Tesco Bags of Help
We’re delighted to have been chosen for the current Tesco Bags of Help scheme.  You can help us raise money for our toilet refurbishment project by voting for us when you shop in Kidlington Tesco or in other stores in and around Witney. At the checkout, you will be given a token to place in a voting box as you leave. There is no minimum purchase for a token so if you aren’t given one, please ask!

All of our sections have had a busy month, here are some of the highlights:

Scouts
The Sea Scouts had plenty to celebrate on 6th March as Bob Timms received his 15 year long service and leaders Trevor Newton and Giles Puleston received Chief Scouts Commendations. Five Scouts were also awarded their Chief Scouts Gold Award; well done to Emily, Samanyu, Lucy, Ella and Mia!

12 Sea Scouts took their Expedition Challenge over the weekend of 10th and 11th March after several weeks of planning, and a badge-work night saw Scouts earn the following badges: Hobbies, Sports Enthusiast, Physical Recreation, Musician. A cartoonist joined the troop for one meeting and taught the Scouts how to draw cartoon characters. In February the Troop celebrated Founders Day, which marks the birthday of Lord Baden Powell, with a theme based on the first Scout Camp run by Baden-Powell in 1907.

Cubs
Jacala Cubs had an animal themed weekend at the Scout centre on the 24th and 25th February, where they can a chance to meet and handle animals including snakes, lizards, a  meerkat and a hedgehog! In their meetings they celebrated World Book Day with a Roald Dahl themed evening and completed their International Badge learning more about China.

Mowgli Cubs had a fun evening filling the Scout centre with cardboard boxes to make a cave system and spent another evening at the new trampoline park in Bicester.

Beavers
Saturday 10th February was Oxford Spires Beavers District Fun Day, and ten of our Beavers attended an activity afternoon with the theme of ‘Global Issues’. Everyone had a good time and took part in Fairtrade, Recycling, Endangered Animals and Water Filter Activities, as well as some team games. We are pleased to say that all the Beavers passed their Global Issues Activity Badge too.

Explorer Scouts
Last month, the Explorer Scouts evenings involved making keyrings and bracelets with our Scout Group’s very own knotting expert Lonnie Boggs, and the young members ran several nights themselves including a night of ‘I’m An Explorer, Get Me Out Of Here!’ and a sports night. Some of the members also performed in the Gang Show at Radley College during half term.

Feb 2018: A visit from a vet; science night; scuba diving; and a fire station visit

Beavers

Grace the vet from The Royal Veterinary College spent an evening with Beavers. She told them all

about being a Vet, and showed some Animal Bones and X-rays. The Beavers all took part in doing

some sketches of the bones, and made some great Clay Animal Models. They also got to dress up

as Vets in some Surgical Gowns!

Cubs

There was an electric evening for Mowgli Cub Pack. The cubs learnt about static, with one of the

girls having a real bad hair day thanks to a ballon! Then they went on to make a circuit using wire,

potatoes, a nail, and a copper coin to make a L.E.D light up. They got some good results - 2.8 volts -

and also did the same experiment with lemons.

Jacala Cubs had a fantastic day trying out Scuba diving at Radley College swimming pool. On one

evening, they cooking delicious egg fried rice and toffee sesame bananas, which counts towards the

International Badge.

Scouts

Our Sea Scouts have been working towards their Fire Safety badges this month, which included the

Troop visiting Kidlington Fire Station. They’ve also had fun evenings modelling balloons and making pancakes.

The Land Scouts programme for this term includes bee conservation and building basla wood

gliders.

Explorer Scouts

Our Explorer Scouts held a late Christmas camp in January, as many of them had been busy with

mock exams in December. They had a full Christmas dinner (with a formal dress code!), watched

Christmas films and visited the trampoline park in Bicester.

ScoutRail, Jan 2018

Our annual ScoutRail model railway show in the first weekend of January was another huge success. If you were one of the hundreds of visitors that came along, we hope you enjoyed it and thank you for your support!

The event started in 1984 and takes place every January in Exeter Hall. It's organized by volunteers and leaders from Kidlington Scout Group, and all of the proceeds go to maintaining our buildings and equipment.

This year, we had 11 model layouts with a mix of regular exhibitors alongside several models that haven't been seen at ScoutRail before. Visitors also had the opportunity to buy new models and scenery from trade stands.
In the centre of the main hall was a 30ft live steam railway, which has been part of the event for about 20 years now. Next to that was a large layout running Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends, spending its 11th year with us, and we were pleased that Land Scout Asa Masterson joined us again with his popular Lego City layout.

Elsewhere were many other smaller models that have been built to represent real or fictitious railways around the world. Two of these were brand new layouts that have either just been finished or are still under construction. The Kineton layout that was in the small hall is a work in progress being built by the Leamington and Warwick Model Railway Club. By using photographs, books and talking to locals, the team are recreating a line that was demolished during the 1970s. The Frampton on Severn model was also being shown for the first time and has been built to show how a branch line terminus in rural Gloucestershire would have looked in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

It really was a great weekend and our thanks, as always, go to everyone who makes it possible: the exhibitors and traders; the volunteers; the Scout Leaders and Scouts; the caretaking team at Exeter Hall; and the many visitors who come year after year and make it all worthwhile.
We're already busy planning next year's event, which will take place on the weekend of the 5th and 6th January 2019. See you there!

Nov 2017: Beavers County Event and winter camps,

Here's what our sections got up to in November.

Beavers
On Saturday 11 of our Beavers took part in this great festive County Event with lots of the other local Beaver Colonies. We had great fun even though it was a bit rainy.
There was lots of different activities to take part in, including: crafting; stories by the campfire; a photobooth; a bouncy castle; puzzle solving; cooking on a campfire and a woodland blindfold trail.

