Some would say it’s madness to hold a hike in the middle of winter. Bosun would say you are wearing the wrong clothing.
This week, Skip and Ben were away in Snowdonia revising their hill walking so I had the fun of putting together a little hike for the Scouts.
We hiked from Theale to the top of Dark Lane in Tilehurst. We split into 3 groups. Simi and I took Evans Group. Neil took Seamus’ Group whilst Bosun and Jim took Gabriel’s Group. Orla took up as the support vehicle and even managed to bring her dog Buster. Unfortunately, the grid references that I had written down did not fit the maps so we had to change plans. Instead, the Scouts had the full lead on working out the correct direction with the Leaders and people that decided to join simply following and correcting when necessary. You can find the route below:
The Route
All the groups navigated well with a certain Leader being tricked by his favorite turning of all time.
Sulham Woods also provides a lovely view of the Sainsbury’s Retail Park which I managed to capture the best I could with my phone as my group traveled up the hill:
All in all, I would call the evening success. The weather even held out for us which was even better. I hope everyone who attended enjoyed the walk!
Apologies for a short blog. Some things have more to be said about than others.
We will be Bell Ringing next week. Details will follow at some point in the following days.
Happy New Year Everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years hopefully spending time with your family and friends or whatever you decided to do to make the most of it. All the leaders are looking forward to delivering another year of Scouting with the big event this year being Summer Camp in Brecon.
We will be having some new Scouts come in over the next few weeks and we have lost a lot of our PL’s so last week the Leaders had a bit of a debate over a plate of curry to try and work out what the best new setup for patrols would be. It’s mostly the same but I would like to mention our new Patrol Leaders and Assistant Patrol Leaders who were decided over most of the deliberation:
Cobras are now led by Alex Reed with his second in command being Arran Lister.
Hawks continues to be led by Evan Melleney with his second in command now being Billy Baker.
Otters are now led by Gabriel Armstrong with his second in command being George Hurneyman.
And finally, Wolves is now led by Seamus Tobin with Tegan Scott now as APL.
Congratulations to everybody in their new role!
We have also changed how we track patrol membership. It is an absolute nightmare to sew and unpick badges and since we change patrols around so much it no longer makes sense to use Patrol Badges. Instead, we are now moving to a system of patrol woggles in which it is the Scout’s responsibility to look after it until you leave your patrol or Chieftains.
We are also bringing Patrol Points back with a few changes. Scouting and society is always evolving and some of the factors we used to award points on no longer make sense. So the patrol points will now work on a system along these lines starting in a few weeks time:
Every week each Patrol is entitled to a set amount of points.
Each Patrol will be expected to follow a set criterion which includes:
Being on time to Scouts unless we know that you are going to be late.
Having the correct uniform every week.
Each Scout having good personal hygiene.
Falling in in a quick and orderly fashion with Patrol Leadership being a guide for the patrol to follow.
Any time the above criteria is breached we will deduct points off the relevant patrol for that week.
All Leaders, Young Leaders, and Senior Patrol Leaders have the right to add additional points for Scouts that follow the Scouting Values, Promise and Law with prime examples or if we just generally appreciate something a Scout has done. We are also allowed to deduct points for various reasons such as poor behavior.
Last time this system existed, there was never a real reason to be the best patrol. However, the winner from now on will be awarded a prize. The winning patrol will be treated to a meal out of the winning patrols choice, courtesy of the Leaders. I hope this new system encourages some friendly competition between all the patrols.
The activity of the night was a Fire Crash Course. Ben went through all the ways we may possibly use fire on camps including trangias, gas fires. Skip then gave a run through on how to light a fire, with how to set up a good starting structure and a look over the fire triangle. We usually just assume the Scouts know the basics of fire so hopefully this was a good lesson and/or refresher on how to do it.
Of course, this knowledge was then put to the test by making some fire outside. Whilst this was going on Skip and Myself took the oldest Scouts who are approaching the end of their time with us to discuss with what they all need to do to get Chief Scout Gold. That criteria you can find here.
A quick reminder that My.Scout allows you to track all your child’s badge progress, view the programme (which you can also see on the blog homepage here) and see and amend the personal details we hold on your Scout among other things. If you don’t have access to it, please email one of the Leaders so we can help you as we are slowly going to be using it more and more to organize what’s going on.
