What a great year we’ve had!
We’re now providing adventure, activities, and life skills to over 200 young people aged from 4 to 18 across 8 sections!
I’d like to thank all the volunteers for their hard work, and parents for your support in making 1st Molesey the fantastic group it is.
Particular thank you to Andy, Helen and team for starting our new Tuesday Beaver Colony and brilliant first term.
Have a great summer and we’ll see you all again in September.
Don’t forget to buy your Beer Festival Tickets and let us know if you know a local business that could sponsor one of the beers.
Liam
Group Lead Volunteer
1st Molesey Scout Group AGM
The AGM will be held on Friday 20th September at the Scout Hut.
1st Molesey Scout Group has adopted an open selection process for nominations to the Scout Trustee Board.
Therefore we invite anyone who wants to stand as Chairperson, Treasurer or a Trustee to give notice in writing to the Trustee Board that they wish to be nominated for a role by 31st August 2024.
Jump to section:
Squirrels
The Squirrels have had a super busy Summer term. They enjoyed a litter pick around the hut which was a big success.
We’ve also made paper aeroplanes, balloon boats, and bubble wands. We also enjoyed a walk and picnic with special family members.
The Squirrels potted runner beans and a few weeks later we visited a local allotment to plant them.
Powerboating on the Thames was the highlight of the term we had lots of fun. We ended the term with a campfire and marshmallows.
In July we had a campfire, invested our new Squirrels and tried smores for the first time!
What an exciting and fun time we’ve had so far this year.
Monday Beavers
We started off the term with the St. George’s Day service held annually at St. Paul’s, when we join with the other two Molesey Scout Groups as well some others in our District to remember our Scout promises. 1st Molesey had a wonderful turn out and we thank you all for participating.
Monday Beavers aim to get out and about as much as possible during the summer term and I think we succeeded once again this term. Our outdoor activities included a ramble along the River Thames from Walton to Molesey and cooking damper on the campfire.
We also enjoyed learning navigation skills in Bushy Park, partaking in some outdoor sports and planting seeds to grow at home.
We visited the adventure course at Walton Firs, where the Beavers had lots of fun running around.
Our thanks to all the dads and grandads who joined us for our meeting to celebrate Father’s Day. They were provided wheels and axles and assisted our budding inventors to engineer the cardboard boxes into some very creative moving vehicles. Well done to you all!
Two instructors from Claygate Martial Arts visited and provided an excellent workshop to our Beavers, who were very attentive and caught onto the techniques demonstrated very quickly as well as learning the Korean words with ease. It was great to see the concentration being shown by the Beavers.
Our visits to RNLI Teddington are always informative and fun but we thought this year’s visit excellent. Our hosts at RNLI Teddington are also volunteers and we are very appreciative of their time in providing to us the opportunity to visit their RNLI station. Did you know that it takes upwards of £188M per year for the RNLI to run?
Our pirate themed District Beaver Fun Day was a great success where about 130 Beavers plus their leaders/helpers gathered in Hersham for an afternoon of activities, games, craft, inflatable obstacle course, a sing-along plus entertainment from Captain Cutlass. The wet weather didn’t deter the fun that was had by all. Our thanks to all the leaders and parents who helped make this event happen for our young people.
We planned to finish the end of term with a family picnic and games outside, however after about 40 minutes rain arrived but we were prepared and made a dash inside to conclude our get together. Thanks to everyone who joined us.
Tuesday Beavers
We have had a great first term with Tuesday Beavers. The children have settled in well and have participated in some exciting activities. We had 19 children regularly attending during the Summer term including 15 boys and 4 girls.
We were also excited to welcome some of the 1st Molesey Squirrels, who jumped the river to join us this term!
At the start of the term we potted our own plants and learnt some gardening skills.
During the term we have completed a river walk and had a map reading evening at Bushy Park. We also went on the adventure course at Walton Firs.
We have also learnt about campfires and first aid. More recently, we have been on the boats on the River Thames and the children enjoyed a martial arts session with a specialist instructor. The children have also learnt about cycle safety and practised riding their bikes.
We joined together with the Monday Beavers at the district pirate-themed Beaver Party!
At the end of the term we handed out badges to the children, including the cyclist, explore and navigator level 1, at our end of term picnic at the hut.
The children are looking forward to working towards more badges in the Autumn term after a well deserved Summer break!
Monday Cubs
What a great summer for Monday Cubs!
At the end of the Easter break our oldest few Cubs joined together with the Thursday pack and our friends at 9th Walton for an amazing Bushcraft Camp in Godalming. This allowed them to practice some advanced outdoor skills, meet new friends and have loads of fun!
The Summer Term of Monday meetings have been packed with new skills and a focus on outdoor adventure! We also ran a bushcraft skills day for younger cubs that featured firelighting, pioneering, first aid and a chance to try out a hammock!
Rocket building and firing has also been very popular!
