News 2005-12
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This page provides access to current and past copies of the the monthly newsletter of the 4th Worcester Park Scout Group plus other reports relating to life at the 4th. The Friends of the Fourth page has copies of their own section's newsletter.

4th News, December 2005

Sections

 

GROUP SCOUT LEADER

Fred Fletcher

The Firework Display was fantastic. We had a large crowd, the biggest turnout of people ever. Good food, a nice drink, a bonfire and the weather was fine! Thank you to Margaret Pennington and her band of happy helpers from Charterhouse Cub Pack for organising this event. We made £800 for our Group Funds - well done to everyone.

The other fund raising event in November was 'The Grand Auction' organised by Terry Garlick and the Parents and Friends.
As usual it was run very well with many interesting items available for auction. They were rewarded for their hard work by raising £570 for Group Funds - many thanks to you all.

This newsletter will be our last monthly newsletter. From January 2006 we shall have one newsletter per term (3 per year). The first newsletter will be the Spring Issue in February.

I would like to thank everyone who attended the Remembrance Day Service at Christ Church with St Philip and also at the War Memorial. The British Legion and the church were very happy for us to be at the ceremony. I was extremely proud of our members - Thank you.

From the 1st January 2006 our Scout Group will become mixed, both boys and girls will be accepted into the Group. There is not a separate programme for girls, they will take part in the same events and activities as the boys do at present, it should be fun for everyone.

May I wish you all a Very Happy Christmas and a Peaceful New Year.

ASPEN COLONY

Anne Mays (MAYO), Carol Salter (HOLLY)

This month has been rather busy but no change there it seems to have been all go since we came back from summer holidays.
We have done our Experiment badge we did several experiments on various table bases some with magnets and colours and memory. All in all it was a very good evening thank you again to Brenda for coming down.
We have been out collecting conkers with our huge carrier bags but at least this year none of the bags split and I didn't have to carry any bags home because they were too heavy.
We have now started our Faith Badge. Holly took us up to Christ Church with St. Philip Church to have a look around and she told the boys about the church and what happens there.
We then went in to see the Rainbows it was so quiet in there you could have heard a pin drop the girls were busy painting.
I don't recall any time in the whole history of me being involved with Beavers that we have had an evening as quiet as that but hey ho it was interesting to watch.
Finally it was Halloween, all the boys were given a ghost bag to take home and we had great fun making long thin fingers and baking them in the oven and eating them. We also had some orange and black balloons which we decorated and made some feet with card to make a kind of witch balloon.
Our next venture is the Senior Citizens' party. All the Beavers are expected to attend to offer their Christmas Spirits to the elderly who are less fortunate than themselves. The Senior Citizens' party will be held on Sunday 11th December at approximately 3pm the boys will be required for about half an hour so it's not too much to ask.

BIRCH COLONY

Sheila Kinton (BAGHEERA)

We are pleased that Adam Lock and Russell Watson have been invested and hope that they will enjoy being Beaver Scouts. Lewis Webb and Robert Hughes have now moved on to Brownsea and Charterhouse Packs respectively and we are sure they will have a great time as Cubs although we shall certainly miss them.
Last month we planted bulbs, made iced biscuit faces and had a super evening based on Nelson and Trafalgar which was run by Laura with help from her grandpa - many thanks Alan.

Congratulations to the following boys on gaining badges -

Chief Scout's Bronze Award - Lewis Webb and Robert Hughes
Outdoor Challenge - Joseph Start, Alex Pickersgill, Theo Cordery and Max Fitzgerald
Friendship Award - Connor Hampstead and Ciaran Mohr

CEDAR COLONY

Valerie Street (BADGER)

No news this month.

ANGLIA PACK

Samantha O'Reilly (AKELA)

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself properly as the new Akela of Anglia Pack at 4th Worcester Park. As I am sure you are aware I have been running the pack since September and during that time I have been able to meet your sons and many of you.

It has been an interesting time where I have been learning quickly about Scouting again after my absence from it for four years; to my delight many of the principles are still firmly in place and 4th Worcester Park is clearly a successful example of a strong Group.

Having found my feet I have now been able to begin to put in place a programme which will provide a balanced and rewarding experience of Scouting. Perhaps key this term are two important events, The Christmas Bazaar and the Christmas Scouts' Own which Anglia Pack is running!

I was pleased to see several boys attending Scouts' Own and the District run Scientist badge - we clearly have some budding inventors amongst us - not to mention those very brave cubs who tackled tarantulas, cuddled cockroaches and massaged millipedes! (Akela was brave too!)

That leaves me to wrap up by saying three badges should be completed this term - Home Help (Mum's & Dad's can thank me later), The Arts badge and the Entertainers badge. This is bound to be a busy term for us all!

BROWNSEA PACK

Les Prescott (KERICK)

Our October programme began with an evening swimming at the Rainbow Centre at Epsom - thanks to Michael for organising this for us. At the October Scouts' Own we said goodbye to sixer Rhys Mohr who went up to Purple Troop. We wish him well in his Scouting. In turn, we welcomed Jack Rosenthal and Lewis Webb from the Beavers and they were subsequently invested as Cubs.

