How to entertain a group of lively secondary school aged children at an event?

[elliejjtiny]

Not sure how many, could be 4, could be 40. I wanted to hire a big inflatable thing or similar but the other organisers think we should be spending the money on advertising instead (budget is £500, £200 for food, £300 for advertising/entertainment) and doing games/team building stuff instead. Event is a drop in so might get people coming all at once or slowly, a few at a time. All the games I can think of or google suggests will only be fun in a big group or if they know the game already. I am nervous because I work with little ones rather than teenagers. I have teenagers of my own but never entertained a big group of them before.

I wouldn’t go for an inflatable thing they climb on - sounds like a recipe for stress and injury.

I would go for giant versions of games like Jenga/snakes and ladders, maybe a selfie booth with silly hats/wigs, indoor football goalposts/basketball hoop, Velcro darts. A variety of things to entertain their short attention spans 😆

Indoors or outdoors? Time of year? Ages? As there is a big difference between 13 and 18.
in general terms what’s the event, and how many other volunteers?

sorry just saw secondary age … doh!

So from 11-18, you’ll want different activities. What sort of facilities do you already have available?

Is this for your church fun day?
Have a bunch of silly fete games (hook a duck, coconut shy, throw a wet sponge at the vicar...).
Big versions of games like Connect 4, Jenga. You could have a score board and best score wins a modest prize.
Maybe a croquet game (those who have seen Bridgerton might like that).

I m curious about what the deleted post was now

Mixture of indoors and outdoors. Hopefully mainly outdoors but you can never tell with the weather. Early August. Me plus 2 other volunteers, maybe 2 more as well but probably not.

If indoors and in a large hall you could have a social area, with tables, chairs, bean bags, and signs to say ‘chill zone’.
you could have some craft activity tables, a quick activity they can finish would be great, bath bombs are easy to make, wild seed bombs, pre-cut ready to sew lavender bags, simple ‘cooking’ or biscuit decorating. Games area with board games / card games, you could set up a roulette gaming area. A small assault course.

Yes, it's a church fun day. We currently have a big trampoline, climbing frame, giant snakes and ladders, basketball hoop. Game where you throw a bean bag into a net with holes in. Table tennis, small table top games like the one with a marble going through a maze etc. We also have loads of games at home like articulate, balderdash, dictionary etc that we can bring.

Cross post, outside is probably easier! Tie dying outside is a fun activity, you can bulk order cheap t. Shirts.
Bigger assault course, make a bug house, make jars to put in some tea lights, swing ball. Places to sit and chat, learning survival skills like knot tying, wood whittling (you can use carrots and vegetable peelers), bean bag throwing, have 5-7 hoops which are worth different points and add the points up to swin a small bag of Harribo. Splat the rat, coconut shy (or foam balls balanced on cones and knock them off with a ping ball ball!

I am a secondary school teacher and would not recommend a inflatables . However lovely teens are , a large minority will get overexcited, be trying stunts and you have a health and safety nightmare.
Not sure about your set up , but when our partner school visits with 90 pupils to meet with 90 ( year 10 ) of ours we set up rounders , bowls , mini golf. Bingo is very popular and board games . Picnic blankets set out with a strawberries and cream table , with the strawberries already portioned and they add their own squirty cream.Music is always a good idea .

All that sounds fine, there’s several of those games which could be fun for teens. I probably wouldn’t lay anything on specially if you’re not sure how many will turn up.

Guess you could make a selfie spot - wouldn’t cost much, just a question of making some sort of frame you can hang on a wall with “Churchname 2026” on it and some fancy dress props (silly hats, sunglasses) for them to put on. They will have phones so no need for a booth.

It was just a short unhelpful comment saying an inflatable was a bad idea, but offering no other suggestions

I know you asked for entertainment ideas but if you want a good attendance of teens I’d really think carefully about getting the food right.

we’ve had the biggest attendances at our group with themes around food ie the seaside had an Ice cream van selling subsidised cones or small numbers free with a limited menu.

Also teens love a chocolate fountain we bought one to use again as was cheaper than a hired one Also candy floss kids of all ages love the stuff and the smell alone brings them in. If you buy one approx £200 for a small one will also do Christmas fair.

Actual games, bat the rat was my favourite along with the ladder bean bad game which can get really competitive.

As a vicar I can safely say that teenagers very much enjoy throw a wet sponge at the vicar in the stocks, and I can also say that some of them throw incredibly hard 😂

From a H&S point of view, as others have said, I would be wary about hiring an inflatable. Unless you have the person running it who owns it and they have done their own risk assessments/insurance. Which is how our village fair works.

Don't do it without knowing how many to expect. Last Saturday (7th Feb) a hall was booked in Tean (which is quite local to us) for what was expected to be a church service for about 70 children. Around 500 turned up and teenagers were rampaging round the area unsupervised. The local supermarket had to close and the police had to be called. https://uk.news.yahoo.com/police-called-north-staffordshire-venue-062437402.html

All of what PP’s say sounds good. I agree no inflatable, bad enough at the best of times with younger children.

Water games/ obstacle races etc could be fun and cheap.
Making s'mores on camp fire.
Set up a geocache activity in the local area.