3rd Gidea Park Scout Group Main PAGE

WELCOME TO THE 3rd GIDEA PARK SCOUT GROUP WEB SITE

We hope this web site will give you an idea of what it is like to be a Beaver, Cub or Scout at 3rd Gidea Park. The site contains news, camp reports and features. Follow the links to the left to navigate our site. We hope you find your visit useful and enjoyable.

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WHAT'S HAPPENING AT 3GP

	Sun Feb 10th. February Church Parade. Tuesday Tiger Cubs will be doing the Readings.
	Sun March 10th. March Church Parade.
	Sun May 12th. May Church Parade. (No Guide Leaders)
	Sun June 10th. June Church Parade. Guides and Brownies will be doing the Readings.
	Sun July 14th. July Church Parade T.B.C.
	Saturday July 27th - Monday August 5th. Summer Camp.

EASY FUNDRAISING

We are always trying to find ways to raise money for our Scout Group. Well here's a way that won't take up much or your time or cost you any money. If you already shop with major retailers online such as Amazon, Tesco, John Lewis and many others then you could be raising a little bit for 3GP each time you shop.

Click here to find out more.

NEWS

JANUARY 31st - TWO MORE GOLDS

Gold

Two more Gold Chief Scout Awards were presented this month. These are 53rd and 54th Chief Scout Gold Awards presented at 3rd Gidea Park.

FRIDAY JANUARY 18th

Its been a creative end to the week at 3rd Gidea Park. First the Scouts with their magic (below) and then on Friday the Beavers were making 3D pictures.

JANUARY 24th - MAGIC NIGHT

We had worked out that not many Scouts have finished the Creative Challenge badge and so we needed more creative themed activities in our meetings. Our leaders aren't very creative when it comes to meeting ideas but some old Copies of Scouting Magazine gave them an idea. A Magic night!

FRIDAY JANUARY 18th

Our Friday Beavers held a Pooh Bear themed picnic.

SUNDAY JANUARY 20th

Chilly Mini Adventures

It was cold but both our Beaver colonies spent the day at Crow Camp with the Scouts. There was tight rope walking, bouldering, marshmallow roasting and aerial runway riding. A grand time was had by all.

Roasted

JANUARY 18th - 20th

Runway

Overnight temperatures dropped below zero with some Scouts discovering frost on the inside of their tent doors (who left it open?) but everyone remained warm enough to start the new year with a camp. The Scouts spent Saturday building an Areal Runway for the Beavers to play on. Naturally the Scouts all needed to have 3 or more test rides each!

THURSDAY DECEMBER 13th

Another Scout has completed his Gold Award, the top award a Scout can get. It was the culmination of nearly four years work as the last part was only completed two weeks ago.

This was the 52nd Gold Chief Scout Award presented at 3rd Gidea Park.

Gold

END OF TERM MEETING

Sweets

The Christmas party season is in full swing at 3GP and the Scout Leaders decided to celebrate by making the Scouts do lots of pioneering! Five mini areal runways were constructed across the hall to convey the Scouts supply of seasonal confectionary. The trouble was the Scout Leaders were doing their best to knock the sweets out with balls.

It's amazing how the quality of lashings improves when sweets are in the room.

TESDAY DECEMBER 11th

Beavers

Tree

Tuesday Beavers held their Christmas party where they played lots of games including the Christmas Tree game.

JAMBOREE QUIZ NIGHT

Jambo

Quiz

DECEMBER 8th

The three current 3GP members who are members of the World Scout Jamboree Contingent held a fund raising quiz night in the Scout hall where they raised £390.

SUNDAY DECEMBER 8th

	Our Friday Beavers were responsible for readings and prayers this month but the surprised us all with a rendition of Away in a Manger in sign language!

THE CHRISTMAS LUNCH

Dinner

Five of our oldest Scouts and five of our Explorer Scout Young Leaders helped prepare a Christmas Lunch for 40 people (including themselves) The guests were our current leaders, ex leaders, venture Scouts and Rover Scouts. That's a lot of spuds we had to peal.

Cub Leaders

Prep

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 30th

Beavers

Our Friday Beavers have been learning about native Americans. They spent time in a teepee and made a totem pole.