Mowgli Cubs
Mowgli Cub pack held an indoor Christmas camp at the Scout Centre, beginning on Friday night with games, writing a letter to Santa and watching a film. On Saturday the whole pack went into Oxford to see Jack and the Beanstalk at the Playhouse then returned to a full Christmas dinner, cooked by three lovely parent volunteers. When we had finished this feast the Cubs settled down in their sleeping bags and watched two more short films.

Jacala Cubs
Jacala Cubs have been working towards their Personal Safety badge, held a superhero and supervillan themed evening and enjoyed an evening out having a go at laser combat. As this issue went to print, they were preparing for their own Christmas sleepover at the Scout Centre.

Sea Scouts
In November, the Sea Scouts held their annual winter camp at Youlbury Scout camp at Boars Hill. During the weekend, they tried rifle shooting and found that  many of them were great at hitting the target! They also took part in an evening wide game, competing against other Scouting units from the District.

The Sea Scouts are also heavily involved in the Scout Group's winter fundraising activities; you may have seen them out delivering Christmas cards in Kidlington, and they also held their own bag packing event at Sainsbury's to raise money for new boats.

Land Scouts
The Patrol Leaders took charge one evening this month, running a series of activities for the Scouts to compete at. There were spaghetti and marshmallow structures, a target shooting game and putting Maltesers into a tin using only a straw!

Gordo Explorer Scouts
This month, our older members have been busy planning for their Duke of Edinburgh awards and running meetings such as blindfold taste testing and a film night. They also enjoyed an evening at the new trampoline park in Bicester.

Oct 2017: Halloween spookiness, horse riding and fire station visit

Our whole group came together to join the Remembrance Day service and parade through Kidlington on Sunday 12th November. We always have a great turnout for this event and we’re proud to be a part of it.

Beavers
Kidlington Fire Station kindly hosted one of our Beaver meetings last month with a tour of the station and the chance to climb aboard a fire engine. Another week they were joined by ‘Rhythmicity’ who ran a drumming workshop, where the Beavers had great fun making music with drums and percussion instruments as part of their Musician – Stage 1 badge. They also worked towards their Health and Fitness Activity badge by designing posters to promote healthy living, making fruit skewers and popcorn and taking part in team games.

Mowgli Cubs
Mowgli Cub Pack had a time at their spooky Halloween Sleepover. There was gory face painting, and plenty of Halloween games including putting their hands in swamp juice and a bucket of dinner leftovers, plus apple bobbing and dipping heads in flour to retrieve sweets. Other nights have included activities based on teamwork and values, and cooking pizzas.

Jacala Cubs
During half term week, Jacala Cubs enjoyed a day at the stables, with horse riding and learning how to look after horses. They also held a sponsored walk to raise money for the Toilet Twinning charity, which works with communities to help raise awareness of the link between poor hygiene and disease, and provides tools to help them build their own latrines. Weekly meetings included a trip to Oxford Synagogue and a Halloween themed evening.

Land Scouts
Our Land Scouts have been busy earning lots of badges over the last few weeks, and helping to run Mowgli Cub’s pack evenings, showing them how to make things like pea shooters and cloth bags for water bottles. In the spring, they will show the Cubs how to dye their bottle bags using natural plant dyes.

Sea Scouts
The Sea Scouts have had a lot of fun in couple of weeks since half term, starting back with a Halloween party with lots of messy games and some fantastic spooky costumes. The following week, everyone brought in as many cardboard boxes as they could get their hands on and they turned the Scout Centre into a fortress with cardboard tunnels running through it!

Sept 2017 and 75th birthday celebrations

Kidlington Scout Group turned 75 in September and we all came together for a day of celebrations at our boat base at King's Lock, Wolvercote.

Members from our Beaver pack, both Cub packs, Land Scout and Sea Scout troops and our Explorer unit enjoyed activities on and off the water. On the river, there was kayaking, paddle boarding, pulling and motor boat trips. On land, there were plenty of team challenges such as carrying water around an obstacle course without spilling it, and using a small bag of craft materials to create a protective case that would stop an egg from breaking when it's dropped on the floor.

We rounded off the day by giving out some special awards that our members have earned this year. District Commissioner Anthony Morris joined us to present these, which included four Chief Scout's Gold Awards for the Sea Scout Troop and two of our Explorer Scouts received their Chief Scout's Platinum Awards, Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Awards and their Young Leader belts. Our leaders joined in too, with several receiving long service and special recognition awards.

Sea Scouts

At the very end of September, a small group of Sea Scouts had a fantastic weekend attending the Royal Navy (RN) Sea Scouts Soccer Sixes at Whale Island, Portsmouth. They stayed onboard HMS Bristol and put on a great effort, making the quarterfinals only to lose on penalties. There was great sportsmanship, high standards of Sea Scouting and lots of new friends made.

Land Scouts and Mowgli Cub Pack
For the first four weeks of the autumn term the Land Scouts and Mowgli Cubs had joint meetings with the Land Scouts teaching the Cubs Scouting skills. They made keyrings and pouches for water bottles as well as having fun making pea shooters and lovely camp doughnuts.

Beavers
Our youngest unit, the Beavers have been busy earning their emergency care badge and fitness badge, and enjoyed a space-themed weekend camp at the Scout Centre.  They learned about space travel and the planets in our solar system as well as enjoying lots of games and activities, and of course singing and marshmallows around a camp fire.

Jacala Cubs
A week after the 75th anniversary celebrations, twelve members of Jacala Cub Pack joined Cubs from around Oxfordshire for a County Scouting Skills fun day at Dry Sandford. As well as learning useful skills such as tent pitching, they had fun on a gigantic inflatable obstacle course!