Next week, we will be doing a hike around Reading. Details to follow soon. Please keep an eye out for that email because we will not be meeting at the Scout Hall.
This evening we were very glad to welcome Pang Valley District Commissioner Grant to present something very special to 3 of our Scouts. That doesn’t excuse the standard proceeds of an evening. This is what happened when Chieftain got together to do some carols.
I’d argue there are 3 main components to a Chieftain Carol Evening. One. A bonfire of which Otters and Hawks got up and running with Bosun in record time. Two. Mulled Juice. Orla and Cobras took to the kitchen to make all the things that make Mulled Wine. Except for the alcohol for obvious reasons. Third and finally. Mince Pies. Wolves got to relax a little in the kitchen with me while we cooked some lovely minced pies.
At 8:30, the some of the parents arrived to join in the festivities. We sang ‘We Three Kings’, ‘Silent Night’ and ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’. I’ll add a snippet of the fun at a later date!
After that everyone was invited inside for Mulled Juice and Minced Pies which I do hope went down a treat. Emily also bought some chocolate to share around :).
However, before we went inside, we had some very important awards to give out. Emily, Alberto, and Noah (one of our previous Scouts) had all earned their Chief Scout Gold. This award is only given to those Scouts who can complete all the challenge badges and earn a solid amount of activity badges. It is a testament to them as people. It requires hard work and determination as we can only do certain areas of it on a Friday night and it was up to them to put in the rest it.
To Emily, Alberto and Noah. Congratulations from all the leaders at Chieftains. You deserve it.
The three achievers.
Unfortunately, we have to say goodbye to 4 Scouts tonight. Emily, Ciaran, Alberto and Lorien.
I want to thank you all on behalf of the Leaders for being wonderful. Like any Scouts you know how to make our time enjoyable and a genuine laugh. Wherever the world takes you, whether its here at 79th or somewhere else, I and the rest of the Leaders wish you the very best. Thank you!
That’s it for another term at Scouts. The activities have been a bit quieter over the last few weeks but we will be back in full swing with all kinds of wonderful things going on at the beginning of the new year.
The only notice I have for everyone is that the 79th Campfire and Carols even takes place on Sunday 16th December (that’s most likely tomorrow for most of you). It begins at 5pm and runs until about 7pm. If you bought raffle tickets this is where they are being drawn as well so I hope to see lots of you there!
Scouts will most likely begin next term on the 11th January (subject to change of course).
Have a lovely winter break, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Christmas is fast approaching so we decided to do something a little festive this week. Christmas Crafts.
After a quick game of medic ball, 3 tables were put in place for various stations.
At the flag end of the hall, Orla was making various christmassy bits. I’m pretty sure I saw mini Christmas trees in jars and what looked like some very flamboyant pencils.
In the centre, Ben was taking a masterclass in what I would call ‘Christmas Presentation’ in which the Scouts were able to make their own Christmas Cards for loved ones and learn how to correctly wrap Christmas Presents. I recommend to all the parents to test the Scouts to see if they remember the correct strategy if you have any random boxes laying around :).
Finally, at the fire exit end of the hall, Jim had an ongoing project of making some reindeer out of cardboard. It involved first cutting out cardboard from a few templates and then using tape and a hot glue gun to fix the pieces together. Jim gave no assistance apart from the overlooking of safety.
All the Scouts hard at work.
Please also find below some of the finished projects, which I think look great:
One of the 2 heads.
We also had the second half of the badges this evening. Congratulations to the following:
Alberto Corradine-Castaneda – Joining In Lv 6, Senior Patrol Leader Stripes
George Hurneyman – Joining In Lv 7
Well done all!
Next week, a few things are happening.
There is a possibility for carol singing.
There is also a possibility for a Christmas party.
They might be both happening, only one might. You’ll find out on Friday.
One thing I would say though is we need everyone in full uniform as we will be presenting a Chief Scout Gold award to that Scout I mentioned a while ago. By all means though feel free to bring a Santa hat or drape yourself in tinsel.
It was also Josh Wood’s last night tonight. Best of luck and thank you for being great from everyone at Chieftains.
Following with the theme of more intellectual based evenings from the last few weeks, we decided we would look at Climate Change as part of the World Challenge Badge.
