Freshers’ Week at Our Fresh Location

Freshers’ Week is a time that staff at Escape Studios anxiously look forward to. There was one big change for this year, as we moved home over the summer into our vibrant NEW campus in North Greenwich!

Before we get into it, let's jump back a week…  

Before our doors opened to students, we hosted a week of online activities for the new first years. On Monday 11th September and Tuesday 12th September, first year students were invited to participate in a series of talks, where key members of staff brought the students up to speed with the ins and outs of the various departments and what they can offer new students. Then from Wednesday to Friday, it was time for the students to e-meet each other, at our series of e-sports matches - after all, there’s nothing that bonds people more than a bit of teamwork and healthy competition…  

Around came Monday 18^th September, the first in-person day of Freshers’ Week 2023! As we said, we have moved home since last term, so we gave our returning students an opportunity to come to the campus with their classmates to collect their new passes, have a quick welcome back talk and building tour and to log-on in the studios to get re-familiarised. Next up is where the wonderful Escape Student Association (ESA) comes into play. On Monday and throughout the rest of the week, the ESA had booked the students some sessions at Toca Social. Based in the O2, Toca Social is an immersive, interactive football experience, where students got to team up to launch footballs at targets on a projector screen, with targets ranging from stacks of cubes to zombies!  

Next, on Tuesday we welcomed our new first year students to the campus! Similarly to the returning students, the first years collected their passes, had a tour, got settled in and went to Toca Social to meet the ESA. However, there was one key difference… we organised for our first years drum roll please A TREASURE HUNT! Some of our wonderful Studio Assistants volunteered to spend Tuesday and Wednesday hidden around Greenwich Peninsula dressed up as famous characters from games, film and TV. The goal was to have the students socialise with one another and the Studio Assistants, and to explore North Greenwich in a fun and interactive way. Each character station had a small activity for the students to complete, ranging from photo challenges to mini archery challenges, to jumping to hit their heads against Mario & Peach’s (soft) yellow question box which was raised in the air. All in all, Tuesday and Wednesday were a fun-filled couple of days for our freshers', and it was awesome to meet them all!  

Finally, for those that don’t know, it is almost tradition at this point that the Student Association ends Freshers' Week each year with a Freshers’ Boat Party. One major difference this year is that North Greenwich Pier is pretty much on our doorstep! So, the students piled onto the boat to enjoy the completely sold-out boat party, which took them down the Thames (singing and dancing the whole way). They finally disembarked onto Festival Pier at midnight, before heading off to the afterparty at a nightclub, where they partied into the small hours.  

We are so glad to have started the term, and to have our new campus full of students! This is what we, as staff, have been working so hard for over the summer break, and it’s safe to say that all that hard work paid off.