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WHAT'S HAPPENING AT 3GP

All our sections are now meeting every face to face. As the evenings draw in, we are working with St Michaels Guides and Brownies to put measures in place to make sure we can meet safely in the hall. Plans change regularly as we adapt to latest advice from Government, the National Youth Agency and the Scout Association. Parents should lookout for e-mails from the leaders to keep up to date.

NEWS

DECEMBER 19th

St Michaels Christingle Re-Imagined

The Scouts were invited to help put on the St Michaels re-imagined event. It was felt that an outdoor event would be more comfortable this year so we were asked to provide some shelters and some fires for warmth.

BEAVER CHRISTMAS MEETING

FRIDAY DECEMBER 17th

For the last Friday Beaver meeting of term, it was decided to keep the Beavers outside. The meeting started with snowman making, but as there was no snow, toilet tissue was used.

This was followed by a torchlight treasure hunt and the meeting finished with roasting marshmallows around a fire.

Beavers

DECEMBER 16th

END OF TERM PIONEERING

We pre-announced that the final meeting would be entirely outside which under the circumstances probably ensured a good turn out. The evening was warm for the time of year so the plan for the end of term indoor meeting was taken outside.

The leaders pre made three A frames and asked each team of Scouts to turn them into tripods. From the top of each, a rope was run to a single pole. Meanwhile each team made a small box out of paper and strings were rigged so that the box could be pulled back and forth. The leaders would deposit sweets in the box at one end, scouts would then run the box back while our Young leaders did their best to knock the sweets out with balls.

Scouts

DECEMBER 16th

GOLD!

For the fourth month in a row we have presented a Chief Scout Gold Award, the top award a Scout can get. This camera shy Scout was a bit too quick and nipped off home before the leaders could get an official presentation photo so we have this portrait from Autumn Camp.

With a bit of an autumn gold rush we are running out of things to say about the top award. To gain the Gold Award, a Scout has to demonstrate competence across the full range of Scouting skills. No Scouts excel at everything they do, some step out of their comfort zone to be team leaders, others to put on a creative performance and others find the adventure a challenge. That’s the leveller with the Gold Award, one way or another, every Scout will have had to challenge themselves to complete the challenge they find hardest.

With the limited opportunities for adventure over the last few years, these Autumn Gold Awards have been hard won and all the more deserved because of that.

NOVEMBER 18th

GOLD!

One in September, One in October and now two in November. That's six Gold Awards presented so far this year. These two started work on their Gold Awards in the Autumn of 2018 and so have taken about three years to complete.

OCTOBER 23rd-25th

Autumn Camp.

The Scouts spent three days camping at Screens Park.

This site was perfect for our first camp in 21 months because it gave us a huge sense of space with long views across the Essex Countryside and big blue skies.

In the picture above the Scouts are tweaking pioneering projects as the sun rises.

We used the camp to refresh basic Scouting skills. Only four of the fifteen Scouts who attended had ever camped with us before.

We also took part in a few entertaining activities and most of us enjoyed the opportunity to be woken up by a parliament of Owls. (We can see why the collective noun for a group of Owls is called a parliament, boy do they bicker!)

This turned out to be our only night away event for the Scouts in 2021. What with one thing or another, it turned out to be a challenging year. But, despite the challenges of the last two years, between this camp and our 2020 winter camp, we can still claim that we have camped every year since the group was founded in 1935.

THURSDAY OCTOBER 21st

Another Month Another Gold.

The Gold Award is the top award a Scout can get. It requires a lot of commitment and by no means do all Scouts complete it. So to present one two months in a row is a rarity.

Last month we finally presented a Gold that was completed during lock down. This month we presented our first Gold Award that was started before lock down but completed afterwards with a good dose of Zoom meetings contributing in the middle.

BEAVER SLEEPOVER

FRIDAY OCTOBER 15th

Our Friday Beavers spent the night at the Rowswell Hall. Among other things, they practiced first aid skills on cuddly toys, helped by our Young Leaders and roasted marshmallows.

Beavers

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 30th

	For two weeks the Scouts have been meeting at Thriftwood, playing wide games in the dark and using the Climbing Wall. This enabled Some Scouts to play a wide game for the first time and in doing so start the Outdoor Challenge. It also enabled Scouts to use Climbing to progress the Adventure Challenge and of course the Climbing badge.

Climbing

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 28th

GOLD!

Completing a Gold Chief Scout Award has been harder than usual in the last couple of years. A lot of the more obscure bits to finish this one were done during online meetings last year.

