A quick update on what has been happening at 90th Bristol over the past few months…

In October, we opened our second Scout Troop so now we have a full complement of Group sections on both Thursday and Friday. Already, we have around a dozen new Scouts. We will be keeping to this number for the time being to allow a spread of ages to develop. All-in-all, we have 120 or so Beavers, Cubs and Scouts in the Group. We have made inroads into our waiting lists at all ages over the past year or so, increasing numbers in existing sections as well. This has all been made possible by a team of new leaders joining us on Friday evenings as well as the continued commitment of everyone else.

After a summer of preparations, we were ready! On Friday 27^th September, the Frome Troop met for the first time with 10 Scouts, many of whom have “moved on” from Cubs, together with some children from our waiting list, under the leadership of Simon.

It was in February 2016 that we started the Frome Beaver Colony and less than 2 years later the Frome Cub Pack. We always knew that the Troop would have to follow within a couple of years and, in recent months, we’ve been actively seeking new adult volunteers and strengthening our section leadership teams in preparation. Nevertheless, we still need a couple more volunteers to come forward who would be interested and willing to help Simon.

The Troop will expand quite slowly in the first few months, we don’t want all the Scouts to be of the same age! But within 2 years I’ve no doubt the “Troop Full” signs will go up.

The Troop programme is varied, the emphasis being on learning new skills; we call them “skills for life”. Scouts will have many opportunities to be outdoors over the next few months and 3 camps are planned for next year, culminating in a 10-day trip to Kandersteg in Switzerland!

We warmly welcome our new Scouts; may they make new friends and have a lot of fun in their time with us.

In September the Frome and Trym Cub Packs joined forces and went to the Cabot District Cub Camp.

Here are some photos from the camp:

During the summer our Scouts, joined with Scouts from 77th and 167th Bristol and Explorers from Steama Explorer Unit for their annual summer camp. This year we headed for a field just outside Abergavenny.

There were about 50 Scouts & Explorers and they all took part in a wide rage of activities including gorge walking, climbing, rafting, hiking, convervation work and paddling in the river!

The Scouts & Explorers all cooked for themselves (and the leaders) on open fires that they had built in their patrols.

Here are some photos of what they got up to:

For this years joint summer camp with 77th, 90th, 167th Scout Troops and Steama Explorers we went to Bovey Tracey in Devon.
The Scouts and Explorers were split into patrols and we cooked our own meals, on fires we’d made ourselves. The leaders only gave us the basic recipe and ingredients, apart from the free day meal where we went to the shops with £25 and got ingredients to a 3 course meal we had thought of ourselves.
The activities ranged from the NGOOT – a adventure walk with your patrol – and segwaying to kayaking and playing in the river on site, the Explorers also went on a 2 day hike.

Below are some photos from the camp:

Road safety mascot Horace says: “Bright kids stay safe and be seen”

Westbury-on-Trym Beavers and Cubs meet canine road safety champion Horace

Forty Beavers  and Cubs in Westbury-on-Trym got to meet road safety hero Horace yesterday evening when he visited the 90^th Bristol Scout Group as part of a road safety workshop.

Horace is the RAC’s road safety mascot and was created by Aardman to help promote road safety education to children. The RAC also teamed up with the Scout Association to engage their young people with road safety workshops to spread the message with engaging experiences, practical tips, challenges and competitions.

The Westbury-on-Trym Beavers and Cubs wrote to the RAC inviting Horace to visit which he was very happy to accept. The RAC also agreed to run a road safety workshop covering key issues including: road safety in a vehicle breakdown situation; the importance of being visible on the road, in-car safety and pedestrian crossings.

The Beavers and Cubs completed a series of challenges which will help them achieve their road safety badge which is sponsored by the RAC and features Horace in its design. Horace also handed out bright orange high-visibility vests to all the children.

RAC road safety champion Jacqui Thompson said: “Horace and our road safety team were delighted to join the Cubs and Beavers of the 90^th Bristol Scout Group at the Methodist Church Hall in Westbury-on-Trym. We all enjoyed a couple of practical sessions running through road safety messages and key life skills on how to stay safe on the road.

“The children also got the chance to look around a real patrol van and see some of the 500 parts and tools our orange patrols carry to ensure they can fix our members vehicles and get them back on the road I think the Cubs and Beavers favourite moment was when they met Horace and many got the chance to sit in the driver’s seat in the patrol van and switch on the orange beacons!”

Beaver Scout leader Vikki Angell said: “It was a great evening for our Beavers and Cubs bringing important road safety messages to life in a fun and engaging way. The children loved meeting Horace and I am sure they will all be wearing their orange high-vis vests with pride when they are out and about on the road.”

Over 100,000 Cubs have completed similar workshops and learnt about the Green Cross Code to achieve their Horace road safety badge over the last two and a half years.

It may have been the winter and cold and snowy outside, but that didn’t stop Beavers, Cubs and Scouts having fun! Here are some of the photo highlights from the past term:

Scouts made pancakes on camping stoves:

Beavers made pizzas:

When most meetings were cancelled, Scouts took to Skype to hold a virtual Scout meeting:

Both Beaver Colonies had a day on the docks, visiting the SS Great Britain and having a boat ride:

Scouts learnt how to change a duvet and poach an egg (and clear up) as part of their Skills Challenge badge:

Frome Beavers learnt all about photography with Kelvin and Nigel of Nige Burr Photography:

and Trym Cubs won the District Swimming Gala!