Reminders & key information:

This edition’s reminders:

Beavers

All colonies – will be finishing work on both their Health and Fitness and Cook Activity badges this week. We are meeting at the normal times and places for all sections.
Night in the Museum sleepover – We are holding a ‘Night in the Museum’ sleepover at Weston Park Museum for all three Beaver colonies. For more information and full event details please see the dedicated event page. To book your child’s place, please answer Yes to the My.Scout invitation which you should have received on Wednesday evening. Places are considered firm after clicking yes with the full balance payable (even if your young person drops out). This is because the group has to make a financial commitment. If you have any questions about the sleepover, please contact Amy, regardless of which section your child is in.

Cubs

All three packs will be learning about and celebrating the Chinese New Year. If your cub has any food allergies can you please email your section leader (Carolyn, Shauna or Rob F).  Normal times at the normal locations, please.

Back in time Sleepover For those booked on the Back in Time Sleepover can you ensure that your deposits are paid and full balances due the week after.  A final letter, consent and kit list will be following later this week.  All places are now considered firm and full payment is required even if your cub drops out as the group have now made a financial commitment based on these numbers.

Scouts

Enigma –Next week we are meeting at our usual time at the scout hut.  We will be looking at what it means to be a scout and ways we can keep ourselves safe as a scout.
Is your Monday Scout a budding photographer or future Journalist?  I’m looking for enthusiastic Scouts to write a short update each week (for Rewind) and take some photographs to post on our section’s behalf.

Viernes – have an evening of team-based challenges based on the popular TV show, “Taskmaster”. Following some of the older scouts moving to Explorers, the patrols have been reshuffled with some newly appointed Patrol Leaders, Assistant Patrol Leaders and Senior Patrol Leaders.

Wibbles – Next week scouts will be showcasing their hobbies so look out for an email with more details.

Monopoly Run – The second instalment for Monopoly Run is due this week so please ensure your payments are at £75 in total by the end of this week.

Explorers

Look out next week for confirmation of activities but wrap up warm as we are planning fires outside if the weather is fine.

Section Leaders

The first section leader meeting of the year is this Thursday from 20:15 at the Scout Hut, please. Rob circulated an agenda over the weekend to the relevant parties. If you can’t make it, please let Rob know.
With the reminders out-of-the-way, let’s recap the week.

This week:

Beavers learn about keeping healthy

This week, all three Beavers colonies continued working on both their Health and Fitness badge and their cooking activity badge. They made fruit kebabs, practised some fitness type activities and made a poster. Millstones also learned how to take their pulse and now understand the difference between use by and best before dates…..watch out parents they maybe chucking out of date things away!

Tuesday Beavers invested Freya to the Castor colony whilst Wednesday Beavers invested Ronni to the Boomer colony.

Castors

Boomers

Millstones

Oh no, they didn’t! Oh yes, they did!

Wibbles scouts went to pantomime this week.

Everyone enjoyed the performance especially the cheesy jokes and also seeing fellow scouts and cubs who were part of the cast.
Well done to everyone involved with the theatre group who give up their time to put on these performances and special mentions to our cubs Poppy and Molly and scouts Harry, Joshua, Hannah, Joe, Sophie and ex-scout Reece. Also to Ben who is treading the boards with Thurgoland thespians this week too.
Town Planning
Scorpion Explorers went all logistical this week and did some town planning. They developed a new city after being given information and had to decide how best to fit everything in. They also practised their memory skills by creating maps from snapshots shown to them for just a few seconds.

Alegre ‘actions for feelings’

Due to the terrible weather forecast, and as it was very icy underfoot, Alegre cubs stayed in the scout hut and finished their communicator badge, concentrating on ‘actions for feelings’ we split them into teams and one had to guess what the other teams were trying to portray. They finished up even so we had a tie break between the teams and Young Leaders.

We welcomed Alice to the YL team so we have a fab YL team of Tom H, Tom W, Alice, Euan W and Callum M.

In and amongst, and to fill a small gap, cubs made cornflake/rice crispy buns which they decorated with Haribo and sweets.

Enigma’s burger night

Enigma Scouts were given a flint and steel and instructed to build a fire themselves and if successful they would be able to cook themselves a burger!  I am pleased to announce that none of the Patrols went hungry as they all got their fires going and cooked for themselves.

Winter wonderland hike

Bella Vista Cubs got wrapped up warm and braved the winter wonderland that is Penistone and went for a hike.   Mid-route we bumped into Raptors Cubs and took a slight deviation and had a joint hike for a while!  A special thanks to Becs and Louis from Castor beavers and Flynn’s Grandad, Dean and Helen for making tonight possible.

Jamboree in a bag

The World Scout Jamboree in a bag experience made it’s way to Friday Scouts. Alison was accompanied by Megan (part of Unit 36 Contingent) for an informative and interactive evening based around the three countries hosting. Several of the scouts are interested in the next World Scout Jamboree! Thank you for coming down Unit 36!

And finally:

A brief note regarding hardship

Scouting in Penistone is fantastic – we know this primarily from the young people, but also because so many parents/guardians tell us how fabulous experiences and opportunities are!

The group are focused on an inclusive programme, that affords opportunities to as many as possible. Understandably, as a volunteer organisation, there are some constraints, such as the number of adult volunteers required to maintain a suitable adult to young person ratios, as well as the capacity of some of the venues/providers we work with.

Unfortunately, there are sometimes financial barriers to Scouting for some families. We understand this, and this is why we work to develop a balanced programme that consists of zero cost, low cost and sometimes more costlier activities.

Some of the events and activities are subsidised, therefore reducing the parent/guardian contribution. Alongside this, and I hasten to add that this is by no means a new thing at Penistone, for families whose circumstances mean they may be unable to meet the financial commitments for key scouting events, but the young person’s participation would be both deserving and of significant benefit, we have a hardship fund.

If you would like to know more about this, please take a look at the following page – an application form for hardship funding can also be found there.

If you’ve any concerns or would like to speak in confidence, please approach your Section Leader, or our Group Scout Leader (Rob). Thank you.