Group News

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.

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4th News, Spring 2006

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GROUP SCOUT LEADER

Fred Fletcher

Congratulations to the P&F Committee and also to all the kind people who organise and help at the many events that take place to raise funds so we can continue running a successful Scout Group. The P&F raised over £11,000 last year so with this in mind perhaps it's a good time to mention 'What's On' for this term.
On Saturday 4th March we will be running our first Grand Auction of the year, starting at 2.30pm. Why not pop along and have a look! On Saturday 25th March it's Race Nite. This is a popular event and we usually sell out of tickets quickly so give me a ring on 8337 7109 for tickets. I am very happy to report that we have a new sponsor for our Race Nite; many thanks to Estate Agents Samuel James for supporting the Group.
Please make a note that the St. George's Day Parade this year will be on Sunday 23rd April, please keep this date free as we expect all Beavers, Cubs and Scouts to attend.
Of course there will be lots going on in all the Sections, your child's Section Leader will be informing you of these events. Please try and support your child and Leader at these events. Our very first girl has joined our Scout Group; I offer a warm welcome to Deborah as she joins Purple Troop and hope she will enjoy Scouting with us at the 4th.
Family Scouts' Own on the 19th March will be run by Brownsea Cub Pack.

ASPEN COLONY

Anne Mays (MAYO), Carol Salter (HOLLY)

First we would like to start by wishing everyone a Happy and Peaceful New Year.
We had some wonderful meetings building up to Christmas and now we are planning some new events for the New Year.
We are planning some new badge work for the boys to obtain some new badges and some outings away from the Group.
We are keeping our parent rota going because if anyone cannot make the meeting one person cannot run it alone so please be aware of when your night of is and as before if you cannot make it please swap with someone else.
Oliver Newton our first Beaver of 2006 going into Anglia Pack in January Scouts' Own and we wish him well.
Newsletters will not now be so often so please for your children's sake look at the scout calendar and make notes of the events.
As always we shall be looking for help in our events for the coming year and please if you have not helped before make this your year and help with at least one event. Thank you.

BIRCH COLONY

Sheila Kinton (BAGHEERA)

Welcome to two new boys - Charlie Brown and Alex Myers - we hope they will be with 4 WP for many years to come. Henry Grover, Sam North and Connor Duncan have progressed on to Cubs which we are sure they will enjoy, although we shall miss them. Congratulations to the following boys on gaining awards - Chief Scout's Bronze Award - Sam North and Henry Grover

- Friendship Challenge - Sam North

- Discovery Challenge - Brandon Gibson

- Outdoor Challenge - Adam Higgins, Brandon Gibson, Reece Chubb and Bailey Bruton.
We are preparing for the Scouts' Own at the end of January, with a theme of the weather running through some of our meetings prior to Easter

CEDAR COLONY

Valerie Street (BADGER)

We are always excited at the beginning of term, great plans and the prospect of spring on the way. We are also very excited because we have lots of new boys in Cedar Colony.

I will begin by saying goodbye to George Thomas and Connor Whitman who went up to Cubs in December and also received their Bronze Chief Scout's award. Well done boys and we will miss you.

I am delighted to report that I enrolled Ryan Torcy, Andrew Hunter, Harry and Charlie Eates and Ryan and Scott Smith. We welcomed Kym Azzopardi, Ben Porter, Christopher Cragg and Scott Prince in just before Christmas and Alexander Leadon, George Culver and Joshua Ingals joined us after Christmas.

With twenty Beavers we are going to have an exciting term. We have already started work on the Pet Badge with a visit from Jesse the red setter and Alan Avery. Our good friend P.C. Alan Melham who visited us last year as Community Police Office, will wear his other hat (not as a Harley Davidson owner - although I am sure some would enjoy that!) but as owner of creepy crawly things that live in glass cages. We will also look at the wildlife in our gardens.

A visit to Worcester Park Library has been arranged to discover where to find the books on how to care for our pets.

We are hoping, weather permitting to look through a telescope to get a closer look at the moon.
We are also holding a parents evening to inform all our new parents and remind some of the other parents about everything they need to know at 4th Worcester Park.

