1st Stanstead Abbotts and St. Margaret's Scout Group

A quick round up from all the Sections - don't forget to check out the photos in the Gallery

Beavers:

The Bug Man visited a joint Woodland and Forest Beaver Colonies evening at HQ with a selection of his little ‘friends’. He arrived with lots of his animals and insects - First "out of the bag" came a dear little tree frog - who sat calmly on each of the hands who wanted to hold him - he was followed by a nippy giant cockroach, a millipede, two stick insects (one was called "Black Beauty - Black with yellow "eye" markings and red flashes under its wings as a warning signal that he would not make a good meal for any predators that came his way), a Corn Snake - very calm, and who seemed to like the attention from the Beavers, and last but not least, a Giant Snail!

Beaver Leader ‘Hare ‘ said  it was  “A very interesting and informative evening that did a lot to dismiss the preconceptions of these insects and amphibians as being "not very nice" - they were all VERY Nice and will be welcome back to the meetings of the future I am sure!”

The week before the Woodland Beavers visited the local farm at Stansteadbury to ‘very quietly’ see the new born lambs and their shepherd. The children behaved perfectly as the shepherd showed them the farm’s latest arrivals and even the mobile shepherd hut!

The Spring theme continued with an evening making kites and flying kites in the field in the strong Spring winds and being introduced to some tadpoles from a local pond.  Then the Beavers celebrated as one, India, was presented with her Chief Scout’s Bronze Award – the highest award you can achieve as a Beaver and another, Beth, as she received her Moving On award and certificate in readiness for moving up to Cubs. The Moving On ceremony is known as ‘Swimming up to Cubs’ as the Beaver ‘swims’ (walks) around her fellow Beavers before reaching the Cub Pack Leader who attends the ceremony and welcomes her to the next part of her Scouting adventure.

Cubs:

The Cubs have had a fascinating month with one pack, the Jaguars, spending a Space themed ‘Night at the Science Museum’.  Sleeping amid the Space exhibits and breakfasting in the Launch Pad area before experiencing the IMAX cinema to watch the massive 3D space shuttle movie, was truly a night to remember – for all!

Meanwhile, Chris Truran from the Metropolitan Police’s Forensic Services Branch Team gave the Panther Cub Pack and their Leaders a fantastic night to remember. Having tested each other for footprints and fingerprints and even swabbed for DNA, everyone was enthralled. (All samples were, of course, carefully disposed of!) One lucky Cub even ended up being invested in a biological suit – whether his uniform always goes home as clean as that in the future is rather unlikely!  One 17 year old Young Leader said it was one of the most fascinating evenings he’d been involved with. 

Eleven Cubs from the Scout Group were presented with their Chief Scout’s Silver Award at a special ceremony held at Ware Priory.  The Chief Scout’s Silver Award is the highest award a Cub can achieve and entails a huge amount of work to fulfil the 6 Challenge Badges required to complete the award.

Finally the Panther Pack’s Young Leaders were set the task of planning and running an evening for their Cubs.  The three 6^th Form Young Leaders, who have all been Beavers, Cubs and Scouts at Stanstead Abbotts, led the Pack through the evening and had them playing a variety of games such as Table Football, Indoor Hockey and a paper aeroplane flying competition, which Louis won with a great flight reaching the entire length of the hall and into the corridor! They wound the evening up with the traditional parade and Flag Break. 

Two of the Young Leaders, Alastair and Chris, have been helping out each week and joining in with the camps, fun and adventures over the last 2 years, which helped them to achieve their Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Awards and are now working toward their Gold awards along with Kiran, the third volunteer Young Leader who joined in the Autumn Term. With their major DofE expedition to Snowdonia coming up this Summer (along with their  AS Levels!), the Cub and Scout Leaders will be wishing Alastair, Kiran and Chris the very best of luck!

Scouts

The Scouts have been treated to the most amazing month of new adventures and challenges – Starting with the challenging demands of the annual  11- 15 km ‘March March’ and camp on Dartmoor and then a  Gliding Camp, when each Scout and Leader learned the basics of gliding before everyone was taken on a 20 min flight over the Bedfordshire countryside in the 2 seater Scout Assoc. owned glider!  Although the temperatures dropped to -4 on the night of the BIG moon, the Scouts enjoyed cooking on their meths stoves and eating around the fire pit before snuggling up in their tents with their friends. 

When not gliding, the local volunteer warden showed then around the woods teaching everyone about woodland management and even had them making hazel fences around a badger pit.

The following weekend was not as quiet as had been hoped for when the Scouts were introduced to bell ringing, at St John’s Church in Great Amwell, although we’ve not had any complaints from neighbours yet!  Fortunately ,the noise from the drums beating out a rhythm for the two Dragon Boat Teams, down at the ESSA Lake in Roydon, was far enough from any residents to disturb their Sunday afternoon last weekend.  In beautiful sunshine, two teams of Scouts, Leaders and a few Mums and Dads took to the water to race against each other having enormous fun along the way!

With Leaders and helpers joining the children in their adventures, they have also been off doing their own thing too.  From a ‘Skills Booster Day’ for one of our Beaver Leaders to a special Leaders and Young Leaders hike and camp on Dartmoor, many have been honing their skills and learning new ones in a variety of ways and having lots of fun along the way.  With the Murder Mystery Evening in April and the District Leaders Hog Roast just some of the social events lined up for the Leaders and adult helpers, the next few months should be a fun time for both children and Leaders alike.

If you’d like to join the adventure and the fun AND help in the biggest youth organisation in the world – just talk to one of the Leaders.   For more information visit our website: www.stansteadabbottsscouts.org.uk

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