For the last week before half term, Bosun had the choice of what we did. He came to the conclusion that all the pioneering we did was very standard. We taught the Scouts very similar skills every time we did pioneering and that’s probably from the inception of the Scout group. So Bosun set out to do an experiment. Can Chieftains raise a few shelters made from pioneering poles, role and tarpaulin whilst teaching the Scouts some new pioneering skills?
For this the Scouts had to be aware of 2 new techniques: The Shear Lashing and Tautline Hitch. The Shear Lashing is used to keep 2 pioneering poles together without completely binding the 2 pole together so they have some movement.
The other technique, the Tautline Hitch, is used to allow a rope to be tightened or slacked off between 2 points. It creates the ability for structures to be held up without the need to keep adjusting peg location. The mechanism is similar to what’s used on the guide ropes of the tents.
The above techniques enabled the whole troop to raise some of these shelters. The troop was divided into 2 groups, about half of each patrol in each group. One half went with Bosun to learn the Tautline Hitch whilst the other half came with me to learn the Shear Lashing. After a given example, each patrol was expected to produce the necessary shelter components with their new knowledge. The components were then combined to create the shelters. Once the main structure was up, Scouts were then able to hoist the tarpaulin up.
At the end of the session, we had a quick reflection on why failure is important. Some of the parts of the shelters didn’t work out as planned, for example some of the shelters were slanted due to different size poles and some were too high. This was a failure. However, these failures are important as whether it was an error from the Leaders or a error from the Scouts there was something to learn and that learning leads to improvement. Failure only enables success.
That is us done for this half term. After half term, we will be outside for nearly the entire term to make use of the good weather. We will be back on the 7th June. We will not be at the Scout Hall so please keep an eye on your emails!
See you all after half term!
Ellis
