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WHAT'S HAPPENING AT 3GP

All our sections are now meeting every week either on-line or outside face to face or both. As the evenings draw in, we are working with St Michaels Guides and Brownies to put measures in place to make sure we can start to 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 emails from the leaders to keep up to date.

NEWS

REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY

Remembrance Sunday is always a big event for us but this year it was a very different experience. Friday Night's Beaver meeting started with the Beavers scavenging red black and green items from their homes to make poppies.

Our members were invited to attend the St Michaels virtual service of Remembrance on Zoom and many took part in the national 11:00 from the doorstep.

Poppy

Scout

BUBBLY BEAVERS

TUESDAY OCTOBER 27th

The Beavers braved the rain to meet at Gidea Park Sports ground for some fun with bubbles. The Beavers learnt a few useful knots to make their bubble wands before dipping them in the special bubble mixture and launching some colossal bubbles across the field.

SOCIALLY DISTANCED SCOUTS

THURSDAY 8/10/2020.

The Scouts who met on Zoom were making home made microwave pizzas this week with varying degrees of success.

There was also an update on the farming with our first pumpkins on display.

Meanwhile the scouts at the hall were brushing up on pioneering skills.

DISABILITY AWARE BEAVERS

Friday September 25th

This week our Friday Beavers met on Zoom to continue their Disability Awareness badge. They were exploring what life would be like if they couldn't see.

Activities included being blindfolded and then having to select items from within a pillow case without being able to see them.

The most adventurous task was having to pour a cup of water without being able to see the jug of the cup. Fortunately parents were on standby to help supervise the ensuing mayhem!

The picture on the left was taken just moments before the lid fell of the jug!

At least one Beaver was well prepared with a sponge to help mop up any mess.

SOCIALLY DISTANCED SCOUTS

THURSDAY 24/09/2020.

The Scouts met face to face again for the first time on a Thursday Evening since March. We are limited to fifteen young people and are keeping it outside and socially distanced at the moment.

We made sure the Scouts understood the two meter socially distance rules in traditional Scout style. We used our collection of 6ft staves each of which is marked with measurements and got the Scouts to measure 182.8cm (6ft) and add half an arm length to get the 2m.

We normally find that nobody wants to be within 2m of a Scout with a 6ft stave in their hand anyway.

The main activity of the evening was catching up on some of the basic Scouting and camping skills that we have missed over the summer. In the picture above, one of our leaders is discovering the challenge of explaining how to safely connect up a gas stove without being able to get within 2m of the Scout or the gas stove!

But we have more than fifteen Scouts and so a separate on-line meeting was arranged for those that couldn't meet at St Michaels.

We managed to link up for a virtual flag break and start both meetings together before going our separate ways.

The Zoom meeting had a related theme with Scouts learning about how to set out a camp site and planning menus for a camp.

We had a couple of visits from the face to face meeting so we could see what was happening at the hall.

Next week we plan to swap with a fresh set of 15 Scouts getting the chance for socially distanced activities at St Michaels while the others catch up on Zoom.

LOOKING AFTER THE HALL

Our leaders are starting to think about getting ready to use the Scout Hall again. That means making sure it is safe and well. After months of not being used the fire escape had become overgrown. The Scouts got together during August to clear away the weeds.


Before the tidy up. Not clear, not safe.	After the tidy up, taken from the other end looking back at the cleared fire escape

The leaders and one young leader have also been busy maintaining the hall. The building is nearly 50 years old and needs a little T.L.C. from time to time. A small group of leaders used the time that they had booked off work for summer camp to make some improvements.


Before Lock down any visitors to our hall would be greeted by the sight of this wall with holes in it.	After lock down, all holes covered and the lobby given a coat of paint to brighten it up. NOTE, only one leader in the building.


Before even getting in the hall, people would spot the rotting exterior woodwork.	That patch of rotten framework has been cut away and replaced and the rotten cladding has gone exposing the insulation.


This is the lower part of the door.	The new white cladding is on below the window and the door has been tidied up making the place a little more presentable.

Lots more work is required nut some of the worst bits were tackled over that summer camp week.

CREAPY CRAWLY BEAVER MEETING

Beavers

Friday September 11th

The Beavers had three very special guests in their zoom meeting this week. Firstly a member of staff from Hopefields Animal Sanctuary who talked to the Beavers and answered questions about what they do. Secondly we were joined live by two hopefield residents, a tarantula and a scorpion!

MEENWHILE BACK ON ZOOM

Patterns

Thursday August 20th

For our 20th Thursday night virtual meetings the Scouts did some communicating team building exercises. Two would memorise different arrangements of shapes and then have to verbally describe them to their team.

Some were frustrated when they discovered how hard it was to verbally describe the arrangement of three shapes. Others demonstrated excellent communication skills and some showed disturbing levels of clairvoyance.