Presenting them has also been harder. This one was actually completed at the end of January when we were still meeting online. Since then Scouts have moved on to Explorers but news of a Scout returning to Beavers as a Young leader prompted the Scout Leaders to dust off the badge records and pay a visit to the colony for a surprise presentation.

Gold

MONEY SKILLS BADGE

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 28th

Our Tuesday Beavers have been learning about money from around the world as part of the new Beaver Money Skills Badge.

Beavers

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 19th

It had been 772 days since the last time the Scouts had been on a hike together. Our last hike one was a two day expedition spending the night at Great Towers Scout Campsite, something 3rd GP first did in 1941! For 3GP, 25 months is a veritable hiking drought and something urgently needed to be done.

We had older Scouts who needed to lead a group on an all day event for the Team Leader Challenge. We had plenty of younger Scouts who needed to take part in their first all day activity.

We had bits of the navigator badge to cover off and we wanted it to count towards the Adventure Challenge badge and Hikes Away activity badge.

13 Scouts, 1 Young Leader and five Scout leaders met at Bedfords Park before splitting into Groups for the walk.

A circular route had been planned taking us out via Havering Country Park and Hainault Golf course to Hainault country Park.

Lunch was enjoyed by the low ropes course, some of our Scouts couldn't resists a go.

As we started to walk back the hot weather turned to rain. We returned via a different route using public footpaths and bridleways.

It was great to make so much progress on so many badges in one day. But most of all, it was great to be outdoors just chatting as we wondered through the countryside.

BEAVERS IN THE PARK

Friday September 17th.

Our Friday Beavers met in Raphael's Park for games and collecting wild things.

The meeting started with an activity invented by the Beavers themselves, collecting conkers and arranging them into pictures and artistic patterns.

After a game with the parachute, each beaver was given an empty match box and asked to fill it with a collection of wild things.

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 16th

Our first full meeting of the autumn term was all about team building challenges. The Scouts had to build towers out of spaghetti using only marshmallows to hold spaghetti together. Another had Scouts making a shelf that needed to hold a tub of water.

CUB CAMP

AUGUST

Our Tuesday Cubs were the first to attempt a night away as restrictions eased with a joint camp at Thriftwood.

Cubs

The Cubs enjoyed the fine weather by participating in water activities as well as Camp Site Service.

THURSDAY AUGUST 26th

The Scouts were back at Raphael's Park volunteering with The Friends of Raphael Park & Lodge Farm Park again. We kept out of Black's Brook this week, staying dry instead. Some of the trees had been coppiced before we arrived, creating a lot of long thin branches which had been left in the woodland. The Scouts helped by gathering up the coppiced branches and carrying them out of the woods.

The next task was to gather the material into bundles and drag or carry it to the other side of the sports and down into the woods there.

Finally, the Scouts helped position the freshly cut wood around the poles that had been planted in the ground to make a fence of natural materials.

The evening ended with some wide games which as the sun had set, were the first night time wide games we had played in two years.

Drag .

THURSDAY AUGUST 5th

A reduced number of Scouts (due to the School holidays) were at St Michaels this evening cooking egg fried rice over three open fires .

BEAVERS ORIENTEERING

Friday July 16th.

Our Friday Beavers were back in Raphael's Park, this time to try their hand at Orienteering for the Navigator's badge. Our Explorer Scout Young Leaders have all come through the Scout Troop and so were able to give some expert advice (?) The Beavers did fantastically well but they do have one pice of advice for the Scouts when they next tackle the District Orienteering competition.

	Scouts take note. See this, it's called running!.

THURSDAY JULY 15th

The Scouts were Back at Thriftwood for a second week of canoeing and backwoods cooking. This week was warmer and the Scouts seemed keen to practice their capsizing. Whilst the younger Scouts built their confidence on the water, our older Scouts proved they still have the skills to cook on a fire.

Above is a video of what the Scouts have been doing this Summer.

Scouts

BEAVER WILD HAT MAKING

Friday July 9th.

Our Friday Beavers met in Raphael's Park where they split into small groups to scavenge for natural materials to use for making crowns. As any Beaver will tell you, all good scavenging adventures need to include a bit of of hacking through undergrowth (Long Grass) climbing mountains (a wooden picnic table) and coming into contact with fierce beasts (A squirrel on a bird table!)


After a successful scavenge each group set about making hats using paper, sticky tape and the materials they had found.


	After the hat making it was time to invest a lot of our new Beavers, our first face to face investiture for over a year.

For our Friday Beavers and Friday Beaver Leaders this was our first meeting away from St Michael's in over a year. An important milestone on the road to normality. The Beavers ensured they made the very best of it.

