On Saturday 23rd September at Hawley Lake, Minley, Hampshire, we're running an assessment day so you can gain your Kayaking or Canoeing permit for B1 waters.
Attendees will need to work to the Kayak Assessment Checklist and be compliant with the POR rules for water activities, a recap on the POR rules will also be given on the assessment day. Applicants will need to be at the old BCU 3* level for flat water strokes or alternatively have passed the BC Explore Award.
The day will run from 0900 to 1700 and you will need to bring with you a kayak or canoe plus your paddling equipment, together with a packed lunch. Showers and changing facilities will be available on site. There may be a possibility to hire equipment on the day, please contact me if you require this.
If you are interested in attending the assessment please send me an email with your name, telephone number and scout membership number and I will be in touch with further details. If you have any questions please feel free to ask.
Email Paul Mant, County Assessor
HSX are hosting the AdEx Challenge, a series of challenges and bases to test your teamwork and leadership skills. Activities will be based around an expedition scenario.
The weekend will finish with a HSX social on Sunday lunchtime. So if you've caught the expedition bug you can find out more about HSX, our future expeditions and our regular UK training weekends.
When: Saturday 16th - Sunday 17th September
Where: Ferny Crofts Scout Activity Centre, New Forest
Who: Explorer and Network Scouts over the age of 14
Cost - £25pp
Sign-up closes on Sunday 18th August.
Hampshire Scout Expeditions (HSX) is a county-based organisation specialising in youth development through mountainous activities and international expeditions. Throughout the year we run numerous training weekends throughout the UK to adventurous locations such as the Brecon Beacons, Lake District, Snowdonia and the Cairngorms.
We also have a track record of leading international expeditions to all corners of the globe, running trips places such as Nepal, Peru, Patagonia, Belize and Cambodia, as well as placing members on the summit of Mount Everest and the South Pole!
Archery as well as being an Olympic target sport is also an inclusive and exciting adventurous activity for our young people. Thankfully for those looking to lead these activities, there are courses coming up:
Christchurch Scouts have Aim 4 Sport running an Archery GB Instructors Course at Braggers Wood on the 9th and 10th September.
They are offering a discount to Scout members so if you have anyone that might be interested.
Please book via https://www.aim4sport.com/courses/archery-gb-instructor-courses-now-available/
This is a two day course which is designed for people with little or no prior experience of Archery. Candidates must be at least 17 years old by the start of the course.
Topics that are covered within the course are; how to shoot arrows, preparing and delivering Archery sessions, how to select appropriate equipment, setting up a range and how to ensure safety on the range. Successful candidates will gain an Archery GB Instructor licence which will last for three years.
This course is not catered, so please bring lunches for the two days, although tea and coffee will be provided throughout. You will be working outdoors from time to time, so please wear appropriate clothing and bring waterproofs.
The days will run from approximately 9:00am to 5:00pm. Cost is £175. Camping can be booked separately.
Book at https://fernycrofts.cinolla.com/
After a successful start to 2023, places are starting to fill up on the annual Hampshire Scout Expeditions (HSX) trip to the Lake District over the Easter Weekend.
Heading up on Thursday, 6th April, the trip will offer Explorers and Network Scouts the opportunity to get out into the Lakeland Fells. Over the course of the weekend, participants will have the opportunity to go climbing, hillwalking and scrambling - there may even be an opportunity for a wild camp!
As part of the trip, HSX will be providing transport for the weekend (with picks available from Ferny Crofts, Eastleigh train station and Tesco Winnall), food for the weekend, indoor accommodation, and qualified instructors.
For more information or to sign up, please contact Tom Robinson at [email protected].
Sign-up is open until Wednesday, 15th March 2023.
As we look forward to a a new term our programme for November usually includes our act of Remembrance which takes place on the Sunday nearest to 11th November, the anniversary of the end of hostilities in the First World War.
It is an opportunity to remember the service and sacrifice of all those that have defended our freedoms and protected our way of life and commemorates British service members who have died in wars and other military conflicts since the beginning of World War One.
