GROUP SCOUT LEADERS REPORT
The past year has been one of change, celebration and achievement for 6th Dronfield Scout Group. As always, the necessary dedication and commitment has been present from all leaders and helpers throughout the group, ensuring we continue to grow and flourish, providing all our young people with an enjoyable and worthwhile experience during their time in the group. My thanks go to all of you who are involved.
One of the highlights of this past year was the group’s 40th Anniversary celebration in June. We were blessed with excellent sunny weather (apart from a 10 minute soaking!) as we enjoyed a family fun day at Wreakes Lane which also incorporated our AGM. It was great to look back at past events and at some familiar faces on some interesting photographs!! A good day was had by all.
In September, I became Group Scout Leader, filling a gap that had been present for a couple of years and Ann Athey reverted to Assistant Group Scout Leader after taking responsibility for all the Group Scout Leaders duties while a full time GSL was found. Frazer Coombs replaced me as Beaver Leader and has been joined by Emily Armstrong as Assistant Beaver Leader ensuring strong links are continued between the group, the church and its members, something I feel is important. We have also appointed a new Chair to our Group Exec Committee and I thank Lin Richards for her willingness to contribute to the group’s progress.
The Beaver colony currently has 9 fully invested beavers with 3 new ones visiting. Activities and work they have completed throughout the past year include working towards their safety badge and faith badge as well as the traditional crafts including Christmas and Easter crafts. They are currently working towards gaining their Health and Fitness Badge.
We have 17 Cubs in the pack at this time, and they have enjoyed the usual, but much deserved success in the Totem Trophy competition. Other activities have included the annual camp at Walesby Forest and participating in a Christian Aid Lent project.
The Scouts have had another action packed year, and enjoyed success in the Scout and Guide Quiz in February. They also competed in the Jubilee, Night Owl and Drinkall Trophy competitions. They also found time to go on 4 camps, including a week long camp in Norwich and ended the year with a fun trip to Alton Towers.
Our Explorer group continues to go from strength to strength with 19 members currently attending. Throughout the year they have worked towards gaining their Duke of Edinburgh Awards, which takes massive amounts of work, not just from the Explorers, but from the Leaders as well and I look forward to them reaping the rewards this year.
I am happy to finish this report detailing a number of achievements and awards that have been gained by members of the group. Frazer Coombs and Andrew Watson have both received their Wood Badges for fully completing their leader training course, something which takes hard work and commitment to achieve. Alison Lomas received the Chief Scouts Commendation for good service, while I gained my 5 year service award. This was eclipsed however by Denise Thorpe reaching the milestone of 20 years service to the Scout Association! And as we look to the future with our new leaders, Emily Armstrong has completed her first training modules and can now have her leaders warrant.
Mike Keen
Group Scout Leader
EXPLORERS
We have eighteen Explorer Scouts who are soon to be joined by two more that are moving up from scouts in February.
Our regular activities include: Bowling, Raft building, Climbing, Ready steady cook, Quiz nights, Games nights, Lighting fires, Orienteering, Chinese New Year, Diwali & Making Christmas cards. They have also done a first aid qualification with St John Ambulance and a child protection course with a member of the county training team.
We have one group working towards their bronze Duke of Edinburgh practice expedition, another group planning their bronze qualifying expedition and a third group planning their silver qualifying expedition. It was great to present four of our young people with their bronze Duke of Edinburgh awards this year - well done to Daniel Smith, Jeremy Clark, Alex Porter and Megan Molloy.
We have enjoyed three camps this year: There was freezer camp in February at Hesley Wood, where we won the archery competition. In November we had a camp at Walesby which was planned and run by two of our young people - thanks to Megan Nelson and Megan Molloy. This camp was incredibly cold but spirits were high and the fires were even higher. Ten young people went to the jamboree in Essex in the summer and congratulations go to Owen, Jeremy and Robin for winning the scrap heap challenge down there. Thanks go to Andy Watson and Nicola Simpson for leading this camp.