THURSDAY JULY 8th

Scout

Eating

This was the first of two weeks of meetings at Thriftwood Scout Camp Site. half the troop were canoeing on Sapper Lake and working towards Paddle Sports and Nautical Skills badges.

The other half of the troop were split into small teams of two or three Scouts to try some backwoods cooking. Some fantastic Turkey stew was produced.

THURSDAY JULY 1st

Scouts

After a disrupted 18 months or so it was nice to be able to get back to one of our regular summer activities, helping the Friends of Lodge Farm and Raphael's Parks litter pick and clear Blacks Brook. Scouts also helped move materials for the mini beast hotels.

The Scouts are used to wearing personal protective equipment for this activity (two sets of gloves, sensible footwear etc) and following it up with rigorous hygiene standards. This was one activity where the addition of face masks and hand sanitizer was barely noticed and almost welcomed.


Before and after pictures of the smaller of the two dams cleared by the Scouts on this evening. This was a very manual job. Not only did heavy wet material need to be lifted out of the ditch, the larger bits needed moving away to where temptation wouldn't cause the logs to return to the river.

BEAVER PIONEERING

Beavers

Friday June 18th.

There was a bit of a pioneering theme this week. On Thursday the Scouts built shelters from the rain and on Friday the Beavers were enjoying themselves pioneering too.

Where the Scouts used heavy poles and rope, the Beavers used sticks, Plasticine and their imaginations.

It was another rainy night so the Beavers were meeting in a well ventilated hall with windows well open.

THURSDAY JUNE 17th

WATER

Plan A was to do some heavy pioneering but on arrival we found the Rowswell Hall had a mote and a make shift bridge would need to be built just to get to the building.

We considered meeting inside but then remembered that we were 3rd Gidea Park and we weren't going to let a bit of rain stop play.

So there was a change of plan. Give each patrol enough equipment to build a shelter from the rain. And boy did it rain!

But in the end, the pioneering was fairly successful seeing as we haven't used the heavy poles for two years.

Scouts

CHIEF SCOUT GOLD AWARDS

Two more Chief Scout Gold Awards were presented this week. This is the top award that a Scout can gain.

The months of zoom meetings were used to finish off any parts of challenge badges that could be completed online or at home, this left just a few tasks to complete outside once the troop started meeting face to face again.

BEAVERS IN THE PARK

Crawl

MAY 25th

Our Tuesday Beavers were out for a walk in Raphaels Park where they met some baby swans.

CUBS

Cubs

MAY

Friday Cubs have been brushing up on various Scouting skills. The Cubs above had been learning backwoodsman skills by trying to bake chocolate cakes in a fire using just a hollowed out Orange wrapped in tinfoil as a utensil.

Meanwhile the cubs were also learning how to use matches to safely and calmly to light as many candles as they could with a single match.

WE'RE BACK

Beavers

Back but not quite back to normal.

407 days since the last time we had the entire Scout Troop meeting face to face together, we finally managed it on April 22nd. Some of our sections met a week or two before then and by the first week of May, all five of our sections were meeting face to face.

We are outside as much as possible, social distancing as much as possible and in the case of Scouts, wearing face masks when we can't distance consistently.

So not quite back to normal, but getting there.

Beavers

Friday Beavers have been making Grass heads and sending us pictures of them growing.

Meanwhile the Tuesday Beavers have been growing Cress and Tomatoes for the Gardeners Badge.

INVESTATURES

Three new Beavers were invested during one of this week's on-line Beaver meeting.

WALES

FRIDAY 05/03/2021.

The theme of our recent Friday Beaver meetings has been the countries that make up the UK. This week it was Wales and the Beavers made welsh cakes together.

One of our Scouts even managed to sneak in on the act.

Beavers

SHELTERS

Our Friday Beavers were challenged to build some shelters and sleep in them.

DIGITAL MAKER

The Scouts have been being creative with computers for the Digital Maker badge. They had to design characters and graphics for a computer game as well as learn about coding.

This gave our older leaders an excuse to bore the Scouts with tails of when they were a lad etc. It did give one of them the opportunity to demonstrate that after 40 years he still knows how to program a Sinclair ZX81! Typical of our Scout leaders to use a badge designed to demonstrate that Scouting is a modern relevant organisation to talk about ancient history.

GETTING CREATIVE

February 11th

This week the Scouts have been getting creative making sculptures out of Salt Dough together. We had a wide variety of creative ideas but at the end of the day, it was just nice to be able to do something creative together.