TEAM BUILDING SCOUTS

Team

THURSDAY 29th

Tonight the Scouts were set a number of team building exercises. This included getting the team across the patio without touching the ground and building a landing zone for eggs being dropped from the loft!

Egg

NOVEMBER SCOUT MEETINGS

Ants

We set the Scouts a number of pioneering challenges over the course of a couple of weeks. The first was to build towers and cover them so when the leader threw mutant bumble bees (plastic balls) they wouldn't be able to sting the Scouts. Some teams did better than others. We are still picking the plastic balls up from the car park two weeks later.

The second challenge was to build and race Sedan Chairs.

Ants

Ants

Ants

TUESDAY NOVEMBER 13th

Pets

Our Tuesday Beavers spent the meeting at Pets at Home in Romford for the Animal Friend badge.

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 11th

Rem Sun

Over 80 of our Youth members attended the St Michael's Church remembrance service.

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 8th

This week the Scouts were getting creative with face painting.

Scouts

TUESDAY NOVEMBER 6th

Beavers

Bomb making Beavers?

Our Tuesday Beavers were visited by staff from Lush who were here to talk about Fair trade and ethical buying. During the meeting the Beavers got the chance to make their own bath bombs! They finished by drawing posters to explain the bath bomb ingredients.

THURSDAY NIGHTS IN OCTOBER

OCTOBER

After spending lots of weeks in the hall practising for the district cooking competition we have been out and about in October, climbing and playing wide games.

GETTING CREATIVE

SEPTEMBER

The Scouts have been getting creative making signs for the Cooking Competition Teams.

GOLD

Gold

GOLD!

Two of our older Scouts completed the Chief Scouts Gold Award while on Summer camp and were presented with their badges in September. The Gold Award is the top award a Scout can gain.

These were the 49th and 50th Chief Scout Gold Awards presented at 3rd Gidea Park. The first was presented in May 2004 after the program review introduced the Gold Chief Scout Award so it has taken 14 years to reach that milestone.

THURSDAY NIGHTS IN AUGUST

What's amusing this lot then?

The nice thing about summer meetings is that most Scouts are on holiday so we can do things that wouldn't work well with 30+ Scouts. Like Abseiling in the store!

On Thursday August 9th we finished packing away the tents from summer camp and so had a play. It's a very short Abseil and so ideal for beginners and to build confidence. With such a small group, parents who picked the Scouts up got to watch the antics too.

Abs


	This was almost certainly the source of everyone else's amusement. A fit of the giggles at a key moment going over the top!

SUMMER CAMP 2018

SATURDAY JULY 21st - MONDAY JULY 30th

The Scouts have been away at summer camp. See the report here.

JUMPING BEAVERS BEAVERS

FRIDAY 13th

The Tuesday Beavers spent the evening at Jump Evolution with the rest of the District.

THRIFTWOOD AGAIN

THURSDAY JULY 12th

The Scouts were back at Thriftwood for some more water fun. Not only did we all have a go at canoeing but the surf board was back and the Scouts made the most of it.

Just don't ask where they found the Fez Hat!

Fall

RAPHAELS PARK

Ditch

THURSDAY JULY 5th
The Scouts were at Raphael's Park for our annual litter pick in and around the Blacks Brook.

BEAVER SPORTS

On a very hot weekend the Penguin Beavers won the district Beaver Sports Competition.

CUB CAMP

JUNE 22nd - 24th

The Cubs were camping at Kingston Ridge for the weekend. The weather was hot and sunny and there appears to have been a sporty theme with running, jumping and erm water sliding.

cubs

BEAVERS AT CROW

JUNE 15th

The Friday beavers spent the evening at Crow Camp.

Beavers

FUN AT THRIFTWOOD

THURSDAY JUNE 21st

The Scouts were at Thriftwood for some fun in the water. The water was warm enough, so long as you didn't get out.

Two rafts were built by two teams of Scouts. They decided themselves to split the teams girls vs boys. The boys raft lasted 5 minutes, the girls lasted the full session, or until the leaders decided to help them dismantle it... 10meters from shore!