ANGLIA PACK

Samantha O'Reilly (AKELA)

Well with Christmas over and the New Year upon us this seems like a good time to say thank you to all of you who have supported me with positive comments and support with running the Pack. My apologies for any recent confusion over timings for Scouts' Own - and can I say a HUGE thank you to the boys, who I'm sure you'll agree, did a wonderful job in entertaining us all - several Entertainers badges to be awarded in the new year!

I would also like to extend my thanks to our team of leaders: Steve, Ashley and Tom. They have done a wonderful job at holding the pack together on evenings when my teaching job has kept me at school! I hope those of you who saw 'Oliver' at Beverley enjoyed the experience and will come back next year!

The New Year brings of course our Spring Programme which has several highlights on it including a trip to the local Fire Station, an Easter Egg Hunt and our preparations for the Chef's Badge

This leaves me with a final plea - if you happen to have an evening spare in the new term, please pop down and support the Pack - all help warmly welcomed (we could even stretch to a cup of tea and biscuits for new recruits)!

BROWNSEA PACK

Les Prescott (KERICK)

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 owe our grateful thanks to John for this.

In November 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.

In January we saw the pantomime "Beauty and the Beast" at the Secombe Theatre in which one of our young leaders took part. It was a good show and the Cubs enjoyed it. (Oh yes they did!)

We said "goodbye" to Jason Keehn and Jack Francis in December and to Elliot Williams and Luke Norrie-Rolfe in January. All four Cubs gained their Chief Scouts' Silver Award and they all went up to Purple Troop. We wish them well in their Scouting. We welcomed Aaron Prince and George Foster as new recruits who are now invested. Our sixers are now Luke Cornish, Jamie Smart, Brynmor Chittock and Sam Mullins, and the seconds are Ben O'Byrne, William Eyre, Edward Yelf and Joseph Finn.

In the next few months we plan to visit a fire station, work for the home help badge and enter the District chess competition, among other exciting programme ideas.

Dates for your diary:
Scouts' Own - Sunday 19th March (which we'll be running)
Weekend Camp - 6th 7th May 2006
Summer Camp - Sunday 30th July to Friday 4th August 2006

CHARTERHOUSE PACK

Margaret Pennington (AKELA)

Since September we have been busy. Boys have completed the Scientist Badge at St Philomena's, also the Artist and Entertainer Badges, and the Caring Challenge.

We have in various combinations, attended the Big Band Evening 1940's style, Jumble Sales, the Auction, the Firework Evening and the Bazaar organised by the Parents and Friends. We attended the Remembrance Service and Parade organised by the British Legion, the Senior Residents Party organised by the Fellowship and a Bucket Rattle organised by the Sutton Lions. On the late shopping evening we handed out publicity leaflets in the rain ! We went to a wonderful performance of Oliver organised by Sam O'Reilley.
Re-reading the previous bit it looks as if we merely turn up, but I can promise you we did work hard at all of the above and tried to do our best. We were very proud of the boys and their parents who support them.

Both Scouts' Owns were well attended and enjoyed.

Pack evenings reflected the time of year and we embraced the celebrations of the season. A good time was had by all.

After a brief but very welcome holiday we now look forward to another busy time where we hope to fit in more badges - the boys have suggested Computer, Chef, Gardener, Local Historian, Sportsman and Swimmer. We also have to look forward to delivering jumble leaflets, the District Chess competition, District Fun Splash, District Promise Renewal and celebrating Baden Powell's birthday.
Just for fun we hope to have an Easter Egg Hunt and a joint evening with Anglia and Brownsea.
Our thinking of others this term will be a
Bring and Buy Sale on Wednesday 22nd February at 6.30pm.

PLEASE DON'T FORGET SCOUTS' OWN.

If you still have your head above water, when it comes have a very peaceful and reflective Easter holiday.

PURPLE TROOP

Alan Avery (Scout Leader)

We went to Beverly School to do some fencing - I don't thing any of us have done it before, I certainly hadn't. Thank you Daniel Heron, an Explorer, for arranging this. We then did Archery in the hall ably run by Leigh Wicks. We had an obstacle course in the hall. Thank you Charlie for helping at the Bazaar.

The end of term treat ended up with us going bowling; it was to have been ice skating but the whole rink was booked so by popular demand we will do it this term.
Please note the Mountain Camp is 7th - 13th April and you should all have had details before Christmas. We will do a Summer Camp but it will have to be worked around the unit camp. I take it that Summer is better than Whitsun - in the next month kindly let me know which is better. I do what I can but the Explorer Unit does take precedence and come February I will have run 2 Sections for 5 years - are there any parents or bods who either fancy helping or even any Leadership material! Don't be shy!

