We took this week at Scouts to get everyone on the same page when it comes to Scouting. After fires last week, there were only a few more things we needed to cover about the basics of Scouts.
The evening was divided into 4 stations in which the Scouts moved around. They were divided by age so the Leaders at each station could target skills and ideas specific to the age group.
Jim and I was leading the ‘Youth Shaped Scouting’ part of the evening. We aim to try and have some of the programme ideas come from our young people. For the older Scouts, that meant during their time in my area feeding me ideas of what they want to do in Scouts and if there is anything we could possibly do that we haven’t. The younger Scouts instead got a more formal welcome since we never took them aside properly to say welcome or how has your time been since you joined us. They however also got to throw ideas at me for the future.
Skip and Emily led a section thinking about badges. A lot of our older Scouts now really need to start thinking about pushing for Chief Scout Gold. That means having all the challenge badges and having 6 activity badges. These Scouts were considering the opportunities they may have in the future to achieve this award. Our youngest group of Scouts were learning about how Scout badges work and that they need a little more of independent work than Cubs. Thye also considered the badges they may be able to get with their current hobbies and skills they have.
Bosun and Shaun were upstairs teaching knots, one of the most fundamental skills for any Scout. The younger Scouts were taught some of the basic knots that we use all the time and the difference between a knot and a hitch. The older Scouts were taught some more complex knots like a bow line.
Finally, Orla and Simi were taking a deep dive into trangias and why we use them at Scouts. The Scouts also got to put together and dismantle these piece of equipment and understand why they might be dangerous to cook with if you are not careful.
Next week we are at the hall. See you then!
Ellis