To begin the evening, the Scouts played Islands. Most nights games involve a little bit of speed (Manhunt springing to mind). However, this game is all about teamwork. Around the hall, the Scouts found some Islands represented by paper. They were then asked to swim or run around these Islands and when a shark attacked they would have to scramble to safety. However, these Islands got smaller and perhaps disappeared due to rising sea levels. The game was a test to see who could think inventively whilst sticking to the theme. I think its safe to say we will be doing that game every once and while.
We were blessed to have some guests to take this session. Johan’s mum is actually studying climate change at university in her spare time so she was kind enough to come and take this session with her associate from the university who has a full Ph.D. in Climate Change.
They talked about the process of climate change and how it occurs. A game was used to prove how heat gets trapped in the atmosphere of the Earth. The discussion then moved on to the effects of climate change and why it may be disastrous over a long period of time with malaria being one of the hard-hitting effects that got the Scouts engaged. Finally, the Scouts were asked to consider how the effects of climate change can be minimized and perhaps even slowly reversed.
I’d like to extend a huge thank you to both our guests on behalf of all the leaders. You delivered a session that we couldn’t have dreamed to match if we did it. Thank you so much!
Being a leader at a Scout group generally involves more than just the excitement of a Friday night and sometimes we all get together to plan what’s next for the following term. It’s all well and good us planning every evening but at the end of the day, the night belongs to the Scouts. So as a final event for the evening we got the Scouts to get some ideas on what they wanted to do in the new year. Not only does this deliver on the idea of Youth Shaped Scouting but it helps us in knowing what works well and what doesn’t. I’d expect to see a lot of the Scout’s ideas in the following year.
We had some badges this evening. Please join me in congratulating the following:
Tegan Scott – Creative Challenge, Teamwork Challenge, Joining In Lv 6
Alex Clark – Creative Challenge, Expedition Challenge, Teamwork Challenge
Evelyn Lockhart – Expedition Challenge
Emily Moulsley – Skills Challenge, World Challenge
Billy Baker – Teamwork Challenge, Joining In Lv 1, Assistant Patrol Leader Stripe
William Green – Entertainer
Lorien Bramble – Entertainer
CJ Reeder – Lifesaver (We had nothing to do with this. CJ simply proved his skills.)
Charlie Stevenson – Nights Away Lv 1, Joining In Lv 1
Joseph Dabbs – Joining In Lv 4
As a final note, the Leaders are very happy at the moment because there is a Scout who has put in the work and has their Chief Scout Gold. I’m not going to tell you but if you’ve been keeping track you might be able to work it out. More about this when its awarded.
And finally, we said goodbye to a Scout this evening. Alex, everyone at Chieftains wishes you the best in the future and it has been a pleasure to have you as one of our Scouts. All the best!
Next week, on the lead up to Christmas, we are going to do some Christmas crafts.
Last Friday’s meeting was special as for a change, the Leaders didn’t have to plan anything. Instead, as part of Ciaran’s preparation for the Scout World Jamboree, he bought something for the troop to do instead.
For those that don’t know, every 4 years Scouts and Explorers age 14 – 17 from around the world meet in one of the many countries for just over 1 an a half weeks. This is an experience of a lifetime and that experience extends well beyond the trip itself. Every Scout who would like to go has to first go on a selection camp (of which Ciaran successfully passed) and then has to raise not only the money for themselves but for Scouts from parts of the world that may not be able to afford to go on such a trip. That amount totals to about £4000 of which Ciaran has already raised all of it.
This will be the 24th World Scout Jamboree and is being held at Glen Jean, West Virginia in the United States of America. It will be on the theme of ‘Unlock a New World’ and you can read more about what’s in store for Ciaran and thousands of Scouts from across the world here:
So how does this all relate with us here on a small scale at Chieftains? Well as I said part of the preparation requires Ciaran to get a feel for organisation and leadership skills so he decided that the Scouts tonight should make some good ol’ American Pancakes.
Each Patrol got a mixing bowl and set of instructions. It was then up to them as a team to come up and receive their ingredients as required. At the end of it all, we had some very satisfied Scouts…
On another food-related note, the District held their annual ‘Big Breakfast’ this weekend just gone. Contrary to the name its just not about how well you can dish up a plate of food off an altar fire, it’s about working as a team and organizing yourselves efficiently all without any input from the leaders.
