The Beavers had a pancake party on Friday, followed by eight new Beavers being invested and two Beavers being presented their Chief Scout’s Bronze award.
A big welcome to our new Beavers and congratulation on all your hard work to the Beavers who got their Bronze awards!
The Scout Association’s annual membership fees are now due. The fee for this year is £43 per member. Porthill Scout Group do not keep this money, it has to be paid directly to the Scout Association to run the organisation.
This cost runs into thousands of pounds for our Group and the swift collection of this membership fee is vital to the future of the Group. The Executive Committee has therefore stated that all fees MUST be paid by 30th April 2020. If your child’s fees are not paid by that date, then, unfortunately, your child will be turned away and will not be able to attend meetings or events until payment is made.
If you have difficulty making the payment on time, please speak to one of the Leaders who will be able to discuss some options with you.
The payments are processed by PayPal, in the same way you can pay online for items from retailers such as Domino’s Pizza or Interflora. You do not need to have a PayPal account to pay (you can use your credit or debit card) and all the payments are taken via PayPal’s website, so you can be sure that your details are secure, and we do not keep any of your card details. Once the payment has been made, you will receive a receipt via email.
If you wish to pay by cash or cheque, please send this to your son’s / daughter’s next Scout / Cub / Beaver meeting. Receipts will be provided for any cash or cheque payments. Please make cheques payable to “1st St Andrews Porthill Scout Group”. If your child is a new member, please can you also ask to complete a Gift Aid declaration form (available from section Leaders).
If you have any queries regarding this payment, please speak to your section Leader.
On Friday, the Beavers had a glow stick party. They made dinosaurs, fish and a boat with the glow sticks, played games with them and finally had a glow stick camp fire!
The Cubs and Scouts held a joint meeting. Firstly, one of the Cubs was awarded the Chief Scout’s Silver Award by Paul, one of the District Cub Leaders. Then, the Cubs and Scouts tried to make the tallest towers possible using only spaghetti sticks and marshmallows! Some very impressive structures were completed!
We hope that everyone had a great Christmas and new year. We’re all ready to start Scouting in 2020 (the new Roaring Twenties?) and we have some exciting things planned for the year – watch this space!
All our sections are back this week at their normal meeting times – Scouts Tuesday, Drums Thursday, Beavers and Cubs Friday.
That’s it now for 2019!
All the Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Leaders and adult helpers from 1st Porthill Scout Group would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
The Scouts return on Tuesday 7th January and the Beavers and Cubs on Friday 10th January 2020.
Over the last 2 months the Beavers have been collecting empty crisp packets and bread packets so they can be recycled.
Bread and crisp packets are not normally collected in the usual household recycling, but ours are being taken away to be properly recycled. Our Beavers collected an impressive 30+ bags and 10+ boxes full of these bags that will not now go into landfill!
The Beavers collected the packets from friends and families, schools and after school clubs. The bags had to be emptied so the packets could be sorted. The packets covered the floor of the hall!
On Friday our Beavers, Cubs and Scouts went to watch Potteries North District’s Gang show, Burdi Boys. In the cast were Beaver Leader Rachael (she was also Producer), Scout Leader Paul, Explorer Jasmine and Cub Erin.
A slight historical aside here, Burdi Boys was started in 1958 by Burslem District, of which our Group was a member. The show continued during the time of Potteries Central (again we were members until the Districts changed in 2005) up to the present day when it is run by Potteries North District, so by our members joining in the show, they are carrying on what Porthill Scouts have been doing for over 60 years.
The show opened with the cast singing Queen songs! Following this, the Beavers, always the stars of the first half of the show, sung, and signed, the Rainbow song and True Colours.
Both the Beavers and the (also excellent) Cubs featured heavily in the first half of the show as they are not permitted to be onstage past a certain time. They, along with the rest of the cast, did really well in the song and dance numbers.
Paul performed a monologue about the perils of shopping (despite our encouragement!), Jasmine featured in the Jamboree section and Erin had a solo in the Greatest Showman routine.
Rachael sang Over the Rainbow as a duet with her co-producer Sarah.
The show ended with the Burdi Boys theme tune, the traditional gang show song ‘Crest of a Wave’ (you cannot have a Gang Show without singing this!) and more songs from the Greatest Showman.
This was another excellent Burdi Boys, which all our Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Leaders enjoyed. Thanks to the cast and crew for putting on such a great show!
Over the 1st weekend of November, the Beavers and Cubs had a Halloween Camp at Kibblestone.
The Cubs stayed out all weekend, while the Beavers just came out for the day on Saturday.
On the Saturday, everyone was showed how to light fires (which was rather tricky due to the amount of rain that had fallen), carved pumpkins with scary faces and these were all displayed in front of the Cub Lair with candles in them. The Beavers and Cubs all dressed up in scary costumes and watched a Halloween movie.
Following this everyone watched a firework display and then had a campfire. Unfortunately, this was inside as all the wood was too wet!
After the campfire finished the Beavers went home and the Cubs went to bed!
Following on from last year’s epic parade, on Sunday, Remembrance Day, our Remembrance Day Parade started at St. Barnabas Church, Bradwell and was again led by our Drum Corps. Our young people were joined by the Basford and St. Wulstan’s Scouts, Centurion Explorers, Porthill’s Guides and Bradwell’s Boys Brigade, by members of the congregation of St. Barnabas Church, Fr. Chris, Rev. Karen, lots of parents and a number of veterans!
There were around 190 uniformed people in the parade and probably the same amount who came with us!
The parade was watched by many people along the route.
The Beavers carried poppies with the names of the 23 Porthill Scouts who had been killed while serving in the First and Second World Wars (see our Remembrance Page).
At Porthill’s War Memorial, a wreath was laid by a Scout and Guide in memory of those killed in all wars. The police who had ensured we were safe on the roads while parading, also placed a wreath on the Memorial.
Thank you to all who came. See more photos in the Gallery.
They won’t care if your Necker’s not ironed
They won’t care if your shoes are grubby They won’t care if you’re 2 mins late
And they won’t care if you stand near your mate.
All they want is for you to remember
And to wear your poppy and say you know All they want is a future of peace
And a chance for the children to grow
So wear your poppy, your uniform, your Necker.
Say your thanks as a Scout and be proud. For the lives that were changed, were lost or altered,
were destroyed so that you can be there and be allowed.
They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn At the going down of the sun And in the morning We will remember them.
Don’t forget you can find out about our Scouts who were sadly killed in WW1 and WW2 on our online memorial site. You can also find out about the Porthill Memorial and about the men commemorated on it.
Last night the Group had a Bingo evening and the Annual General Meeting.
We had a full hall with everyone playing bingo. As well as playing for some rather good prizes, everyone had barbecued burgers and hot dogs!
During a break in the bingo, the Group’s Annual General Meeting was held. As part of the AGM the Beaver, Cub and Scout of the Year awards were presented. Congratulations to this year’s winners.
We also had a presentation by Jasmine, who told us all about her adventures at this year’s World Scout Jamboree.
A raffle was held and we made over £100 for Group funds!
Thank you to everyone who came and especially to everyone who helped with the evening and took part in the AGM.
Well done to the Cubs who took part in the District’s Cub swimming gala last night. Cub Leader Sharon, was very proud of them all! Our Cubs came 5th out of 9 teams.
St Giles came 1st, Basford & Whitmore 2nd and Westlands came 3rd. More photos are in the gallery.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish - click the read more link for details how to do this.AcceptRejectRead More
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.