Canoeing and raft building were our two booked activities but raft building takes time and the conceits would get bored waiting for the hour long water session so we brought our trusty surf board out of retirement.

As a Scout delicately balances on the board, the rest of the troop pull them across the lake on on a rope.

	The canoeists were learning how to get in and out of the boats, swap boats and splash any leaders that dared to drift by on a raft or surf board.

SPRING CAMP

FRIDAY JUNE 22nd - SUNDAY 24th

The Scouts were at Fairmead Scout Campsite in Epping Forrest brushing up on Camping Skills for the outdoor challenge.

LEFT Skilfully manipulating a baked chocolate banana with kebab sticks. (Not sure about the safety hat?)

BELOW LEFT A watched kebab never cooks.

BELOW RIGHT: Seems good to me.

Cooking

RAFTING?

THURSDAY JUNE 14th

LEFT The inaugural meeting of the 3GP knitting society?

BELOW LEFT A delicate stack.

BELOW RIGHT: Keeping an eye on the chief pringle poacher.

The older Scouts were set the task of leading mini teams to build mini rafts. Only one team completed the task which doesn't bode well for next weeks raft building task.

TEAM

GOLD

THURSDAY MAY 24th

Two Gold Awards were presented to twin Brothers. (The last time we did that was November 2008!) They have both moved on to the local Sea Scout Explorer Unit but returned to be presented with their Gold Chief Scout Award Badges.

These were the 47th and 48th Gold Chief Scout Awards presented at 3rd Gidea Park.

ALCHEMY

THURSDAY MAY 24th

The Scouts were set the challenge to boil water, make a small amount of jelly and chill it in under an hour.

So many epic fails! Not letting the jelly cube dissolve. Putting too much water in, not doing anything to help it cool.

Still, good fun seemed to be had by all and they all got to remind themselves how to safely use our expedition stoves.

JELLY

BEAVERS AT HAINULT


Some of our Beavers have been to Hainault Forest for a walk and a bit of an adventure.

DOING STUFF WITH OLD ROPE

THURSDAY MAY 3rd

The Scouts were at Hargrieves Scout Campsite again this week playing with rope. We find when practicing knots that it focuses the Scouts minds slightly if there is a chance of them getting wet if they get it wrong. Of course the leaders checked it first - left.

Unfortunately we forgot to tell the Scouts to account for the fact that we were using stretchy climbing ropes!

BLIND

We also setup a blind trail which allowed the Scouts to discover a little of what it may be like navigating around the camp site with impaired eyesight. Some seemed to cope better than others. Then we realised that any Scouts following a noisy Scout coped best. Which goes to show how much we rely on hearing when sight is taken away!

HOPEFIELD TRIP

The Beavers had a family day out at Hopefield Animal Sanctuary in Brentwood.


	The trip was supported by our usual gang of Young Leaders, Adult Leaders and Parent helpers.

MAY CHURCH PARADE

SUNDAY MAY 13th

St Michaels is celebrating 80 years since the Church was completed. Special guests at the May Church Parade were the Bishop of Barking and Andrew Rossindell MP.

GROUP AGM

SATURDAY APRIL 28th
It wasn't the weather that got us wet. The Scouts had rigged flame resistant shelters above the seating to keep us all dry. What got us damp was the Scout's insistence on finding ways of entertaining the Beavers and Cubs that involved throwing water around.
Thank you to all the families who braved the damp evening to attend our AGM and camp fire. After the songs and stunts were over, out came the kebab sticks and marshmallows. It wasn't just the Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Explorers who were roasting by the fire, we spotted a few mums and dads having a go too.

ST GEORGE'S PARADE

SUNDAY APRIL 23rd

Click here for all the pictures from the day.

PIONEERING

THURSDAY APRIL 19th

The Scouts have been practicing pioneering skills ahead of some rope bridge building a few weeks time.

END OF TERM COOKING

THURSDAY MARCH 29th

We have spent a lot of time over the last month practicing our Orienteering skills and learning first aid. But now the Orienteering competition is passed for another year, the leaders were looking for something different.

We haven't done any cooking this year so we thought we would end the term with a simple recipe.

The Scouts were split into Six teams, four of them were the teams that worked so well at the Orienteering competition. The recipe was written up the chalk board along with some aggressive time limits.