We put a team of willing Scouts in to battle it out with the rest of the district. They didn’t hit a podium position but I was watching the entire time and I do have to say they put up a very fierce fight with their food smelling amazing and their overall team dynamic being very strong. A very well done to Izzy, Lyla, Will, and Billy for a great morning! I highly suggest you all take part again next year now you have a flavor of what its like. (No pun intended 😉 )
On a final note for this week, we also had the pleasure of investing the other half of our new Scouts into the troop. So on behalf of everyone at Chieftains, the warmest welcome to Benjamin and Solomon!
Next meeting, we will be considering the world in which we live in.
Last week, I actually forgot to write the blog. Oops! However, also to my luck, the evenings fit together quite nicely as they are shorter so I’ve put them into one post. Enjoy!
09/11/18 – The Great Scout Breakfast
Last week, we decided to get some practice in for The Big Breakfast. This is a district event held at 79th in which teams from across Pang Valley come together one Saturday morning and try and cook the best breakfast on an altar fire for a panel of judges.
However the weather wasn’t particularly spectacular, so a majority of the troop used the gas burners inside. However, Ben, Neil and I took some of the willing Scouts outside to cook under the hammock hut. Despite the wood being wet, both groups managed to get a fire going and deliver some very tasty sausages which bodes well for the Big Breakfast. I also heard some great things from inside as well which is fantastic.
16/11/18 -Beyond the Frame
This week at Scouts, we decided to take it slow and chill out. A few weeks ago, we taught the Scouts some photography basics and how to get some nice pictures. We saw the result of that on Friday Night. Many Scouts got up and presented their photos to the troop talking about their artistic choices and process. We also got to hear a little about where the photos were taken and the experiences surrounding them which I thought was nice.
Ben and I also got to round the night off with a little discussion about Scouting in general. We talked very briefly about the promise and the laws trying to get the core values of what we stand for as Scouts into the minds of all the Scouts.
We also decided to talk about the personal meaning of Scouts because everyone who attends Scouts has a reason for attending even the Leaders. It was nice to hear some of the responses to the topic and its fair to say everybody had something to contribute.
We also invested 2 Scouts: Joseph and Charlie. A big welcome from everybody at Chieftains.
Next week, the meeting will have 2 parts. The first will be finishing photo presentations and the other will be led by Ciaran as part of his Jamboree preparations.
I hope everybody had a wonderful break last week!
To start off the term we decided to do a hike. However, we thought it would cool if we did something a little different.
Thursday Night, Skip, Jim and I took to the Tilehurst Streets to tape some poppies with names on them to various lamposts and signage. These locations Skip placed on a map. The objective of the challenge was to navigate these markers in any order the Scouts liked in groups. This was the leader copy of the map:
The names on the poppies are some of the various names printed on the Tilehurst WW1 Memorial in the Triangle since in one week the Remembrance Parade is taking place.
We thought it relevant that we acknowledge the event outside of the parade and since we were going to something very similar tonight, we thought this approach was appropriate.
The top 2 scoring teams were given cookies as a prize. 🙂
Quite a short one this week as there was only a singular event going on. Next week we are doing a good old fire because winter weather like this needs a little warmth.
The main thing I need to mention is that on the 11th November the Remembrance Parade is going on and we would like as many of the Scouts there to represent us. Most of the leaders will be there too. If you could come in full uniform that would be grand. We need the Scouts behind the Coop in the car park at 10am.
Looking forward to seeing as many Scouts as possible there!
Ellis
As mentioned last week, we felt like being a little crafty tonight so we thought we would explore 2 different ways you can make some Woggles; the usually circular shaped item that holds our neckerchiefs together.
For the game, I thought I would point out that Alberto our resident SPL or Senior Patrol Leader took to the stand to organise the game and did a very good job too.
I want to give a little spotlight to this role and the way a Scout group is run since we don’t actually talk about it very much.
In most Scout Groups there usually is a hierarchy in how the troop is run. Most Scout groups look a little like this:
Scout Leader (Skip aka Peter)
Assistant Scout Leader (Bosun, Ben and soon to be Neil, Jim and myself)
Young Leader (Simi)
Senior Patrol Leader (Currently Alberto)
Patrol Leaders
Assistant Patrol Leaders
All the Scouts
This is something Schools don’t give Young People a chance to do a lot and that is lead. Here in Chieftains, when you turn over 14 there is a chance you get given the role of SPL. You don’t own a patrol specifically but you instead get to stand with the Leaders and expect to receive a similar amount of respect as we do. It’s a chance to get a taste of what a higher leadership role is like above the role of a PL. Obviously, we can’t give the role to everyone otherwise we would run out of PL’s but we would if we could!