We have managed to enjoy lots of time on the river, and our kayaking skills have improved massively (along with our water safety knowledge).
The Cubs have also spent time perfecting a number of other skills, making giant bubbles, learning how to whittle, made art from nature, celebrated the upcoming Olympics and everything french, (any excuse for a pain au chocolat!)… and of course, much, much more.
We’ve looked after the environment with regular litter picks, learnt how to make our own vegetable fritters, and homemade lemonade.
The highlight of this term has been District Cub Camp where we joined together with the Thursday Pack and over 300 other Cubs from the other groups for an amazing weekend of fun (and trying out our new tents!).
We’ve developed friendships, our confidence and have had heaps of fun. Roll on the fun in September!
Thursday Cubs
This term we have celebrated taking part in lots of new activities whilst working hard to earn LOTS of badges all while having even more fun!
Our older Cubs enjoyed a Bushcraft camp with the Monday Cubs, sleeping in hammocks was the highlight!
We learnt how to make rope and survival bracelets using cobra knots.
We also found time to take part in kayaking despite the rather wet, gloomy weather we’ve had!
Lots of our activities have had an international flair to them to celebrate the upcoming Paris Olympics. We learnt some international dance steps and more recently enjoyed an evening of French games and food. C’etait tres bon!
The Cubs also thoroughly enjoyed taking part in the Molesey Carnival and helping to prepare our Christmas themed float!
We enjoyed a visit from the Molesey Scout Band where we had the opportunity to play different instruments. It was a lot of fun and VERY loud! Several of our Cubs have now joined the band so look out for them at future Scouting events!
We all thoroughly enjoyed going to District Cub Camp, spending the weekend making new friends and learning new skills.
And finally, we have to say a HUGE thank you and well done to our brilliant Sixers for running a fantastic evening for us all. Elsa, Herbie, Oliver, Nicholas, Jamie and Harry, who are all leaving us for Scouts next term, ran an entire pack meeting full of varied activities which everyone enjoyed taking part in.
We’ve had a great term and look forward to more adventures together next term!
Tuesday Scouts
The weather in the first half of the summer term meant the Thames was unsafe for us to get kayaking or powerboating. Instead, we took opportunities to undertake some land-based activities – rounders and outdoor games, a twilight session at Polyapes and going wild in the Walton Firs maze.
For the final week, we were able to do some preparation for getting on the water, reminding ourselves of how to paddle and what sized kit we might require. We also utilised the car park for some kayaking themed games in the seasonal drizzle.
The second half of the term, we’ve been fortunate to get on the water each week – either with the kayaks or the powerboats. It’s been great to see the scouts enjoy the freedom of being on the water, while growing in confidence. For our final session, the scouts went on a longer kayak – around Molesey Lock to Hampton Court.
Outside of our Tuesday sessions, many of our scouts were at the South of England Showground (Ardingly) for Scoutabout 2024 – a weekend scouting festival. In addition to 2 nights under canvas, scouts were able to abseil, zorb, zip-wire, drive, scuba dive, bungee slip/slide, do archery, receive special effect wounds, race carts, play space-hopper football and much more, all within a secure site. Most striking was that there wasn’t a device in sight, leading to chess matches, a card school and a 30 a-side girls vs boys spontaneous football match.
Our term ended with a joint trip (with Wednesday Scouts) to Shepperton Splash.
It’s been great to get so much water-based activity this term – we hope the weather is kind for a few more sessions in September.
Wednesday Scouts
This term we’ve been out and about, river or land, enjoying the good weather each week. The Scouts have been brilliant as usual, pushing themselves to try new things and experience adventure every day.
Just after Easter the river was flowing too fast to be able to kayak, so we started the term by visiting our local green spaces, the first week with a games night and rounders, and the second by helping to keep them tidy with a litter pick.
We loved our visit to Polyapes at the beginning of May where we played wide games and then baked dough twists on the fire!
This term the Scouts have had the opportunity to powerboat, kayak and sail, we’re so fortunate to have access to loads of great equipment.
Unsuprisingly, in warmer weather kayaking is always a popular choice! We’re so proud of the progress our paddlers have made this term, paricularly our youngest Scouts who are now so confident and competent in kayaks.
In June, James and Giles led a fantastic cycle ride evening which the Scouts absolutely loved. The route took them into Bushy and Home Parks, around the Long Water and then back down the Thames Path to Molesey.
The Molesey Carnival also took place in June, and once again our Scouts demonstrated their niche candy floss skills on our stall, raising much needed funds for our activities!
Scoutabout, though, was the highlight of the term. Scoutabout is an extraordinary event by Surrey Scouts that brings together over 6000 Scouts and Guides fom all over Surrey for one amazing weekend of new activities, friends and adventure. Scoutabout only happens once every 3 years, and it’s an incredible event.
The video paints a good picture! Keep an eye out for some familiar faces!
We ended the term with a trip to Shepperton Splash on a warm, sunny evening.
