Hi everyone!
It’s been fantastic to see the group continuing to grow, and our children all having so much fun.
As ever, I have to say thank you to all the leaders and volunteers for everything you do for all the young people in the group.
I wish to congratulate some of our leaders on the achievement of various awards. This will be a surprise to some, as I haven’t been able to give these out in person yet!
Wood Badge: The wood badge involves completion of the adult training scheme and commitment to the young people in their section. It gives me great pleasure to present them to: Chris A (Scouts), Max (Scouts) and Nicola (Cubs).
5 years’ service: Peter (Skills Instructor), Matt (Scouts)
10 years’ service: David (Skills Instructor), Paul (Cubs), Tiana (Beavers), Giles (Skills Instructor)
We need to say a very big thank you to Peter Schild, who has stepped down as Chair of the Executive Committee for the past 18 years. Peter has helped our group grow to its now stable position, with us being the 3rd largest in Esher District with over 170 young people. Thank you Peter for your leadership and guidance; we look forward to being able to say thank you properly in the near future.
Bruce Burrows, our treasurer, has taken over the Chair which leaves us needing a new treasurer. If you think you can help, please get in touch.
We’ll be in touch with details of which areas of the group we are keen to develop and need support in soon. In the meantime, have a look at our volunteering pages and let us know if you’d like to help out.
Merry Christmas Everyone, and a Happy New Year!
Liam, Group Scout Leader
“We believe passionately about what Scouting has to offer. So much so, that we contribute our time, our efforts, and our talents to help our, and your children grow in Scouting.
Sometimes we find ourselves going in too many directions. We run out of steam, we have memory lapses, communication lines break down, time slips by; But that doesn’t mean we don’t care.
These girls and boys fill us with pride at their determination and accomplishments. Their smiles and laughter fill up a room, and when they say “thank you” it makes it all worthwhile.
Please be patient if we appear distracted, frustrated, or overwhelmed at times. Forgive us if we are not always the kind of volunteer you would be, if only you had the time.
Instead, provide us with your encouragement: A kind word, a thank you, or offer us your help.
We are, after all, only mentors, role models, leaders, volunteers, who have made a Promise to give these young people, your children, the most precious gift we have to offer, the gift of time.”
Highlights from the last term
Fundraising fun at our Beer Festival and Bingo Night!
Despite being a very difficult year to organise fundraising in person, we have still managed to put together some really successful events.
The beer festival in October sold over 750 tickets across the three sessions held over the weekend. We received fantastic feedback from those who attended, not only about the beers , ciders and gins, but also the food and entertainment which went down a storm!
The beer festival was a huge undertaking by a group of our scout leaders, parents and volunteers . Rescheduled twice and two years in the planning, it simply would not have been possible without their commitment. We hope this will now become a welcome yearly event that will be a great way to raise funds for the group while strengthening links to the local community.
In November, a group from our fundraising committee organised a family bingo event at the scout hall . A fun afternoon was had by all and the team managed to raise £690 for the group! Thanks to everyone that attended to make it such a success and hopefully this can also become a regular event.
Raising funds for essential equipment and facilities is a vital part of making our group such a success, and simply isn’t possible without the help of our scout families. We are always on the lookout for help, be that new members of our fundraising committee or helping with individual events. If you can give some time or have any fundraising ideas yourself then please let us know!
Beavers
Beavers became very excited about earning their badges this term! One of the badges we covered is a new one to Scouts, called Money Skills. It was developed after it was found that more than half of children aged 6 to 10 said they don’t understand money (according to a 2020 survey by Censuswide). The aim of the badge is to help young people in developing life long financial skills by building confidence and understanding of money with fun, hands on games and activities. We thought the meeting was a success and will definitely repeat in the future.
I think all of the Beavers will agree that lots of fun was had from our visitors this term. Beavers ‘got their groove on’ learning street dance with Carl, sending their model aeroplanes on long distance flights (one end of the hut to the other!) with Mr Midson, celebrating Diwali with Bhrinda and First Aid with Annie saw quite a few ‘injured limbs’ being attended to with bandages and slings. Our thanks to our visitors for sharing your skills and interests with us.
Our Christmas adventure was sledging/ringos at Sandown Ski Centre. Beavers had a blast!
Monday Cubs
The Monday Cubs started the term on the water, developing their kayaking skills!
During the darker evenings we worked on leadership and teamwork skills by playing exciting wide games.
One of our favourite evenings this term was a night all about different culinary cultures; we all went home full that evening!
This term the Cubs have also had had the opportunity to learn about fire safety which included a trip to the fire station and a chance to spray the hoses. They have been challenged by building Lego bridges strong enough to carry beans, and tall towers to support a squash ball on a STEM evening.
