Party Organiser’s Notes

We’re looking forward to welcoming you to the woods for your celebration soon. Before we do so, there are  some important things you need to know:

This page contains full information for everyone coming, including a map/directions and the online consent form which must be completed for all children by midday on the Thursday before your party. Please highlight the importance of completing this in time in all communication with parents and check that everyone has completed it by the Thursday before your party. Don’t forget that a form will need to be completed for the birthday child/children too.

Arrangements on the Day

Please aim to arrive in the woods 20-30 minutes before your scheduled start time and park next to the A-frame shelter in the arrival area. We’d then suggest that you unload your food bags etc (ideally not big heavy boxes, as they’re harder to carry up to camp) and put those under the shelter, ready for us to take with us when we set off. Any presents can also then be easily left in the car instead of being taken up to camp. The Hidden Woods leader for your party will meet you at the A-frame shelter around 15 minutes before your party start time. 

What to Bring

We’d suggest that you bring the following with you. Obviously feel free to supplement it where you feel a need, although in our experience, less is usually more!

• Tub of pre-cooked sausages*
• Pre-sliced hot dog rolls and other food items you’d like to provide for the children (e.g. veg sticks, crisps
etc)**
• A bottle of squirty ketchup
• Serviettes
• Spare hot dog rolls
• Cake, candles, knife, lighter/matches
• Drinks – ideally guests will bring their own water bottles. Otherwise, bottles with names written on are best as carton straw plastics and single use bottle caps usually become litter!
• Rubbish/recycling bags
• We’ll provide pump flasks of boiled water, in case you’d like to offer hot drinks to any adults remaining. If so then please bring cups, spoons, tea, coffee, sugar, milk and anything else you require for that  purpose.

We will provide marshmallows and sticks to toast those with, as well as the pans and tongs for sizzling up the sausages (including a separate pan and tongs for vegetarian sausages if required).

*For food safety reasons, we ask that you cook the sausages off at home the day before your party. Cook them to the point of being cooked through but not too brown (so that we can brown them as we reheat them on the campfire). Then cool as quickly as possible, place a lid on them and refrigerate. Please bring them chilled to the party, ideally in a cool box or other insulated container to keep them cool until we are ready to heat them up. Please avoid Frankfurter style hot dog sausages as these don’t reheat well. Also, brioche bread is too soft and normally falls apart. Good quality chipolata sausages with standard hot dog/finger rolls work best.

**When it comes to food time, the children will be asked to wash their hands and then to sit down on the benches around the fire. We will then need the adults to help serve the food to the children where they are sat, to avoid lots of movement around the fire pit. Please do not lay the food out on the table for children to help themselves from there.

Group Size & Adults Remaining

For children aged 8 and over, we encourage guests’ parents/carers to drop and go where possible, to limit the group size in the camp. Ideally it is just the birthday child’s parent/s, plus the parents/carers of any children that need any extra support that remain. We just need to ensure that a minimum supervision ratio of 1:6 is maintained, ideally excluding the Hidden Woods leaders, so that they can focus on facilitating activities.

For guests aged 7 and under we ask that all children are supervised by an adult who remains in the woods throughout (1 adult to 2 children maximum supervision ratio). Please ensure that everyone is aware of this requirement and that it is limited to one adult per child (with the exception of the birthday child/children), to prevent the overall group size from getting too big and adult-heavy!

Please note that we include all children in the final group number, siblings included (except non-walking infants), as we fully include all children present in the activities and experience.

Please email us hello@hiddenwoods.co.uk to confirm final numbers at least two weeks before the party. It’s normally fine to add one or two guests closer to the time too, but the earlier we have an idea of your likely group size the better.

Further Information

We hope that this provides you with all the information you need to plan your day, but if you have any questions at all then please email hello@hiddenwoods.co.uk and we’ll be happy to answer those for you.

We look forward to celebrating with you in the woods soon!