FACE TO FACE MEETINGS

Thursday August 6th

Summer Camp was supposed to take place the first two weeks of the school summer holidays. The Scout leaders had all booked the time off work long before lock down began and so were free for the first two weeks of the holiday. This gave us time to run three face to face meetings outside the Scout Hall with the Scouts as well as spend a bit of time maintaining the Scout Hall.

Now the summer camp period has come to an end the frequency, timing and duration of face to face activities will need to change.

The Scouts will switch back to Zoom as the primary way of meeting but we do hope to plan a few more face to face get-togethers particularly when the Autumn term begins. One of the challenges of face to face Scouting under current rules is that to facilitate all our Scouts meeting, we need three separate meetings!


	More meetings will take place later in the summer so lookout for emails from the leaders.

HELPING THE FOOD BANK

FRIDAY JULY 31st

Today some of our Scouts were able to meet together for the first time in 140 days. The last Scout meeting at the Rowswell Hall was on March 12th. Shortly after that we were told to stop all face to face Scouting.

In the last month, the Scout association’s guidance has changed and we are now allowed to run outdoor meetings but with lots of very sensible precautions and controls put in place. The Scouts were keen to do something so the leaders started to look for something constructive we could do that could be done safely, within the strict guidelines that we have to work under.

To keep things as simple as possible for our first meeting we decided to meet outside our Scout Hall and do some stock sorting for the Trussell Trust Food bank. And for our first meeting we kept it small with just five Scouts.

We will be running some more meetings so the other Scouts can get a change to join in. At the moment we are limited to 15 people including the leaders so starting with 5 Scouts was a good way of easing ourselves into our new way of working.

Face masks are not mandatory for our meetings but we felt that for this activity, where Scouts were working in close proximity and handing tins, packets and boxes to each other, it was a sensible precaution.

Earlier in the year the Scouts learnt about the work the Trussell Trust does and this was our little way of helping out. For the Scouts, time spent helping the food bank counts towards the World Challenge badge.

The leaders will now start thinking of other activities we can do over the summer outside the hall.

FARMING UPDATE!

The Scouts have been progressing with our Growing Challenge. During our Zoom meetings, the leaders have been giving them tips and showing them how to apply their pioneering skills to build a tripod for the cucumbers to grow up.

In our meeting on the 23rd of July the Scouts ratified the categories for our competition and how they will be judged. We are also treated to regular virtual tours of the Scout's gardens to monitor the progress.

The leader boards for the Scouts Growing contest can be found here.

20 YEARS ONLINE

WEDNESDAY JULY 15th

This week the Scouts will be marking 20 years since our Group website was launched on an unsuspecting world by three of our Venture Scouts on July 15th 2000.

Back in those early days we had very limited space to play with so news items got removed after a few months and pictures often got shrunk. To mark our 20th birthday that original millennium camp report has been restored in all its original glory.

HATS OFF

Friday June 19th

For Friday's Beaver meeting we all had to wear hats. It was good to see the Beavers getting together and learning about the French name for various colours.

OH FUDGE!

This week, the Scouts attempted to make Armpit Fudge together with varying degrees of success. This is where the ingredients are put in a sandwich bag and kneading in the armpit to gently warm the ingredients. Some of the Scouts seemed to be surprisingly adept at sticking a hand in an armpit and vigorously needing it, so much so that the bag split resulting in runny fudge mix getting smeared down their torso!

We also checked up on gardening progress.

GARDENING

Well you know an activity is doing well when you get sent mid week updates. The gardening seems to have captured the imagination a bit with Scouts planting in pots, trugs and flower beds. This should give us plenty to talk about in our Zoom meetings over the next few weeks.

But its not just the Scouts that have been gardening. One of our Beavers has been helping in a community garden for his World Challenge Badge.

FACY DRESS

June 12th

This Friday's Beaver Zoom meeting was a fancy dress meeting the Beavers dressing up in their favourite costumes.

FARMERS BADGE

JUNE 11th

At the end of last week's Scout meeting the Leaders asked the Scouts for meeting ideas. Once chipped in with "Lets do something outside in our gardens. Lets do some gardening."

As with all good Scout ideas, the leaders initially dismissed it as the ravings of a mad man.

But then we discovered the Farmers Badge and found out that a good number of the leaders and a few Scouts are avid gardeners. A straw pole of the Scouts that had clung on to the bitter end of the Zoom meeting showed that they were either quietly supportive or silently indifferent to the idea which is a ringing endorsement as far as the 3GP Scouts are concerned.

A quick email to parents showed that twenty or so Scouts were up for a vegetable growing contest. While one leader set about making up 20 identical packs of assorted seeds, another separated out twenty seedlings in small pots. The scouts or their parents picked them up from outside the Scout Hall Thursday afternoon and we were set for our first green fingered zoom meeting.