Once the ingredients were prepared a queue formed at the kitchen hatch where the leaders would blend up the sauce for the pasta.

It's fair to say that it looked and smelt .... challenging however once warmed through and added to the pasta, I have never seen Scouts eat so fast!

Once the washing up was complete the leader of our winning Orienteering team popped the cork on a bottle of low alcohol sparkling wine (for the leaders) while the rest of the team poured celebratory fizzy drinks for the troop!

LAST MEETING

TUESDAY APRIL 27th

It was an emotional end to the last Tuesday Beaver meeting of term as after ten years of Beaver Leadership it was Elaine's last meeting as The Beaver Scout Leader.

The Beavers had spent the evening playing games and making Easter treats. But the evening was all a build up to the Beavers saying goodbye to their Beaver Leader for the last time. Elaine started in 2004 as a parent helper before becoming an assistant beaver leader a month under a decade ago and then taking over as a Beaver Leader not long after.

For a while we have been seeking more Beaver Leaders to help provide an exciting program of meetings and activities for our Beavers. If you would be interested in becoming a leader, or just want to help out occasionally then please contact one of our leaders.

DISTRICT ORIENTEERING

SUNDAY MARCH 25th

19 Scouts from 3GP formed four teams for the 2018 Romford District Scouts Orienteering Competition in South Weald park. Quite a few members of our squad were entering for the first time and representing the troop for the first time in any event.

There were 20 teams of Scouts and each team was given two hours to find as many of the 14 checkpoints as possible. 3rd Gidea park came 1st and 2nd and had a third team in the top ten.

As well as counting towards the Orienteering badge the event covers parts of the Adventure Challenge and Teamwork Challenge Badges.

The full results are here.

SWIMMING GALA

The results of the District Swimming Gala are as follows:

Cubs
1st place 3rd Gidea Park Tigers 41 points
2nd place 3rd Gidea Park Leopards 30 points
3rd place 4th Collier Row 19 points

Scouts
1st place 3rd Gidea Park 55 points
2nd place 21st Romford 41 points
3rd place 6th Romford 30 points

Group Trophy
1st place 3rd Gidea Park 91 points
2nd place 21st Romford 51 points
3rd place 4th Collier Row 39 points

Goody Cup (Cub Individual)
1st place 3rd Gidea Park (Tigers) 49.72
2nd place 3rd Gidea Park (Tigers) 54.28
3rd place 3rd Gidea Park (Leopards) 56.28

Green Medal (Scout Individual)
1st place 3rd Gidea Park 1.29.78
2nd place 6th Romford 1.42.13
3rd place 19th Romford 2.03.40

Kingswood Cup (Scout or Explorer Individual)
1st place Unit A (Ex 3GP Scout and current 3GP Young Leader) 1.56.06
2nd place Unit J 2.12.06
3rd place 3rd Gidea Park Scouts 2.12.34

So all in all, not a bad evening's work.

EMERGENCY AID

The Scouts have been learning about Emergency Aid. This week we covered Hypothermia. Afterwards we went outside for a snowball fight and some snowman building before using one of our emergency shelters to demonstrate how we could warm up a Scout with Hypothermia on a mountain.

BRIDGE BUILDING

Bridge

Teams of Scouts were given the challenge to get themselves from one end of the hall to the other without touching the ground. They were given 3 logs and 4 chairs. Not as easy as you would think.

JANUARY NIGHT HIKE

On the train

The Scouts started the year with a very chilly night hike. 18 Scouts plus leaders met up at the Scout hall on a Friday night before walking to Gidea Park Station. From there we caught the train to Brentwood where we split into three groups to hike back to Gidea park.

It was cold clear night and at times we were able to stay on the right direction in the woods by using the stars.

Style


In the woods the older Scouts found some monsters.

Style

The older Scouts stopped for a very chilly late night snack on top of a hill from where they could admire views across east London and the city.

The temperature was just two degrees above freezing however the slight chill made it feel even colder.

At times we were walking through a very hard frost.

Back at the Scout Hall by 03:00am there was a birthday to celebrate before trying to get some sleep.

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