And I want to reiterate that with every role we give out its not a superficial title, it’s a chance for the Scouts to build some of those essential leadership skills and we hope they take fully to their role with the Leaders assistance and guidance.
We had 2 kinds of woggle to make this evening.
The first was a good old fashioned wooden woggle made of the wood. The benefit of this kind of woggle is that it’s quite flexible on how you design it once you have the base cut out. Incisions, shapes or just tree bark you are free to shape it and change it with various knife skills.
Remember to go over some of the edges with sandpaper over half term!
The second was a paracord woggle. This involved tying and knotting paracord together to create a nice braided circle. You are limited into a few specific designs with this kind of woggle but you can get some funky variations on colour with the right kinds of woggle.
I will help anyone finish theirs after the half term or you can try to finish it yourself with the guide sheet we were using on Friday which you can find here!
Some funky examples from the worksheet 🙂
It’s Badge Time! We had a serious amount to give out this evening. Please help we in congratulating the following people:
Alberto Corradine-Castaneda – Creative Challenge, Team Leader Challenge, Entertainer, Digital Citizen Lv 1, Raven Patrol Badge (Welcome!)
C J Reeder – Creative Challenge, Cyclist, Entertainer, Physical Recreation
Emily Moulsley – Creative Challenge, Personal Challenge, Entertainer
Alex Reed – Entertainer, Digital Citizen Lv 1, Hike Lv 2, Nights Away Lv 5, Joining In Lv 1
Billy Baker – Entertainer
Kerstin Da Costa – Entertainer
Arran Lister – Joining In Lv 6
Please tell me if I’ve missed anyone again, I might have lost track with the number of Entertainers I had to write.
That’s all for this term so there is no meeting this evening (19th October). We will be back after half term on the 2nd November where we will be hiking so bring suitable walking shoes.
See you in 2 weeks!
Ellis
Hello everybody! I hope you all had a wonderful week.
We as leaders were a little thin on the ground this week but that hardly stops us from putting on a good time. This week at Chieftains, we took it back to basics considering some of the basic Scout knowledge you may need to know when being part of our little part of 79th.
While the troop burnt some energy I took the PL’s and APL’s into the Venture Den to discuss important matters about the troop.
First, we had some great feedback saying we need to fill the board. I’m glad to tell you we are going to work on filling the board including putting that mascot up from weeks ago.
Back in 2015, we had a Patrol Point System in which the patrols battled it out to be crowned best patrol of the term. We got rid of it on the fact that the Scout didn’t actually gain anything from winning. So in saying that I have taken the feedback the PL’s and APL’s have given and passed it on to the other leaders and I’m happy to say that we may have settled on something quite special for the prize. More on that when its official.
Once everyone had reconvened, Bosun had set up a Scout Law relay in which Scouts would run back and forth collecting parts of a Scout Law and putting the pieces in the right order. The catch was one Law was missing so they had to figure out which one it was.
Did I mention the previous activity was scored and all the following are too? Points mean prizes after all!
Next, the Scouts took part in ‘The Scout Pub Quiz’ in which they were asked 10 questions on varying Scouting knowledge. The best part is that through the power of the internet you can find the questions and answers below: Pub Quiz Q’s and Answers
It’s in an OpenOffice format so you should be able to open it. If you can’t please leave a comment at the bottom of the page and I’ll make it something more accessible!
For the grand finale, we had a Pioneering Challenge! How many square lashings can Scouts do in 20 mins? Turns out a fair amount!
It was a hard fought competition but here are the results:
1st – Otters
2nd – Hawks
3rd – Wolves
4th – Cobras
Well done to everyone! We should have a prize for all attending Otters on Friday!
Few housekeeping bits to mention:
There will be a District wide PL/APL forum soon that our PL’s and APL’s will be able to attend. If the Scouts or Parents have any thoughts about Scouting be sure to pass it on to them.
The deposit for camp next year needs to be in soon. If your Scout wants to go and can make sure to get that in.
Next week, we are feeling a little crafty and are making woggles. Hope to see all the Scouts there!
Ellis
