Archive for the ‘Leaders’ Category

At this year’s Family Camp, I managed to video a few of the activities.

In the video you can see the camp site in the rain (just for a change), the Beavers and Cubs making their pirate equipment, the BBQ and finally the full camp fire.

The video lasts about 40 minutes and does take a moment or two to load when you click play, so please be patient!

There is a shorter version on YouTube – click here

Last night was the Group’s Annual General Meeting.

As well as the ‘formal’ stuff, awards were given out. It was pleasing to see three Beavers get their Chief Scouts Bronze Award and the Cub of the Year Award presented (we really need to have Beaver and Scout awards as well!).

But it was also pleasing to see a A Chief Scout’s Commendation for Good Service given to the Group Treasurer.

Congratulations to you all.

More photos in the Gallery

On the weekend of 28th – 30th May the Group held its second Family Camp (our first was for our Centenary in 2008). This time we stayed at Barnswood Scout Camp, which is near to Rudyard Lake.

Everyone arrived on the Friday evening (the majority of families having put their tents up the previous nights) and we soon started the weekend’s programme. First was a walk around the campsite as many people had never visited Barnswood before. This was followed by one of Paul’s special wide games! After this chaos subsided, it was time for supper and bed – where did the evening go?

Explaining the Wide Game

Saturday morning brought the rain! After cooking breakfast for 105 people (the most we’ve ever had on a camp!), we split into two groups. The Scouts and their parents lit fires and did some pioneering, while the Beavers, Cubs and their parents went down to Rudyard to go on the Lake on Bell Boats. To say it rained a lot would be an understatement and we got wetter from the rain than the lake!

Bell Boating

After lunch the Scouts went on the lake and the Beavers and Cubs got themselves painted with pirate faces and learned how to make secret messages, how compasses work and made their own telescopes.

Creating Secret Messages

By this time the rain had stopped and we prepared the BBQ. The BBQ was a huge success and we must have cooked well over 150 burgers and sausages!

Men BBQing (Rachael supervising obviously)!

Then it was time for part 2 of the wide game, a general knowledge quiz with questions for both adults and children (can you name the Titanic’s sister ships and do you know which country Dora the Explorer comes from?) and of course a campfire. The camp fire saw fine performances from a group of the Beavers and one of the Scouts did a solo turn. The rain even held off for most of it and just came on at the end. Then time for supper and bed.

The Campfire

Sunday began a bit more leisurely and after breakfast and flag break we held a Scouts Own and then invested one of the Beavers.

Beaver Investiture

Then it was a few quick games and activities, then packing and tidying, lunch, more packing and tidying, the close of the camp and home!

More photos are in the gallery.

The Beavers, Cubs and Scouts have been bag packing at Marks & Spencer today and we’ve made a whopping £579.12!

Many thanks to all who came and huge thanks to Sharon who organised it and Natasha who stayed all day!

Most people I work with thought that going to camp in January was a mad idea, especially in the middle of the coldest winter for years, but just under thirty Scouts and Leaders arrived at the snow covered campsite on the Friday night. This was the largest number of Scouts on a Troop camp for years. Some slept in the Hut at Beaudesert and some had the luxury of a tent. The Hut had not been used for a while and was unheated which meant that everything inside was very cold and that took 24 hours to warm up.

At the start of the Camp we invested 4 Cubs into the Troop. Following this we got changed to suit the weather conditions and got set to play a wide game in the snow. Supper was served to warm everyone up ready for bed a little later than planned, but we slept in on Saturday morning. Breakfast was therefore late, but was necessary before our walk in the Woodland surrounding the Camp.

We got back in time for dinner and straight after we were out in the snow again to try some Initiative Exercises which are hard enough for the Scouts in summer, but in freezing conditions they were very hard, however the weather did not dampen the Scouts spirits and they did well completing most of them. The Troop then went and collected fire wood for the Campfire, which was followed by a Campfire sing-song led by one of the Young Leaders. After Tea we held a camp Awards Ceremony (with used jars and tins from tea as the awards) and then played 15-pin bowling which most of us were not very good at. It was then supper time again to warm us all up before bed. We all slept much better on the Saturday night and after a huge breakfast, the packing up of kit started and the Camp shop opened. We were then told we could use some sledges this kept the Scouts amused long enough for us to prepare dinner and after a quick clean up of the buildings it was time to leave.

