A bumper fundraising season

We've just completed our three major annual fundraising events: Christmas Post and Sainsbury's bag packing in December, and ScoutRail model railway show in January.

The combined total of these events passed £6K, which is amazing! Huge thanks to everyone who supported these events. We'll be spending the money on improving the accessible facilities at our Scout Centre.

Photos from ScoutRail model railway show at Exeter Hall, Kidlington on 5th and 6th January.

November

Once again, we were proud to be part of the Remembrance Day Parade in Kidlington. 

Our sections also ran special evenings to help our young people understand more about Remembrance Day. 

Cherwell Beaver Colony spent their evening at the Soldiers of Oxfordshire museum in Woodstock at a special event organised by its Education and Outreach Officer, Vicki Wood. It was a very enjoyable and interesting session where the Beavers learnt about WWI including what Scouts did to help during the war, what life was like in the trenches and why the poppy is used as a symbol of remembrance. 

What a fantastic summer!

Our Sea Scouts and Explorer Scouts both had action-packed summer camps.

Down in Bristol, the Sea Scouts had a go at climbing, abseiling, caving and orienteering; visited Fleet Air Museum, a RNLI lifeboat station and Bristol Zoo; and had a lot of games and activities at the campsite. All came away tired and happy having earned a lot of badges along the way.

Later in August, our Explorers set off to Taunton where they climbed, abseiled and caved in the same place the Sea Scouts had been a few weeks before; visited Minehead for sea rafting and stand-up paddle boarding;  and tried their hands at archery at the campsite. The weather wasn't so kind on the day of their hike, but they still had a great time and even stopped for a very chilly wild swim!

March and April: lots of eggciting Easter activities!

Scouts
The Sea Scouts kick-started their camping season with a weekend under canvas at Youlbury on 23rd-25th March. Despite some rain and chilly nights, the Scouts had a great weekend getting back to basics learning camping skills such as cooking on open fires.

Before breaking up for Easter, the Land Scouts took on an egg drop challenge. Using materials provided, including balloons and cardboard packaging, the Scouts had to make a case that would protect an egg when dropped onto the ground. 

Cubs
Jacala Cubs continued the egg theme by spending their last meeting before the Easter break at Youlbury for an evening full of egg-themed games and activities.

Three members of Mowgli Cub pack received their Chief Scout Silver Awards from Group Scout Leader Andrew Innes. Well done all!

Beavers
At the end of a busy term including lots of work towards their communicator badge, two Beavers received their Chief Scout Bronze Awards. Well done!

AGM
Our Annual General Meeting will be on Monday 14th May at 7:30pm at the Scout Centre in Blenheim Road. All are welcome.

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!