It’s been a good term for staff meetings so far!
Last week we had the inspiring talk from Robin Launders, about Growth Mindset, and this week our headteacher decided to book us in for a team building experience.
It was all kept secret until a few days before when we were told that we were going to visit The Panic Room in our town centre.
The Panic Room is actually one of the top rated attractions in Gravesend, a diamond in the rough that is this lovely town!
If you aren’t aware what a Panic Room is, it is basically an experience where either a couple or group of you are locked in a room for 60 minutes, and you have to solve some sort of mystery.
There were six different rooms, and we had been booked into three of them.
Three rooms filled with three different teacher teams.
Sixty minutes of conspiracy theories, number puzzles, code cracking, lock opening, and all sorts!
Daunting, but oh so fun!
We had a briefing in advance, by Laurence, who is one-half of a couple team that set this business up here. They started with one room, and now have six! There are even plans for a family friendly one so you can bring young children to enjoy it! There are others around the country, but how cool that we have this on our doorstep!
I’m not really allowed to give much away but we were in the Panic Room.
ROOM 3 – THE PANIC ROOM (2-8 Players)
In The Panic Room you are a FBI team sent to a crazed conspiracy theorists mansion where he has been found dead. He found out something he shouldn’t have and clearly someone wanted to cover it up and hide it. The place is trashed and clearly in the murderers haste he couldn’t find the documents.
It is now your job to solve the trail of puzzles and riddles left by the conspiracy theorist, find the files and exit code and escape before the 60 minutes is up. Just remember…Don’t Panic!
There were 8 of us, and I think we gelled really well!
The other teams had these rooms to contend with.
ROOM 1 – THE DON (2-8 Players)
You will be Infiltrating the den of the notorious mafia boss “Don Romano”, with a vast resume of crimes against him it is finally time to take him down once and for all!
You and your team will need to break in, turn the place over and gather evidence of all of his crimes. He is an extremely paranoid man who kept everything locked up tight which is why he has evaded prison this long. Gather your team to gather your evidence and escape before he returns or you may end up sleeping with the fishes.
And then there was
ROOM 5 – THE GILMAN HOTEL (2-8 Players)
A private investigator had been looking into the disappearance of a young lad in a derelict coastal town. You lose contact with him so head there yourselves but by the time you arrive night has fallen so you find lodgings in The Gilman Hotel.
This is the same hotel where he had been staying, you head to your room and start to investigate but it seems the locals are on to you. Find out what happened, solve the mystery and reveal the secrets of this strange coastal town…
Well, let me tell you that two out of the three teams did not solve the puzzles, and got locked in!
But one solved their puzzles, and got out with 4 minutes and fifty-seven seconds to spare! And that team was ours!!!! We called ourselves Team Phoenix!
Me and some of my wonderful colleagues!
A thoroughly fantastic experience! We all want to do it again!!
But I Smile Anyway... 