Beaver hike Photo

Thanks to all the Beavers,Leader and parents who attended the hike,

I can safely say the ducks, swans and geese were very great full for their feed.

DISTRICT BEAVER HIKE

Please meet on the Transpennine Trail opposite Tesco Carpark at 10am on the 15 May. Wear uniform and a coat if needed. I have ordered sunshine though! The trail is almost all tarmac so trainers will be fine. I will supply refreshments and bread for the ducks. Collect Beavers from the starting point at 12 noon. We have enough Leaders but parents please feel free to join us - see your Group Leaders first though. any other info ring me on 01226247188 Kim

District Programme 2010

Please click here to download the 2010 District Programme, courtesy of Mick at Darfield.

Barnado's - Free, Fun Activities for Kids

Would you like Barnardo’s to provide a totally free activity to children in your group? If so read on ……

 

KIDS COMMUNITY ACTION GROUPS

 

For the last two years Barnardo’s Voice and Influence Ambassador Service has delivered Community School Councils to schools all over the borough. This year we have changed the name of these workshops to Kids Community Action Groups. We are hoping to deliver four workshops to each of the 10 Wellbeing Areas of Barnsley and we are making them available to groups and organisations as well as schools. The workshops are suitable for children and young people aged 4 to 13 years.

 

The workshops will focus on four issues which children have highlighted in previous years, these are:

 

• Personal Safety
• Greenspaces
• Health
• Litter

The workshops will be two-part, each part being 2 hours in length. During the first session the children will work together on activities to help them decide where the problem areas are in their local community, such as areas where they play, where they go to school, etc, and decide, as a group, which of these they would most like to do something about and how they would like to go about it.

 

The second session will take place about three weeks later and will be a practical session when we will engage with other services to do something practical about the issue such as a litter pick or graffiti clean and also look at longer term solutions such as displaying posters, raising awareness, communication and meetings with council officers.

 

Costs

 

These workshops are totally free of cost to both you as an organisation and the children and young people involved!!!

 

Publicity

 

If you would like to take part and host one of our workshops we will send you posters to advertise this event. We will also, with your approval, publicise this in local schools and groups which may be beneficial in promoting what you are already doing in this area as well as publicising the event and the work of Barnardo’s Voices.

 

We are hoping to run the first of these workshops at the end of September and they will be available on a first come, first served basis. If you are interested or would like any more information please contact Katie Anderson or Debra Banner, details below.

 

Debra – t: 01226 298748 e: debra.banner@barnardos.org
Katie – t: 01226 298748 e: katie.anderson@barnardos.org

Jamboree Information Evening - 8 November

A Jamboree information evening is being held at Silverwood on Sunday 8 November. Please inform all those eligible to take part in the selection process, i.e. Scouts, Explorers, and Young Leaders born between 25th July 1993 and 27th July 1997. You can download a flyer about the event from here.

PLs Camp - Letter

A letter about the District Patrol Leaders' Camp, 17/18th October, is now available for download from here.

Patrol Leaders' Camp - 17/18th October

At the District Scout Section Meeting, held 21 September at Ardsley, it was decided to organise a training camp for PLs and APLs.

The camp will be held at Silverwood Scout Camp from 9am Saturday 17th to 12pm Sunday 18th - the District Cross Country event follows. The camp is open to existing and prospective Patrol Leaders and Assistant Patrol Leaders.

Each group is to supply equipment for one patrol to camp, including traditional Patrol Tent, Dining Shelter and gas cooker, dixies, utensils, etc. The intention is that the scouts will be placed in mixed patrols and left to set up their own campsite and prepare there own meals with guidance from leaders, who will camp separately. Cooking will be a mix of gas and open fire.

The camp fee has been set at £10pp, to cover food and camp fees. Letters and permission to camp forms will be available for download shortly.

Scout Section Meeting - 21st September

Following our first meeting it was agreed that we would have regular meetings so that we can keep on top of our planned events. We need to be looking at the Patrol Leaders weekend that we penciled in September/October, also it's on the calendar that we were to have a Scout Challenge.

So can I ask that we get together on Monday 20th September, 7.30pm at Ardsley H.Q.

John Hope

Scout Section Meeting - 20th July

There will be a Scout Section Leaders meeting on Monday 20th July 7.30pm at Ardsley.

