Welcome back!

And just like that, the autumn half-term school holiday is over! Before you know it, we’ll be immersed in school plays, Christmas festivities and talking about how dark it is!

Back in the here and now, let’s take a look at the coming week:

The week ahead (4th November 2018 onwards)

Beavers

Boomers and Castors have now completed part one of their International badge; many thanks to Keeley from Amigokids for coming along and teaching some Spanish and playing Spanish games with them. This week we will be undertaking the final part where we will be trying some food from two countries, looking at flags and learning about beavers in another country. It is also the time we will be investing the beavers who joined us at the start of the term. If your son/daughter is one to be invested, please ensure they have a uniform jumper (these can be ordered through our web-shop) and have paid for a necker (unless you have one already).  We invite the parents of those being invested in to watch them making their promise and this will be at the end of the meeting; so please arrive 10 minutes before the end. We are happy for you to take photographs too.

Millstones will be meeting at their normal time at the school. Please look out for an email with details later in the week.

Cubs

Bella Vista, your Leader Team are meeting on Monday to plan the remainder of this term.  This week we will definitely be at the Scout Hut at the normal times in uniform.  Parents, please check your email in a couple of days as a last-minute exciting opportunity will appear there.

Raptors will be making some suitable Armistice day decorations and then adding them down on the local memorial. Please send with a coat and a torch. This will be in readiness for the coming Sunday’s commemorate ceremony from St. Saviours church Sunday 11th. Full details to follow.
Alegre will be learning all about the RAF and centenary in preparation for Remembrance Sunday.
Scouts

Enigma & Viernes troops are both meeting on Monday at 19:00. Martin Charlesworth from the Royal British Legion will be giving a presentation to the young people. Afterwards, he will have Poppy Appeal items available for sale. Don’t forget to send some loose change as your scout will need a poppy for the remembrance parade. Full uniform is required, scouts should wear dark trousers/dark skirt and school shoes. They should also please iron their neckers and roll them neatly for this meeting night. There will be no regular Friday scout meeting this week.

Wibbles troop meeting will be Remembrance themed and will be emailed directly if any extra info about times, kit etc.

SCUBA Friday – 16 older scouts spanning Engima and Viernes troops have places to a taster SCUBA session at Stocksbridge Leisure centre between 19:20 hrs and 21:15 hrs on Friday 9th November. Those who have a confirmed place have been emailed the final arrangements. If your child is one of these, please ensure you bring the completed consent form and monies on Monday 5th November!

Monopoly Run – Viernes and Enigma have scheduled a trip to London in March 2019. This is an exciting weekend event, where teams of five (plus a leader) will be competing to score points in a real life monopoly event across London. Included in the weekend we have a spot of tourism on Sunday. Places are limited, so please book and pay deposits in accordance with the following dedicated event page.

Viaduct abseiling – In early January, we’ve booked to take a couple of minibuses of scouts to Miller’s Viaduct in Buxton. Scouts from Viernes and Enigma should please register for places within MyScout and get deposits in before the end of the autumn school term. Full details can be found on the following dedicated event page.

Bag pack section fundraiser – A reminder to parents/guardians of Enigma/Viernes scouts: we have a fundraising bag-pack scheduled for Saturday 1st December at the ASDA in Barnsley. This has been emailed; however, full details regarding this can be found on the following dedicated event page. This is a rare opportunity to raise monies specifically for the individual sections and for planning purposes we need to please understand if your scout will be with us for the morning session, the afternoon session or both!

Explorers

A reminder to all Explorers that this is remembrance week and activities will be themed around remembering the fallen. Details will be emailed should there be any special arrangements for our meeting this week.

Everyone
  • Remembrance Sunday – Full details of the Remembrance Parade/Service as well as the arrivals/collection times for all sections (except for Millstones/Raptors) can be found on the following dedicated event page. Raptors and Millstones have a separate service that will be held at Thurlstone St Saviours starting at 10 am. A brief reminder to all that full uniform is a must for these events, please make sure it is clean, the young people are well turned out and wearing a poppy.
  • Remembrance rehearsals – Flag bearers and escorts, please remember that the practice is at St. John’s church at 18.30 pm on Thursday 8 November.
  • Group Christmas Service – Everyone should have received an email highlighting the date/times for our group Christmas Service. A copy of the letter and associated information can be found on the following dedicated event page. All are welcome.
  • Maintenance weekend – We have pencilled in a group maintenance weekend for the first weekend in January (5th & 6th). This is a time when we ask parents, guardians, grandparents and anyone who can spare some time to come to the scout hut and help us perform a number of essential maintenance tasks. From painting/decorating to clearing stores and items that need dealing with; we cram an awful lot into the weekend so that the building use can be maximised for young people throughout the year. At the moment this is a placeholder, but we’d ask you please save one or both days to help us out.
Leaders

Mandatory GDPR training – We are fast approaching the headquarter’s deadline for being compliant with a short web-training module; please make sure you’ve completed the training module and send your completion certificate to the training team email address, as per the GDPR email. If you’ve questions or challenges, please reach out to the team.

Other news:

Half term Spanish – Even though this week was half term, Castors met for a Spanish lesson with Amigokids. Ten beavers turned out and had a fantastic time. Many thanks to Keeley for running the session.

First Aid training –  Some of the leader team met (today) to complete their adult emergency aid training course. Thanks to Brian and Sharon for training the team. An essential module in every adult’s training programme and we had great fun whilst learning.