a small group?

Will your reader interact by…

Making a choice?

Rolling some dice?

Solving puzzles?

And will your story end with…

Glory?

Death?

…you decide!

D&D Battle Arena

Enter the arena! In this session you’ll learn the official combat rules for Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition (“D&D 5e”) by joining a team of heroes forced to fight round after round against monsters in an epic gladiatorial mêlée. Using pre-made character templates, you’ll choose your preferred class (such as the mighty Barbarian or the powerful Wizard), and receive a detailed character sheet with deadly weapons, clever spells, special abilities, and magical items to help you survive the coliseum of carnage!

Theatresports™

See how theatre can become a sport in this classic competitive format for improvisers! Developed by Keith Johnstone in the UK and Canada, Theatresports™ is now performed all over the world. Teams of improvisers compete in short games and scenes, and are awarded points and punishments by a panel of judges. You’ll learn how to play, judge, and even host! Watch out for the boring horn and the basket of shame, and savour the sweet taste of each victory. Improv doesn’t get much more fun than this!

Blood on the Clocktower

A demon has been unleashed upon the sleepy town of Ravenswood Bluff, killing by night and taking on human form by day! Led by a devious storyteller, Blood on the Clocktower is a game of murder and mystery, lies and logic, deduction and deception. Each player receives either a ‘good’ or ‘evil’ token with their unique character on it. Good players share information to solve the mystery whilst evil players lie about who they are and what they know. Can good find the demon in time? Or will evil overrun this once peaceful town?

Build-a-World

Every fantasy or sci-fi story,  D&D adventure, video game, has to take place in a world that is different to ours but that all fits together and works as a believable whole. In this course, you'll create a world of your own with its own history, customs, maps and perhaps even languages. What are the rivalries that drive the politics of this world? Who has the power - and who wants it? What are the dangers of everyday life, - and what do the people of your world do for fun? What (or who) do they eat? Where and how do they live? And when they (assuming they do) die, who, what, where, when or what do they die of? It's all up to you.