Family Holiday Week 1

The Society of Mary and Martha at Sheldon

2010 – week 1 (1^st – 7^th August)

Sunday
3pm	First arrivals
6.30pm	Supper
8.30-9.30	Fat Pigeon open
Monday
8am	Morning prayers
8.30am	Breakfast
9.30-10am	Collect packed lunches
5pm	Evening prayers
6pm	Supper
7.30–9pm	Treasure Hunt
8.30–9.30	Fat Pigeon open
Tuesday
8am	Morning prayers
8.30am	Breakfast
9.30-10am	Collect packed lunches
5pm	Evening prayers
6pm	Supper
7.30pm – 9pm	Mechanical puppets
8.30–9.30	Fat Pigeon open
Wednesday
8am	Morning prayers
8.30am	Breakfast
9.30-10am	Collect packed lunches
6pm	Supper
6.30pm	Theatre parking opens*
7.15pm	Theatre gates open
8pm	Kiss This! public theatre performance
10pm	Performance ends. Fat Pigeon open to resident guests, artists and helpers (closes 11pm)
Thursday
8am	Morning prayers
8.30am	Breakfast
9.30-10am	Collect packed lunches
5pm	Evening prayers
6pm	Supper
7.30pm	Quiz Night
7.30-9.30	Fat Pigeon open
Friday
8am	Morning prayers
8.30am	Breakfast
9.30-10am	Collect packed lunches
5pm	Evening prayers
5pm	Help yourself tea and cake in the Long Barn
7pm (ish)	Barbecue supper
7–9.30	Fat Pigeon open
Saturday
8am	Breakfast (earlier!)
9-10am	Collect packed lunches
10am	Last indoor departures
11am	Last camping departures

Please read the notes sheet attached – and make sure all your children know the things they need to know …

Evening activities

· The Bouncy Castle. Open daily 5pm – 5.45pm. To ensure safe play the castle will be supervised by a member of the team. Rules: maximum 8 children at any one time, graded according to age/size if necessary. No touching of controls. No shoes, glasses, sharp objects, food or drink on the castle. No kicking, wrestling, climbing or somersaults. All off when the whistle goes. Failure to keep the rules will mean closure of the castle. Rita is the team member responsible or her delegated person.

· Treasure Hunt – present yourselves in the Long Barn by 7.30pm with pen/pencil in teams of 3 or 4 people. Suit all ages, give your team a name.

· Mechanical Puppets & Stories. Make some great puppets with moving parts and use them to tell some weird and wonderful stories. Sara Roberts of Stick & Stone with Rita.

· Kiss This! This is a public concert in the Open Air Theatre.

o Your (free) tickets are enclosed with your welcome pack and you will need to present these to gain admission to the theatre.

o Please make sure there are no cars parked in the lower gravel carpark after 5pm – put them against the far fence in the Camping Field or against the top fence in the Barn Field – ask if in doubt. Please keep children out of the way of traffic passing up through the Courtyard from supper onwards.

o Most doors to the main buildings will be locked from 6.30pm to 10pm. We will aim to have a volunteer on duty in the Long Barn to avoid locking this completely – if so the main door on the theatre side will be the open one. The trellis door on the Pound House will be open. If you need access please ask at Reception. If you are in a Pig Pen, please bring a £10 deposit to Reception for your own key – it would help if you do this before 5pm or earlier in the week. Keys are also available for Pound House bedrooms if you wish.

o Theatregoers will have access to all the downstairs toilets in Pound House and Long Barn – please remove personal items from these areas before supper. The inner doors will be locked so theatregoers do not have access through into the buildings themselves. We will have stewards patrolling the site during the evening, but it is obviously difficult to offer any guarantees on a big public event. Please tell a member of the team (anyone wearing a red Sheldon jacket/T-shirt) if you have any concerns re security.

o Rita will organise “Sheldon Cinema” in the Long Barn for any who don’t want to attend the theatre.

· Quiz Night – questions for all ages so mixed teams are likely to do best. Borrow your parents (or someone else’s) and make up teams of 4 – 6 people. In the Fat Pigeon. Led by Jan.

Meals

Breakfast

· Collect your own hot drinks, juice, grapefruit and yoghurt from the top table.

· Toast will be distributed to each table.

· Milk and cereals will be on each table.

Packed lunches

· Bring your own containers for food and drink.

· Collect from the Community Kitchen between 9.30am and 10am.

Supper

· Come in and sit down for grace. If it is important to sit together as a family, come early.

· Please tell us if you will be late or out

· Children may leave when they wish, but please play OUTSIDE the Dining Room

· Each table will have one or two team members to serve and clear

· Self-serve salad bar available in main dining room if you prefer that to the set meal, plus jacket potatoes, bread, preserves, fruit etc. Previously notified special diets – collect from salad bar.

· The menu for the day will be posted on the noticeboard daily.

Other facilities/activities

· We have put up a paddling/play pool in the field. PLEASE SUPERVISE your own children in the pool. Bare feet only please, but floor of the pool can get slippery. The ladder should be used to get in and out – no diving, no jumping. The pool floor and sides are very thin and liable to puncture – please make sure children wipe their feet on the carpet surround before getting in. We will provide basic chlorination and filtration but if you are concerned about water quality, please tell Sarah.

· The Fat Pigeon – licensed bar in the Great Barn Loose Box. Children welcome in the bar area but only when accompanied and supervised by parents.

· Morning and evening prayers are part of the Sheldon Community’s regular daily pattern, held in the upstairs Chapel. Guests very welcome but not expected!

· Shop open in Reception during office hours (8.30am – 5pm, closed for lunch)

· Jacuzzi. Bookings in Reception - £5.60 per person, £8.40 for 2 together. Accompanied children welcome. Probably only available during office hours.

· Quiet spaces – the Library, the Pound House Quiet Room, and the Quiet Half of the Sheldon site are all reserved for adults or older teenagers wanting quiet space.

· The Long Barn lounge is available as communal space. The TV (with video & DVD player) will be put out if requested by a delegation of 4 adults.

· Laundry. We can make our washing machine available for emergencies and after the Sheldon laundry has been done.

· The weather forecast will be posted daily on the Pound House corridor noticeboard.

Kitchens

· The Long Barn Kitchen is guests’ territory. We will leave drinks, cereals, toast, fruit, leftovers etc for you to help yourself. Please clear up behind yourself. If you are leaving anything personal in the Long Barn kitchen or fridge it is your responsibility to label it clearly or someone else will enjoy it!

· The Pound House kitchen is out of bounds to guests (except adults raiding the fridge for milk for an early morning mug of tea).

· You are welcome to help yourself to hot drinks from the Dining Room table.

We hope you have a wonderful Sheldon holiday.

Please do ask if there is anything you need.