Last week our Scout meeting hall was being used as a polling station so the Beavers used the opportunity to go to the Woodhouse Scout Headquarters in Almondsbury. As well as a climbing wall, rope challenge and big camping fields, they also have an Adventure Course which, as the beavers discovered, is wet, muddy and a lot of fun
St George’s Day Parade
Some of our Beavers, Cubs and Scouts took place in a St George’s Day Parade.
This is one of our biggest parades of the year, with us marching as a District from Clifton College to Clifton Cathedral for the service.
1300 Years of Westbury On Trym
In 2017, Westbury-on-Trym village is celebrating its’ 1300th birthday. This makes it even older than Bristol! 90th Bristol Souts will be joining in these celebrations.
It all started back in 717 when the Bishop of Worcester sent some monks to establish a place of worship in the West Country. The place they settled in is now known as Westbury-on-Trym.
The celebrations are aimed at the whole community and will take place throughout the year. They include:
- 13th May: Community Fair in the churchyards. This includes the launch of the Wellie Art.
- 21st May: Beating of the bounds of the original parish boundaries. A 14 mile walk ending with a picnic.
- 29-31st May: Half term pilgrimage to Worcester – by any method of transport.
- 18th June: Fayre in Canford Park from 11am to 3pm. Lots of stalls, activities for kids and a Sealed Knot re-enactment.
- July: Yarn bombing of Westbury and children’s treasure hunt.
- 2nd September: Village Show with theme ‘In the Past’ at the Village Hall.
- 9th September: Doors Open day – Holy Trinity church tower.
- 30th September: Antiques valuation and craft stalls at the Village Hall.
- 4th November: Fireworks Fiesta, Canford Park.
- 12th November: Remembrance Day service.
Young people are especially encouraged to:
· Come along to the community fair to join in the Wellie Art.
· Make purple pom-poms for the yarn bombing.
· Grow any vegetables that may have grown in the past 1300 years to display in the Village Show.
· Join in all the events and have fun!
Young Leader Award
Congratulations to Adam, Young Leader at the 90th Bristol Scout Group who is the first Cabot District Scout to receive the Young Leader Buckle. In order to complete his award Adam had to complete a number of training modules, covering everything from how to run games, how to plan an activity and even child protection and first aid. Then he had to complete four missions, where he had to plan and run a number activities for the Beavers.
Learning New Skills
This week the Scouts were working towards their Skills Challenge badge by learning some new skills. They were learning how to iron, how to sew, some electrical skills, some card tricks and how to shuffle cards. Probably the biggest challenge of the evening was how to set up an ironing board!
A big thanks to the leaders and parents that helped to teach the skills.
New Web Site
After months of development work, I am proud to launch the newly updated 90th Bristol Scout Group web site!
The new website platform makes it easy for leaders to post news and photos (as tested in Switzerland on our Scout Summer Camp!), so keep an eye out for updates on some of the activities we do.
There is also a new calendar and section programmes that details what each section has planned, which you can subscribe to (iCalendar format) using your phone or calendar application.
Scout Community Day 2013
Scouts spent the morning taking part in local projects to tidy overgrown areas, picking litter and generally making Wesbury-on-Trym look nice! The were a number of projects which involved some gardening around the Methodist Church, clearing overgrown areas of the grave yard and painting a shed and a gate in the former Westbury Wildlife Park.
In the afternoon there was be a street party on Chock Lane, kindly supported by the The Victoria, where there will be activities and entertainment for all ages.
Youth Lounge
In 2013 our project was to redevelop the ‘under stage room’ into a youth lounge. The room was getting used more frequently and was looking a bit tired and was in need of a bit of updating. All of the old cupboards and seating was removed and new kitchen units and a seating area was installed. A fresh new coat of paint and new lighting helped to brighten up the room and a TV was installed to enable films and videos to be watched.
Church Patio
In 2007, to mark the Centenary of Scouting the Group decided to redevelop the patio area outside the church hall. The existing patio was over grown and not used, so we spent many weekends clearing out the overgrown shrubs and moving the wall back to form a usable patio space. The gardens were landscaped and planted to make the area feel nice and welcoming.
Paul’s Blog
We are now all back home safely and hopefully everyone has had a good nights sleep, without trains going past or Germans singing until the early hours! It was sad not to have to get up and wake up 14 children this morning, but it was nice to have a decent cup of tea and I think I’ve drank more tea today at work, that on the whole 10 days away!
Looking back on the trip, we took away 14 young people (aged from 8 to 15) and 6 adult leaders (aged from 18 to some other number!) and everyone had an amazing time. We travelled though some beautiful countryside to camp at the end of a spectacular valley surrounded by mountains, along with some 2000 other Scouts from around the world in our own mini jamboree. It was great to see our Scouts meeting Scouts from some 31 different Countries, swapping badges, neckers and stories.
All of the Scouts on the trip were amazingly well behaved and got on with each other all the time. They all did what was asked of them with the minimal of fuss (or ‘fish’, Harri!). As parents you should be be proud to have such great children, I know I am to have them as my Scouts (or ex-Scouts). I hope the trip has demonstrated that Scouting is a truly world-wide organisation with a common interest and as the Scouts become Explorers or Leaders (or Cubs become Scouts, Issie!), there are many more opportunities to meet Scouts from all over the world at various different events.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the other leaders on the trip, which, without their commitment, volunteering their time and taking holiday from work the trip could not happen. Emily, Shelagh, Mel, Tim and Annabel – Thank You for keeping track of finances and pocket money, organising this great blog, doing first aid, organising train tickets, building a shelter (multiple times!) and everything else!
Whilst we were away, it was great to invest Annabel as a full Leader with the troop, after being a Scout and going to Kandersteg on our last trip in 2010 and then becoming a Young Leader. I hope this will inspire some of the current Scouts to become (Young) Leaders and maybe next time we can invest them and one day they might even take their own group of Scouts on a amazing trip.
Finally, I have to say thank you to all the parents, grand parents and everyone else that supported our trip, by helping with our fundraising efforts, reading this blog and making some comments or just generally supporting the Scouts. The Scouts loved getting the blog comments read out every night! Over the next few weeks I will collate all the photos from the trip and in September we will run a presentation evening in the Church, to show all the photos and share some stories. Everyone is invited! Keep an eye out for the date.
Happy Scouting!
Paul