We were also joined by the South East Rivers Trust who explained the very interesting life cycle of an eel, who knew they travelled 6000 miles to make it to the Ember?! There were also bumps and laughs all round with a night on the ice at Hampton Court.
Tuesday Scouts
As 2021 comes to an end, looking back it has been an amazing year. We’ve had some great fun and adventures with new events we’d never done before.
Starting the Autumn term, Tuesday Scouts continued their water activities of Kayaking and Powerboating, making the most of the summer until the nights drew in for Winter.
Off the water, we returned to the hut for the first time this year with Wide Games, Map Skills, Boat Maintenance and most importantly…Knots! Getting back to the hut allowed our newest Scouts to see the different side of Scouting they’d not seen before. For International Cooking night, Scouts prepared the best food we’d ever seen with various flavours from around the world. The two best dishes went head-to-head in a food quiz to be crowned champions of the kitchen.
A visit to RNLI Teddington provided a talk about river safety along with some role playing of a simulated call out, learning about their equipment and what it takes to rescue someone. The Pizza and Movie Night with not one, but two bouncy castles was a fantastically chilled evening with all sorts of weird and wonderful toppings being piled onto the pizzas, pineapple included!
Scouts did a fantastic job during the first Night Hike since Covid and shot round the course in record breaking time. Our trip to Chessington Howl’o’Ween was great fun as we watched the park come to life in the evening with rollercoasters and thrill rides.
Ending the term, we swung through the trees at Go Ape Chessington as Scouts worked together to overcome obstacles and challenges. Our final outing for Christmas will be a trip to Hampton Court Ice Skating. Some will whizz round like the professionals and the leaders will cling to the sides.
Several new leaders have been a welcome boost to the Section with fresh ideas and approaches to activities. A huge Thank You to all those who managed to make this possible.
We look forward to investing our new Scouts in the Spring term and welcoming new faces from Cubs.
Wednesday Scouts
We’ve had a busy, but exciting term at Wednesday Scouts with plenty of opportunities to learn new skills and have lots of fun!
Highlights this term have included visiting Polyapes for fires and wide games, bleach art, rifle shooting, lots of cooking and learning how to build a wall with bricks and mortar!
We were delighted that one of our teams won the district Night Hike competition in October, and everyone that took part did brilliantly.
The Scouts have also been working on their skills and creative challenges so have been practicing using knives to whittle wood and enjoyed a stop motion animation challenge!
Thursday Cubs
The new Thursday Cubs have had a very successful Autumn term. In September we managed to get out on the river and the Cubs had fun squirting each other with the water pistols whilst trying to remain upright in their kayaks!
The cubs have enjoyed learning new skills this term, such as wiring a plug, making a cup of tea, using an iron, using a drill and a saw to cut wood. We hope the parents and carers benefit from these new found skills as much as the Cubs!
One of our favourite pack meetings was our ‘Chip Shop Challenge’. The cubs visited several chip shops in Molesey and rated their chips against different criteria including crispiness, temperature and flavour. The unanimous winner, as voted by 1st Molesey Thursday Cubs, was Sam’s Kebab House!
Three of our Cubs did a great job of representing the Thursday Cubs at the Remembrance Parade in early November, remembering all those who had made sacrifices for future generations.
We have also enjoyed learning how to keep a healthy heart with a demonstration of how to check our pulse and heart rate, before, during and after exercise.
The Cub value of co-operation was demonstrated in abundance during our lego engineering session as the Cubs worked together to build the strongest bridge and tallest structure. Their problem solving and communication skills were commendable.
Explorers
As we were out on the water over the summer term our investiture was delayed until recently, when we officially welcomed nine ‘new’ Scouts to Explorers with their investiture. It was great to see them all looking so smart!
We’ve enjoyed a mixture of activities this term including power boating, cooking, games, air rifle shooting, campfire, night walk etc. We entered a team of four into the District air rifle shooting competition and came 4thout of 18 teams, which was a great result. You made us all proud!
This term has seen 14 of our young people complete their Module A Young Leader training, which is designed to help young leaders to develop knowledge, skills and understanding needed to act as part of the section leadership team. There are a total of 10 training modules, which the young leaders can continue to attend, if they so choose, in order to build on their current training and experience if they decide to take out an adult appointment.
In October, four of our older Explorers completed their Duke of Edinburgh (DofE) Silver Qualifying Expedition. The practice paddle expedition took place along the Medway in Kent, which included some exciting chutes; and the qualifying expedition along the Thames near Oxford, held lots of locks and new scenery. It was fantastic to see them having such an excellent DofE experience. Congratulations to you all!
Thank you to Not Just Travel for continued sponsorship
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