Minecraft and coding holiday camp in the Schorfheide, Brandenburg

The IT part of the camp is built around Minecraft. Four programmes are published: an introduction to mods programming, building complex machines, automating the city of the future with command blocks, and Mods Entity as an introduction to AI. The operator notes that not every programme is on offer in every camp week and that the programme is chosen during booking. Both beginners and more advanced participants are catered for. The children are split into two groups that alternate between the IT sessions and the outdoor programme, so both groups cover the same content, partly at different times. Supervision is round the clock.

The school offers a special discount - ask us for details. The published price covers the IT programme, accommodation, full board and the whole leisure programme including the excursions; the operator states there are no hidden costs. Travel to and from the camp is organised by the family and is not included. After booking, thirty per cent of the price falls due as a deposit and the remainder twenty days before the camp begins. Cancellation is free of charge up to six weeks before the start. A travel cancellation insurance can be added during the booking process; the operator does not publish a figure for it.

The group stays at the Ruestzeitheim Schorfheide, a group house in the village of Vietmannsdorf in the Uckermark, around seventy kilometres from Berlin. For the duration of the camp the house and its extensive grounds are reserved for the group alone. Nine rooms are available, among them two-bed, five-bed, six-bed and twelve-bed rooms. Meeting rooms in the house are used for the IT sessions. Rooms are allocated by gender, and a request to share with a particular friend can be noted during booking.

The camp is self-catering and the group cooks together in a well-equipped kitchen. The children are divided into kitchen-duty groups that rotate daily, always guided by the team: the duty group lays and clears the table for breakfast and cooks the warm evening meal. Each participant packs their own lunch during breakfast and the group eats it together at midday. Cooking is simple, fresh and made on the day - oven potatoes with sausages and carrot salad, or ham noodles with coleslaw, for example. On the first evening there is a cold supper with sausages instead of a cooked meal. A vegetarian alternative is served with every meat dish, and water and tea are available at all times. Special dietary needs, allergies and intolerances should be given at check-in; the operator says it can accommodate many but not all requests.

Screen time is only half of the camp. An excursion by minibus takes the group to the El Dorado western town near Templin, a seven-hectare set with a saloon, bank, fort, teepees and main street, where stunt shows, cowboy duels, gold panning, archery and horseshoe throwing are on the programme. A second excursion goes to the NaturTherme Templin, with thirty-six degree thermal brine, an adventure pool, current channels, whirlpools, a grotto walk and two slides over a hundred metres long, plus a quieter outdoor area with a rock grotto, waterfall and geyser. Alongside the excursions there are tactical cooperation games and outdoor games, and the house keeps equipment for volleyball, football, chess, boccia, kubb, cornhole, badminton and party games. Children may bring their own favourite games.

The house and the whole site belong to the group for the duration of the camp. Indoors there are nine bedrooms, meeting rooms used for the IT sessions and a well-equipped kitchen. Outdoors there is a large area with room to play and explore, and a football pitch in the village about two hundred and fifty metres away can also be used. The setting is secluded but easy to reach.

The rhythm of the week comes from the two groups taking turns: while one builds and codes, the other is outdoors, and the meals, the evening programme and the El Dorado excursion are shared by everyone. Check-in is on the first day between four and five in the afternoon, check-out on the seventh day between half past twelve and half past one. Children arrive with their families, settle into a house the group has to itself, take their turn in the kitchen and leave having built something of their own in Minecraft - and, by the operator's own account, without noticing how much they learned.