As ever, Andy and I would like ask if anyone out there would consider giving some of their spare time to help with the Explorer group. It's great that these young people come along every Friday night - especially in view of the bad press that teenagers get these days. They are a lovely group of young people but we really do need another leader to help with the activities.
I would like to thank Andy for his hard work and support this year. As ever a big thank you must go to Mrs. Athey for her support and also to Jim Molloy who supports me and the young people transporting us to camps.
Gill Molloy ESL
SCOUT REPORT
We currently have 28 scouts in the Troop.
Competitions and Events
· George Lucas Camping Competition: This event was not held this year.
· Jubilee Trophy (January 2008) – this is a first aid competition held between the District Scout groups involving a team of four scouts. Our Scout team was not placed. Special thanks to Andrew Shaw, Assistant Scout Leader, who coached the team.
· Scout and Guide Quiz (February 2008) – We entered an excellent team and won the competition. This means we hold it at our venue in 2009.
· Night Owl. (March 2008) This is an activity hike over about 5 miles which is held in the dark. The team was very young and performed very well as a team. We were not placed in the competition but everyone had a great time and we all enjoyed the evening.
· District Football Competition (April 2008) this event was not held
· Drinkall Trophy (October 2008) – this event takes place in October and is an activity hike which takes place over a large area of open countryside and involves a lot of scout skills as well as a lot of hard work. We were not placed this year but had a good time.
· Swimming Gala (November 2008) – this event was not held this year
· Christmas Party We held our Christmas party at the District Headquarters at Wreakes Lane in the open air. We cooked outside and were entertained by the scouts giving short plays and presentations
Unfortunately District events are not as well supported as they were a few years ago. Increasingly there are only three or four teams out of seven groups. This year we have entered a team in every District event. This aids teamwork and the scouts should be pleased with their efforts. However, they have also learned more important issues than winning competitions. They have learned to live with each other; discovered teamwork is necessary to do well and learned that there are lots of enjoyable activities that do not involve the use of a computer or mobile phone.
Camps in 2008. We camped on four occasions in 2008. The Early May camp was attended all scouts except one who was ill – which was an excellent turnout. Spring Bank Camp is a large County organised affair which had about 15 scouts attending. We had a summer week long camp in Norwich at an excellent site and joined 5th Dronfield Scouts for this event. We had very mixed weather but had a successful camp. We rounded off the year with a camp and visit to Alton Towers – great fun.
I must also thank the scout leadership team of Nicola Simpson and Andrew Shaw. Thanks to Richard Temple who helps even though he is a leader at another group and of course many thanks to Dean Thorpe and Ann Athey for their help and advice throughout the year. I would also like to particularly thank the parents who have helped throughout the year. Special thanks must go to those parents for their help on transport on the summer camp, especially Trevor who took the van both ways. I must also thank Wendy for her continued support and help.
Simon Temple Scout Leader
CUB PACK
We currently have 17 cub scouts and over the last year 5 have moved on to our scout troop. 30 awards and 35 activity badges have been gained. We have taken part in all of the District competitions and once again we won the Totem Trophy competition and the Totem Pole remains in the porch for all to see. Richard Shaw won the award for the cub with the highest points overall 88 out of 90, Fraser Nunns 87, Joe Leverton 86 and Isaac White 81. What a competition. Well done to our team!!!
We have attended Church parades and took part in Christian Aid Lent project. Once again our carol service collection went to the Sheffield’s Children’s Hospital together with our gifts of small toys and games. We enjoyed a good camp at Walesby Forest and thank all for their help in setting up and during the weekend. We said goodbye to Frazer Coombs as assistant leader as he moved on to be leader of Beaver Scouts, I thank him on behalf of cubs and cub leaders for his enthusiasm and help and friendship and wish him well in his new role within the group.
I would also like to thank Ann Athey, Fraser Walters and Alison Lomas for their help, support and friendship during the year and look forward to working with them and our young people for another exciting year of scouting during 2009.
Denise Thorpe - Cub Scout Leader