It is hoped that as many Scout Leaders can attend as possible so that we can plan some events for the Scout Section. Some idea of an agenda would be:-

Backwoods/Survival
Patrol Camping
Patrol Leader Training
Scout Section challenges
Something Old Something New

...and I am sure we will be able to have plenty more ideas.

John Hope

Patrol Camp, 4-6 September

We're planning a Patrol Camp for Ardsley Scouts, 4-6 September, probably at Silverwood. Just wondering if any other troops fancy taking part? The basic idea would be each patrol camps as a self-contained unit, with their own sleeping, dining and cooking arrangements. Leaders would camp separately to keep an eye on things, and run activities. The aim is to get them working effectively as a Patrol. There would ideally be a competitive aspect, maybe with a prize for the Patrol that gets the most points?

Still early days, planning-wise, but if you'd like to get involved let me know via the comments link below, or email ian@ardsleyscouts.org.uk

District Camp - Report

Here’s my report on the District Camp just gone.

Numbers

Excluding Leaders and Explorers, there were 155 campers, which splits down by Group as follows: Darfield 43, Hoyland Common 26, Wombwell 29, Hoyland 38, Ardsley 19. The section split was Beavers 45, Cubs 42, Scouts 68.

That’s an impressive turnout. I think 200plus is achievable next year, and I think we should plan on that basis. I would also suggest we start promoting the event earlier next year; I think we’ll get more going, and it will help with the planning if we can get a better idea of numbers 4 – 6 weeks before the event.

Programme

We were blessed with good weather this year, which always helps, but the programme was in the main successful too. Thanks to all the Leaders for all their hard work. Thanks to Mick for the ‘Scouts Own’, which I thought was pitched to perfection. Thanks to the Explorers who did a great job with the campfire and the assault course. It’s probably unfair to single out individuals but I thought George was excellent as campfire leader. Thanks to the Fellowship for organising the backwoods cooking. On the day they struggled to cope with the numbers of scouts, so if we do anything like that next year we need to run more than one session. Last but not least, thanks to Tim Hague for running the first aid competition for Scouts. He’s far too polite to say so, but on the whole I don’t think he was too impressed with their first aid skills, so maybe that’s something we can work on.

Finances

I haven’t received any further claims for expenses, so I assume everyone is sorted. So the final position is as follows: total income was £890, total expenditure was £461, leaving a surplus of £429, which I propose to redistribute to the Groups pro rata to the camp fees originally paid. You can find a spreadsheet of my working-out here, but I propose to refund the following amounts: Darfield £105.25, Hoyland Common £58.36, Wombwell £78.82, Hoyland £120.22 and Ardsley £66.35. The refund works out at just under 50% of the camp fees originally paid. I will bring the money to the next District Scouters’ Meeting.

Some groups spent more on food than the £8 allocated from the camp fee, I know we did, so I would say the split original agreed was wrong. When I’m budgeting for camps I work on £5.75 per 24-hours for food, so I’d normally have allocated £11.50 for food for this camp.

Camp fees were £300, which is worked out at just under £2pp. This is a fixed cost (providing we book the entire site) so the more go the lower the cost per person.

The activities expenses came to £161, which is just over £1pp – which wasn’t as much as I expected, but I supposed the ‘Back to Basics’ theme helped there. I think for next year we need to come up with a way of allocating the activities budget in advance so we do actually spend it.

Scout Athlete Badge

We need to decide what we're doing regarding the Scout Athlete Badge, which we're proposing to run on 28 June at Broomhill instead of the raft race. I think we said 1pm start time - can someone confirm that please? I don't mind doing a letter, once we've sorted out what we're doing. The 'official' Athlete badge events are:

• 100m Sprint
• 200m Sprint
• 300m Female
• 400m Male
• 800m
• 1500m
• High Jump
• Long Jump
• Shot
• Discus
• Cricket Ball

So we're going to need:

• long tape measures
• stop watches
• something to mark out lanes, start and finish lines, etc
• cricket ball
• discus
• shot

Not sure how we can do the high jump, unless anyone's got any thick bouldering mats(?), but if we are doing it we need a flexible cross bar and something to hold it up.

This would be a lot easier on a field that's already already marked up with a 400m track - anyone?

We need to know who we've got going leader-wise, and who's bringing what kit-wise.