SOLAR OVENS

May 28th

this week the Scouts decided to take advantage of the good weather forecast for the weekend and attempt to make and use Solar Ovens.

The simple Scout Backwoods meal of baked banana and chocolate was a good place to start but the more adventurous managed to bake cookies in a shoe box all by the power of the sun!

Below is a video of the highlights from our online meetings in the month of May. We used to say there was no such thing as a "normal" Scout meeting. Hopefully this shows that there is now no such thing as a "new normal" Scout meeting.

MUG CAKES

May 21st

For this weeks meeting, the Scouts all made microwave mug cakes together from the comfort of their own homes. Once cakes were made it was one of our quietest on-line meetings so far as 23 Scouts tucked into piping hot chocolate cakes.

ZOOM ON THE MOOVE

May 14th

Bored with sitting in front of computers, two of the Scout leaders decided to make this weeks meeting more interactive by cycling around the neighbourhood delivering badges to Scouts while we were all taking part in a Zoom meeting.

VE DAY

May 7th

During our last meeting before the VE Day bank holiday the Scouts were learning about what it was like to be a Scout in 3rd Gidea Park during the 2nd World War, where we met and why VE day was so important.

This picture on the right is of our summer camp in Scotland just months before the war. On camp we were joined by French and one Hungarian Scout. That kind of international exchange wouldn't be possible again until after the war.

The leaders read from one of our wartime news letters written in the style of a radio news report. The Scouts were then given a patrol challenge to write a similar Lock down News describing what they had done in the last few weeks of Lock down.

THE COMMUNICATORS BADGE

April 30th

This week the Scouts have been learning about communications for the communicator badge.

ST GEORGES DAY 2020

APRIL 23rd.

St George's day fell on a Thursday this year so the Scouts got the opportunity to renew our promises together on Zoom. The Beavers have also been renewing promises and sharing videos with each other.

4th ONLINE MEETING

THURSDAY APRIL 16th

Another week in lock down and another online meeting. This week we were joined by an Italian Scout who like us is having to meet online. We learnt how to tie Friendship Knots in our Neckerchiefs and finished practicing our lashing skills.

3rd ONLINE MEETING

THURSDAY APRIL 9th

This week Scouts and Leaders were playing musical instruments for the Musicians Staged Activity Badge.

2nd ONLINE MEETING

THURSDAY APRIL 2nd

The Scouts have held their second on-line meeting and once again 22 Scouts attended. Over the weekend the Scouts have been working on Skills for the Skills Challenge Badge and some have been taking part in Jamboree on the Internet.

Jambo
Clean

ONLINE MEETING

THURSDAY MARCH 26th

Since we can't meet face to face the Scouts decided to have an online get together. 2 Scouts plus five leaders attended and we attempted some creative Origami together. This is a new way of working for all of us and it will take a bit of playing to get the most out of the technology but it was great to get everyone together.

Scouts

Coronavirus (COVID-19)

MONDAY MARCH 16th

We received a communication from our UK Chief Commissioner this evening in response to today's statement from the Prime Minister. In short all face to face Beaver, Cub and Scout activities are to stop until further notice. This includes weekly meetings and weekend camps and activities.

It's too soon to say how long this will last and how it will impact camps and activities we have planned for the future but we will update parents as and when the situation changes.

Coronavirus has already had an impact on our Scouting A Month ago it was a topic of discussion amongst the Scouts with tongue in cheek accusations being thrown at anyone who coughed. By last Thursday things had changed and there was barely a comment when we asked them to all to wash their hands thoroughly before entering the Scout Hall.

We are sure the Scouts in particular will look forward to the UK Chief Commissioner delivering on his threat to provide "activities for young people to do at home with their parents if families are faced with self-isolation" Structured Scout Homework! If Parents are looking for something different to Occupy the Scouts, then I am sure we can provide some ideas. Which Scout will be first to email the leaders a picture of them having tied a man-o'war sheepshank

ORIENTEERING COMPETITION

SUNDAY MARCH 8th

Since January we have been focusing on Navigation Skills for the Scouts so they would be fully prepared for the district Orienteering Competition. We entered two teams this year and out of the 14 teams that entered we came 9th and 6th. For the Scouts that took part this counted towards the Orienteering Badge, the Teamwork Challenge and the Adventure Challenge.

Scouts

SNAKES

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 14th

This week the Friday Beavers were visited by snakes.

LAYING DOWN ON THE JOB?

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 13th

A quiet evening, Scouts laying down for a bit? No, this was back to basics with grid references. The Scouts playing human battleships!

Divide the Hall and the troop in two, make each lay five members down (no wriggling!) two covering three squares, three covering two squares. Except we didn't have any squares, only circles but that didn't seem to confuse anyone. Each team had a war table to plan the bombing raids from. It entertained the troop for three rounds!

War Room