Our thanks to our Group Scout Leader, Fred, who ran an evening for us while I was on holiday. Fred ran the evening based on Home Safety. Thanks also to all the Pack leader team who helped Fred and also ran the following week's evening which was candle cooking.

After half term we ran an evening of seasonal games ending with our much requested "submarines" game in the dark, followed by a short fireworks display organised by Ben.

Congratulations to Scott Marshall who has gained the Creative Challenge and Martial Arts badges. Congratulations also to Brynmor Chittock who has gained his seconder stripe, and to Luke Norrie-Rolfe and Jack Francis who have gained their Sixers stripes.

Our November programme began with an idea from the "Programme on a Plate" series from Scouting magazine. This time the theme was "All Mapped Out" and thanks go to our young leaders Harry and Daniel who organised the programme based on mapping and compass work.

Our Parents' evening was very well supported and we do thank all our parents for the support they give us. We saw John Humber's excellent films of our weekend camp and of the main summer camp. John spent a great deal of time in editing the films and getting the Cubs to add the commentary, so we offer our grateful thanks to John for this.

On the following Saturday we had our visit to the London Eye and the Aquarium. As Network Rail were working on the line to Waterloo, we met at Morden and travelled by Underground. We had a whole Capsule on the Eye to ourselves and while it was a bit misty in some directions, we had a great view of the central London buildings and parks. After our packed lunches in the Aquarium's Education room, we then toured the whole Aquarium, ending up in the souvenir shop. It was a great day out.

We then had two evenings based away from headquarters - the first was a wide game in Nonsuch Park organised by Ben and Michael and the following week a visit to Sutton Bowling Alley organised by Sally.

Dates for your diary:
Christmas Scouts' Own - Sunday 18th December at 6.00pm
Weekend Camp - 6th / 7th May 2006
Summer Camp - Sunday 30th July to Friday 4th August 2006

CHARTERHOUSE PACK

Margaret Pennington (AKELA)

No news this month.

PURPLE TROOP

Alan Avery (Scout Leader)

We have covered various health topics like drugs, H.I.V., and Hypothermia. I shall be introducing various subjects pertinent to the mountain camp which is 7th to 13th April 2006. I shall send out info, in due course.

We did woggle making and hopefully everyone will be able to make their own. We did the usual jumble collection, collecting rare artefacts for what was a very successful jumble. We went to Lazar Quest in Kingston and it was amazing the number of people who came out of the woodwork and I don't doubt the SAME people will come to the December Scouts' Own on 18th December at 6pm.

SILVER TROOP

Paul Green (Scout Leader)

No news this month.

EXPLORER UNIT

Alan Avery (Explorer Scout Leader)

We have had a great influx of Scouts and at their first meeting we had elections for the Executive Committee and ideas for a programme. We discussed our venue for next year's expedition which hopefully will be Russia. The new committee comprises of:-
Chairman……..Daniel Stephenson
Secretary……...Nick Attwell
QM……………..Theo Kenwood
Treasurer………David Marston

At half term we had a sleepover - I won't say what time we all went to bed!

We did a firework wide game at Esher Sandbowl where a lot of steam and rockets were let off.

Well done Richard Pennington and Nick Attwell on gaining the Queens Scout Award, this award is the highest training award - well done lads.

PARENTS & FRIENDS

The last few months have been very successful, with the Big Band Night, Jumble Sales and Bonfire Night, Grand Auction and Christmas fair - all being extremely well supported.
My thanks - or more to the point, on behalf of the Beavers, Cubs & Scouts, please accept their thanks to all those who helped put on these events and all of those who came along.

Please remember these events are to raise money to help the Group in their activities over the year. We also try to have a little fun in the process....

We could also do with one or two more parents and friends on the committee. It only uses up a couple of hours on a Wednesday Night, once a month. Tea/coffee and biscuits provided with some pretty poor and cheesy jokes and puns as the evening progresses...

New faces do not just help spread the load, they bring new ideas, both of which will be appreciated (as would some new jokes and puns...) Please let me know if you want to take a more active role in the fundraising efforts for the Group.

FELLOWSHIP

Graham Smith

At our meeting on Thursday 27th October we opened a list of names of those who wish to attend the Fellowship's annual dinner at the Rubbing House, Epsom Downs on Thursday 26th January.
Present indications are for a very good attendance and any member who has not yet put their name on the list and wishes to attend, please call Shirley Cornish on 8337 7594 or myself on 8337 4370.

At the conclusion of the business part of the evening which followed its usual pattern, we enjoyed a very pleasant social hour or so practicing our bar skills.

I hasten to add that these skills related to such harmless pursuits as skittles, shove ha'peny, table football, darts, etc. - nothing else!
Our next "meeting", of course, is the Christmas Eve Service 7.30pm in the Den to be followed by mince pies and sherry. You may also like to be reminded of the Christmas Scouts' Own at 6.00pm Sunday 18th December.

In conclusion I wish all Fellowship members, and indeed everyone in the Group, a very Happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year.

 

Information for Spring 2006 Newsletter to be with Fred Fletcher by Monday 9th January

 

 

This page was last updated on 10 February 2006