P4HE Weekender

Who: This is open to all aged 11-18. Where: The Thurso Centre, within the beautiful 32 acre grounds of Felden Lodge, Hemel Hempstead, HP3 0BL. When: 21st to 23rd April Overnighters, arrive from 5 p.m. Friday 21 st April for a welcome and buffet dinner at 6 p.m., pick up 5 p.m. Sunday. 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. You can join us on Friday evening, or just for Saturday and Sunday. 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: £249 for full residential tickets (bedding is provided). £225 for earlybird tickets booked by the 28th of February. £150 for day tickets (all activities and meals, but staying elsewhere with family)

In all cases, a £50 deposit secures your place, balance due by 31st of March.

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 £225, the balance must be paid in full by February 28th. After February 28th the cost of the full residential will be £249.  Booking will close and balances must be paid by March 31st.  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 provide pillows, duvets etc. and covers. 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.

What we’re doing: Each morning and afternoon, there will be a choice of main activities, four in total over the weekend. We’ll ask you to pick six out of this list of nine, ranking your choices, and then we’ll do a complicated jigsaw of people’s choices to please as many people as much as possible – for example, putting people of similar ages together. You make your choices on the same online form we use to gather contact, dietary info etc. In the evenings we’ll be doing other stuff either together or with choices you can make on the day.

You will be sent registration forms with your ticket confirmation email.

Here are the day choices:

D&D - 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!

Evilometer - A chance to get to grips with some of the biggest issues in ethical philosophy by designing an evilometer. See what your reactions to some famous (and occasionally gruesome) thought experiments tell you about your attitude to right and wrong and create new dilemmas to puzzle your peers.

Argumentag Wrestling - No hairy men in leotards. Instead, Argumentag Wrestling is a fast and sometime furious debating game. In a series of bouts, acquire tactics of logic, body language, rhetoric and imagination to win victory for your team.

Improv Games - Over decades improvisers have developed hundreds of theatrical games. They provide shortcuts to comedy that enable anyone who is willing to have fun to be funny. We'll play lots of different improvisation games, especially ones that make good use of being in the same room!  Fast and curious, lots of laughs but also a great way to be fearless in front of others.

Improv Scenes - Moving more towards "long form" improv that is closer to an improvised play, we'll explore how to create characters and scenes that have the drama of scripted theatre, but are made up on the spot!

Shakeprov - Bringing together improv and Shakespeare, enjoy playing the part of lords, ladies, jesters and dodgy apothecaries in a made-up mash-up enjoying the language, characters and plot devices of the bard.

Livewriting - Normally, writers work at a desk, wandering through the worlds of thought. In this class, we'll use what's right in front of us for inspiration - including one another!

Escapery - A series of challenges in the outdoors that you'll need to complete as a team using ingenuity, skill, daring and imagination. An escape room without the room!

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.