SILVER TROOP

Paul Green (Scout Leader)

After a busy Christmas and an even more hectic new year we are back under way. I am pleased to say that Paul and Joanne are now married and what a wonderful day it was. I hope you will all join the leaders, scouts and parents involved in Silver troop and 4th Worcester Park in wishing Jo and Paul all the Happiness and best wishes in the world.
We are changing the programme a little this year and will be attending the district water weekend on the 19th till 21st of May instead of in the later part of June. This will be at a new Location, The Docklands Scouting Project, near canary wharf. Hopefully we will be staying aboard a barge which is moored at the location and has been converted into bunks. Water weekend is always a well supported and sometimes over subscribed activity so get the forms back to us quickly! More water activities have been planned and through friends at Kent County Scouts, we have been invited to attend their water weekend called JAWS, Just Add Water!
JAWS is an opportunity, under the guidance of instructors to try the fun and skills of Canoeing, Dinghy Sailing, Windsurfing, Sub Aqua Diving and Power Boating, for Scouts and Explorers. The Kent County Scout Water Activities Team have once again arranged a "Have a Go" at water activities day on either 8th or 9th July 2006. The day will cater for Scouts and Explorer Scouts who have never been on the water before and have no previous experience, or those who would like to try a new activity. The event takes place on the sea at Whitstable.
There are 3 sessions in the day where you can choose from a variety of activities. Provisionally these include: Power boating; canoeing; sailing (in a variety of craft including single handed Toppers, 2-5 people dinghies, and catamaran); Windsurfing; snorkelling; and Sub-Aqua. This weekend will hopefully be a full outing for our new Boat, a 6 metre rigid inflatable called "MoneyPit"

We are also going to be sending teams to participate in the district 5-a-side football tournament; this will be held on Sunday 26th February. The teams for this have already been chosen and training is underway on Friday nights. Hopefully we will be able to fight off the opposition and hold onto the district cup which we currently hold. The handball competition has also been entered on Friday 17th March. This is one which we have missed out on in previous years; this is another date for your diary please.

Due to the commitments of the year and 4 out of the 6 leaders getting married we felt that we were unable to give the full amount of time and commitment required to organise a week's camp in May. This will be the first time since we took over Silver troop that a week camp will not be available. We are however offering the activities listed above and we will organise a couple of long weekend camps for a little later on in the year, this is likely to include a weekend caving and a training camp. Alan from Purple Troop is also organising Mountain Camp again and our scouts have once again been invited. This is another great opportunity to learn a different activity. It is a busy week away and one not to be missed.

I also need to encourage you all to have a look at the "SOUWEST GANGSHOW" This great shows takes place during the October half term at the Secombe theatre. The auditions are coming up soon and I would love to see the Group represented in this show. Myself and Steph have taken part for the last few years and made many friends along the way. I will be giving the audition letters and applications to your section leaders, Please Please Please apply to do this. It is possibly one of the best shows in the country but it needs cast to take part. Some rules do apply to cast members, the main one is that cast are aged 9 or over on 1st October 2006. For more information see your section leaders for the letters.

EXPLORER UNIT

Alan Avery (Explorer Scout Leader)

Thank you the Explorers who came to the Remembrance Service.

Thank you Ben, Josh and one other for running the bouncy castle at the Bazaar.

We went for a Lallies Night at the Rangers which was the usual lively affair. It would seem that we have been seeing the Rangers now for approximately 30 years.

Thank you Patrick for running a fitness evening - from this it evolved that one lad did have a medical problem. I did a slide show on Russia as the unit would like to go there next year. I then did a bit on HIV and challenging behaviour. We went bowling - the bowls were going everywhere! We had a Penguin training evening - every one knows now ALL there is to know about Penguins!

Thank you those who came along and did a sketch for the Senior Residents' party. We met the Rangers again for the yearly Christmas meal. In my absence Albert should have run a Compass evening. We need to sharpen up on map reading etc. for the mountain camp - 7th - 13th April. You should all have had details prior to Christmas. We were to do a bag packing exercise before Christmas but this didn't come off so if we are to go to Russia an effort has to be put in.
In addition Subs. are owed by a few people - cough up we don't run on fumes. In future Subs. can be paid termly in line with the Group - £36 per term.

