Coronavirus / COVID 19 status

As with our earlier communication, face-to-face Scouting is cancelled for the foreseeable future. The Coronavirus information and advice page on our website is updated regularly for the latest on Penistone Scouts’ arrangements: https://penistonescouts.uk/coronavirus

The week ahead (23rd March onwards):

All sections

Our leader team has a video conference planned for Monday evening (23rd March) where we will be looking at what virtual Scouting can be achieved whilst face-to-face Scouting is suspended. Off the back of this, and in an realistic and achievable manner, we will send out invites to virtual section meetings for the young people via Online Scout Manager.

Given our reliance upon Online Scout Manager, please take the time to log into the Parent Portal and ensure your contact details and your young person’s records are correct / up-to-date. We’ve recently made some changes to make data consistent across the group, so please take a moment to check if there are any missing fields – you may need to scroll down past phone / address entry to see them. If you’re unable to access the parent portal, please reach out to your respective section leader.

The below email addresses are distribution lists that include the leaders for each youth section.

Beavers

Castors – [email protected]
Boomers – [email protected]
Millstones – [email protected]

Cubs

Alegre – [email protected]
Bella Vista – [email protected]
Raptors – [email protected]

Scouts

Enigma – [email protected]
Wibbles – [email protected]
Viernes – [email protected]

Explorers

Scorpions – [email protected]

Escalations

For all escalations or non-section specific queries (relating to young people who are already members of the group) please contact our Group Scout Leader team on: [email protected]

Future events

Kettleness is cancelled. Shauna is processing refunds. She will be reaching out for the bank details of those affected so we can return monies.

The St George’s Day gathering at Penistone Church is cancelled. We will see if something virtual is achievable in the coming days.

Group camp will not take place in July. We will look at alternatives – there have been some interesting indoor virtual camps suggested on some Facebook Scouting groups!

Supporting the community

There are a number of local initiatives taking place and coming together. We are going to partner with the Round Table to prevent any likelihood of stepping on one another’s toes! More on this soon. Thank you for all the suggestions via email so far. Keep them coming!

Things to do at home whilst isolated

UK Scouting have released a fantastic set of activities anyone can do at home. Please do take the time to have a look at their, “The Great Indoors” initiative. https://www.scouts.org.uk/the-great-indoors There are over 100 things the young people can take part in – they are not limited do members of Scouting.

Leaders and adult volunteers

If you have not received the invitation to the Monday 23rd March all hands video conference call, please contact [email protected] It will be fantastic to have as many of you as possible attend so we can progress both virtual Scouting and the wider community initiatives we’re working on, please.

Additionally, leaders / adult volunteers, if you’ve not received the training email sent by Rob on Friday 20th March, please get in touch. Bear in mind that these will have been sent to your group provided email account and not your personal email addresses. If you can’t access your group email, please let us know so we can perform a password reset – now more than ever, we’ll be dependent upon our Office 365 platform so we need to make sure you’ve access.

Previously:

Scouts

Enigma were the only youth section who were able to meet before face-to-face Scouting had to be suspended.

They worked on their map skills: looking at scales of maps, 6 figure grid reference, keys and contour lines etc. Then in 3 groups they planed unsupported night walks via 3 different routes to Royd’s Moor on Ordinance Survey maps. They were due to complete these walks in a fortnight’s time; however, this will likely now by a post-summer activity.

Nicky worked with the Scouts on understanding viruses and how they are transmitted. We did some example games followed by short Q&A on COVID 19. This provided the young people with opportunity to ask anything they were concerned about.

The evening was rounded off with the Scouts being placed into new patrols and the awarding of several badges. Nicky has put a huge amount of work into getting these sorted and I (Jim) wanted to give her a special mention and a thank you for doing so.

It was quite sad to reflect at the end of the meeting that it would be the last time we’d meet for the foreseeable future.