MOST people want to curl up in front of a fire with a hot drink in the kind of freezing temperatures experienced in Surrey in recent days.
But pupils at Box Hill School in Dorking are clearly made of sterner stuff. A team of five youngsters embraced the conditions and shovelled heaps of snow to create an igloo for themselves in the school's grounds.
Building the traditional shelter, as used by the Inuit people of the Arctic Circle, was the idea of 11-year-old Naffim Soltami, who bargained hard with head of outdoor education Russell Monk to be allowed to create it – and then sleep in it.
Naffim told the Advertiser: "I had to beg and plead to get Mr Monk to agree to let us build it.
"We decided to do it because there was so much snow around and we do not get it very often, so I really wanted to build it.
"It took us ages, but it was worth it."
After the group built the igloo, two of them decided to sleep in it on Friday night, lasting until about 6.30am on Saturday.
"It was so cold but we had lots of layers," added Naffim.
"But we only got about two hours' sleep. I would love to do it again, if Mr Monk would let us next time it snows."
The igloo was built on the tennis courts of the school in Old London Road, Dorking.
Mr Monk said: "It was just a bit of fun and they even managed to sleep in it which, I have to say, makes them braver than me.
"We gave them a lot of outdoor equipment to keep them warm overnight, like sleeping bags, but I'm sure it must still have been really cold."
It took the children about four hours of shovelling and compacting the snow before it was considered safe enough to be habitable.
Mr Monk added: "I had a look inside and it seemed nice and sturdy, but they did have to use a piece of wood to make sure it was compacted enough to not fall on top of them during the night.
"They begged and pleaded with me to let them sleep in there and I caved in because they were so proud of what they had accomplished."