For our newest Leader at the Troop, this was her first camp and we are all really proud of her for making this tough snowy weekend the first of many more to come.

More pictures are in the Gallery.

Tonight we were pleased to have the District Commissioner join us at our Troop meeting to give out some awards.

First of all, he presented a Chief Scout’s Gold award to the first Scout in the Troop to achieve this award since we restarted the Troop in 2007.

Then it was three Chief Scout’s Silver awards for three Scouts who had achieved their awards before they left Cubs.

Finally Don was presented with his Ten Years Service award.

Congratulations to them all!

It’s nice to be able to mention a couple of items of good news.

First of all, one of our Scouts has just completed all the requirements to gain his Chief Scouts Gold Award. This is our first Scout to gain this award since we restarted the Troop in March 2007. And to compliment this, we have another Scout who isn’t that far off gaining his as well. Very impressive!

Secondly, one of our old Scouts, who is now an Explorer and a Young Leader with our Group, has been chosen to be in the group of Scouts representing Staffordshire at the 2011 Jamboree in Sweden. This is a great honour and a really exciting adventure for the Scouts who will attend and we’re all really proud that this particular Scout is going!

All we can say is ‘watch out Sweden!’.

Tonight Rachael and Jodie were invested as Beaver Leader and Assistant Beaver Leader respectively. Many congratulations to them both.

More photos are in the gallery.

The Group is saddened to learn of the recent death of Harry Tyler. Harry was for many years a constant fixture at Kibblestone Scout Camp, and what he didn’t know about the camp site and Scouting wasn’t worth knowing!

I remember Harry showing me a tree that he had planted when he was a young Scout and he could still pick it out! We also felt that something wasn’t right if we’d been to Kibblestone and not been told off by Harry for something!

We send our condolences to Phil and Michele and all of Harry’s family.

From Sharon Hickton -

Thank you for the lovely gifts that I received at the AGM. I still cannot believe that I didn’t twig on and Paul kept it a secret.  I was very touched and yet again many thanks to you all.

Last night we held the Group’s AGM.

As well as the usual item we had a couple of special ones.

When it came time to elect the Group Executive Committee each of the committee members got given a hat to show who they are and what jobs they did. Nick ended up wearing three! Group Scout Leader, Group Chairman & Group Secretary. He’s been relieved of one of these already.

After all the official stuff was done, we had some awards to give out. The first, and most important, was the Cub of the Year Award. This is given every year to one of the older Cubs who will be moving on to the Troop soon. The award is given to the Cub who excels in all they do throughout the year.

The next award was a surprise as Sharon, our Cub Leader was given her 25 Years Service Award. The District Commissioner gave her the badge and certificate and the Group gave her a bunch of flowers, a framed photo of all the Leaders and a bottle of wine! The flowers were presented by David Wood who recruited her to be an Assistant all those years ago, the photo was presented by the Cub who got the Cub of the Year Award and the wine by Nick as Group Scout Leader. She was most surprised we’d done anything!

Next came John our Assistant Scout Leader who was presented his Woodbadge. This now means we have 5 Leaders in the Group with their Woodbadge – the most we’ve ever had!

Finally Nick our GSL has been awarded the Award for Merit.

Well done to all and the rest of the photos are in the Gallery.

Many congratulations to Assistant Scout Leader John who has just completed his Woodbadge!

As a Woodbadge holder, John is now a member of 1st Gilwell Park Scout Group!

Congratulations!

Just back from our District’s St. George’s day Parade. It is quite impressive to see so many young people from both the Guiding and Scouting Movements in one place. When we were parading, we couldn’t hear the band at the front for most of the time as they were so far away from us!

When we got to the Church, we filled it!

The theme of the service was working together. The service was mainly a few hymns, including the Scout Hymn and the National Anthem, some songs, a sketch by the Beavers and the presenting of a Queen’s Scout Award. And, of course, we all renewed our promises.

A couple more photos are in the Gallery.

There are more photos of us on 14th Basford’s Gallery – see here.

Last week we all had our photos taken as a reminder of who was in the Group in it’s Centenary Year (ok we are a bit late). Each section had it’s own photo and so did the Leaders. Then we had one of the whole Group together.

There were a few faces missing as they weren’t able to be there, but we got the majority.

Thanks to Richard for taking the photos.

The Group

The rest of the photos are in the Gallery

Congratulations to Paul as he’s successfully taken over as Scout Leader tonight!