PARENTS & FRIENDS

Kevin Mohr (CHAIRMAN)

I was going to start by wishing you all a happy new year, but as it will be February by the time you read this it seems a bit pointless! What you do need to know is that thanks to your efforts the P & F raised considerably more money than expected last year. The down side being the effort required to do the same again this year..

We could really do with some new faces helping us - even if it is just with ideas or occasional help at an event. It is the more the merrier., many hands make light work, a problem shared ..and any other proverb you can think of, except for too many cooks. as we are not planning any cooking... Yet!

This is also the first time I have had to write for a quarterly newsletter and, as usual I'm last. So I'll spare you some of my collection of old jokes and let you know of the fundraising events over the coming months.

Next up are the Jumble Sales on Saturday 4th and Saturday 11th February. If any one can help with the sorting on the evening of Friday 3rd Feb, the setting out on the Saturday mornings or with the sales themselves it would be greatly appreciated.

Next up is the Grand Auction on Saturday 4th March. Details about this will be published nearer the time, however please let me know if you have anything you wish to sell or even donate to the event. Again anyone who is able to give some time in helping would be very welcome.

The race night has been moved to Saturday 25th March. It is an entertaining evening and a bit of a laugh. Again watch out for the publicity on that.

There are also two dates for your diaries:

The Summer Fete will this year be on Saturday July 8th. It has been moved back a week so that it does not clash with the events celebrating 70 years of Cubs and 20 years of Beavers. We are always open to ideas and suggestions to make this event even more of a success than it was last year. Please contact me if, like Baldrick, you have a cunning plan.

Finally we will be presenting another "Big Band Night". The date has been carefully chosen after consultation with the Met Office, Fred's bit of sea weed in his kitchen and sundry other authorities, to make sure it doesn't rain this year.. It will be on Saturday 16th September.

The best way to contact me is by email at p-and-f at 4wp.org.uk.

In fact the Group web site, www.4wp.org.uk has an updated calendar and much useful information about the Group and Scouting. I recommend you add it to your favourites list.

FELLOWSHIP

Graham Smith

With the decision taken to produce only three issues of the "4th News" every year, the focus has now to be more on future events instead if reporting on past events. However, I believe it is worth reporting on our November outing to the Cheam Wood turners Association which was a master class presented by the world famous (to those involved in woodturning!) Jimmy Clewes.

While we all knew that wood turners produce a wide variety of plates and bowls showing the beauty of wood grains, it was a surprise and pleasure to see Jimmy make, on a lathe, a finely honed artefact with square ends and a footprint of about twelve inches by four inches. The matching lid to the same general shape was made to sit perfectly into the central bowl that itself had a diameter of about three and three quarter inches. And he called it a 'box' of all things! The best analogy perhaps is its general resemblance to an eagle soaring on the thermals.

With well over one hundred people in attendance, of whom some twenty or so were from the Fellowship, this woodturning is clearly a profession or hobby with a significant range of possibilities.
Our grateful thanks to Geoff Morris for making all the arrangements and to CWA for having us.

Fellowship members, together with members of all sections then participated in the Remembrance Day service on Sunday 13th November.

The Christmas Bazaar held on the 25th November was a great success and the Fellowship played their part both on the evening before and on the day itself. This was then followed on Sunday 11th December with the Senior Residents' Party, again a large Fellowship contribution.

The Christmas Eve service, arranged and led by Ian Smith was, as usual, held in the Den - suitably decorated for the festive season. Whilst we sang the traditional carols, Ian had given a slightly different slant to the readings which were given by Dave Sweetland, Peter Cornish and Peter Phillips, whilst the appropriate Christmas reading from the Bible was given by Marion Phillips.

Now to the future. Our Annual Dinner will have taken place on the 26th January; Ron Kinton will be speaking to us on 'Cooks to Books via Claridges' on the 23rd February, whilst our AGM will be held on 30th March.

We are now working on the programme for 2006 and hope to provide a varied range of events for the 12 months commencing in April.

Information for Summer 2006 Newsletter to be with Fred Fletcher by Monday 3rd April