This was a joint adventure with the Tuesday Scouts and it was lovely to be joined by some of the Cubs that will be moving up to our Scout troops after the summer break.
This term we say goodbye to Brodie but we are looking forward to welcoming a large number of Cubs to the Wednesday Scouts in September.
Strong stream conditions on the River Thames once again prohibited on the water activities to take place until the second half of the term when we were happy to get out on the river for kayaking sessions, however before then we took part in other fun activities on land.
Explorers never say ‘no’ to food, so campfire cooking had to be included in our programme, in this case, cheese toasties and S’mores. Ice-cream making was also suggested; this was a new experience for us but we went for it with varying results, depending on how long the Explorer was willing to shake their bag!
Our older Explorers commenced their Chef Activity badge back in January 2022 and since then they have baked scones, cakes, biscuits, cupcakes, bread, flatbread and finally this term, completed their badge by baking tarts. Well done, Explorers!
Our thanks to the Moore-Harper family who kindly brought along their ‘police puppy’ for an informative evening and an opportunity for us to see Forest in action.
We headed out into Molesey for orienteering on one of the wettest evenings of the summer, but Explorers forged ahead with the activity and showed their resilience by completing the task in high spirits. We were luckier with the weather for some other meetings and enjoyed some fair evenings when we took the opportunity to play tennis, lucky again when we took part in a 4-mile circular walk taking in Broadwater Lake and Desborough Island from Cowey Sale, which we highly recommend, as well as being creative out and about when tasked with Alphabet Photography. We were blessed with the best weather for our end of term activity at the aqua park, Shepperton Splash.
Our three oldest Explorers have been with us at 1st Molesey since February 2012 and January 2013 and are now headed off on new adventures. We will miss you guys but wish you the best of luck in your future endeavours.
Some of our Explorers are taking part in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE), which aims to develop their physical fitness, practical skills and teamworking abilities. The programme involves helping the community/environment, improving fitness, developing new skills and planning, training for and completing an expedition. It is a fantastic scheme that helps them to grow in confidence in so many ways.
Congratulations to one of our Explorers for successfully completing her Bronze DofE hike expedition in June and our thanks to the 3rd Molesey Explorer Unit who hosted her on their expedition. We have a Bronze DofE paddle expedition taking place during August, which will see six of our younger Explorers kayaking from Windsor to Molesey; we trust you will all enjoy the experience.
In May, two other Explorers successfully completed their practice Silver DofE hike expedition despite the dreadful weather and will be attending their assessed expedition in the New Forest during October.
Fingers crossed for better weather. We also have five Explorers who are undertaking their Gold DofE paddle expeditions this summer. They have all completed their practice expeditions and are not far off from taking part in their assessed expedition that is taking place on the River Wye next month. Good luck to you all.
Well done to all of the DofE expedition participants; we congratulate you on your achievements.
Fundraising – thank YOU… and we need YOU
Molesey Carnival
A huge thank you to the scouts and their parents who helped run the candyfloss and tattoo stall at Molesey Carnival. The scouts did a great job and raised a whopping £402, which was a £298 profit. To put it in context, that’s the equivalent of half a new Kayak!
The Christmas theme float was also pretty impressive, a great job all round!
Elfridges
We are still collecting for our Elfridges stall at Christmas. We need new (or nearly new) items such as smellies, books, candles, or toys – there is a Christmas box in the office with Elfridges on the side, or you can hand it to a leader to drop off for you!
We need you!
So far we have had a very small group working on the fundraising projects, but we would like to get some ‘sub-committees’ to run different events.
We would like the different sections (i.e. Squirrels, Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Explorers) to each take responsibility for an event, with support from myself.For example, the carnival stall was run by the Scouts and their parents. With this in mind, we really need at least one parent from each section to join us please.
What would it involve?
- An initial meeting with everyone to discuss ideas and allocate events to each section
- Meetings within those smaller groups to plan your event
- I would support your smaller groups as much as needed, for example with rounding up volunteers, ordering supplies, emailing/advertising
If you would like to volunteer, please email me on jo.jethwa@1stmoleseyscouts.org.uk and let me know which section your child is in (e.g. Monday Beavers).
Jo Jethwa
Jo’s email address is jo.jethwa@1stmoleseyscouts.org.uk
Sponsorship required
The 2024 Molesey Beer Festival will be held 11th to 12th October 2024 and tickets are now available.
This is an important fundraiser for the group and we depend on your support.
Please spread the word about tickets as we sell out every year and we will need volunteers to sign up for the rota which will be conmunicated nearer the time.
In the meantime, we deperately need to raise funds for our children through sponsorship of the festival. All profits go directly back to the group to purchase equipment and keep us going, so if you or your friends have businesses or would like to donate any amount (it costs jurst £100 to sponsor a beer).
Contact rebeccaoppenheimer@yahoo.co.uk to discuss. Thank you