But how do we ensure those who gave their lives are not forgotten? And how do we involve young people in this?
Since its establishment by Royal Charter in 1917, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission have constructed 2,500 war cemeteries and plots, erected headstones over graves and where the remains are missing, inscribed the names of the dead on permanent memorials. More than a million burials are now commemorated at military and civil sites in more than 150 countries and territories.
The work of the CWGC is supported by a group of volunteers across the country who work alongside the Public Engagement Co-Ordinators and deliver a range of talks about the varied work of the CWGC, its history but also, importantly, its work today.
Today, over a century after the CWGC first began, their work continues through the staff, supporters and volunteers who preserve our unique cultural, horticultural and architectural heritage and ensure that the stories of those who died in the First World War and Second World War are told.
Their aim is to actively engage new audiences and find innovative ways to involve the whole community with our work – through education and outreach, voluntary activity, arts and heritage projects, local research and partnership working. We aim to increase local awareness of CWGC sites across the UK.
If you're a Squirrel, Beaver, Cub, Scout or Explorer section and would like a guided tour of a cemetery near you or a talk on our work delivered at your H.Q. you can book a talk, using this link - www.cwgc.org/talks and for tours or anything else, please email - [email protected]
This year Remembrance Sunday is on 13th November.
We'll be updating this page throughout the course of Suisse Adventure 2022 with pictures, copies of the Suisse Adventure Roundup and any other updates from each day.
Read the Daily Update that went out this morning!
Read the Daily Update that went out this morning!
Read the Daily Update that went out this morning!
Read the Daily Update that went out this morning!
Read the Daily Update that went out this morning!
Read the Daily Update that went out this morning!
Read the Daily Update that went out this morning!
Read the Daily Update that went out this morning!
Read the Daily Update that went out this morning!
Read the Daily Update that went out this morning!
Read the Daily Update that went out this morning!
Read the Daily Update that went out this morning!
The Solent Scout Regatta has changed, now it is a two day event with pulling on a lake and sailing at sea.
The events this year take place on the 24th and 25th of September. The first day hosts the pulling, at Testwood Lakes in the New Forest, courtesy of the 4th Eling Sea Scouts who let us use their HQ. The second day will be at Hythe Sea Scout HQ on Shore Road, Hythe where they have a beach and great sailing facilities.
The regatta is organised by the Solent Scout Regatta committee, a part of Hampshire Scouts, and has been running for over 20 years. It's changed and developed to fit in with modern Scouting requirements.
The boats are provided for use by Troops from around the area and all you need to bring is a buoyancy aid and some boating clothes. We have safety boats with qualified drivers, therefore the leaders (although in charge of their troop on shore) can let the scouts sail.
Burgers, hot dogs and similar food will be available on site. The award presentations are made at the end of each day and we hope the site will be left clean and tidy.
To enter you can contact Dave Chadwick at [email protected] or Allan Glass to know more about the event at [email protected].
We hope to see loads of Scouts on the Regatta days.
Find out more about the Solent Scout Regatta, and see pictures from previous years, at their website.
This summer the streets and shopfronts of Winchester and Southampton will be filled with sculptures of Hares and baby Leverets.
Building on previous trails looking for Rhinos and Zebra, we're getting in on the action again. After creating zebra for the previous trail, Hampshire Scouts are behind the designs of three leverets that can be found in Winchester city centre right now.
Masterminded by our county Beaver and Cub teams, two feature designs from our young people, and all three will return to us once the trail is over.
The trail runs from now, Thursday 16th June, for ten weeks until Thursday 25th August in both Southampton and Winchester with around 70 to find. All three of our smaller Leveret sculptures can be found in Winchester - meet them on our Hampshire Scout News article.
There are plenty of resources for you to use with sections including maps of the trail on the Hares of Hampshire website and our own Hampshire Scouts trail booklet complete with fun activities to try.
To celebrate the trail, a series of badges are available showing our leverets in the many different Scout uniforms from Squirrels to Scout Network, air to sea.
Badges can be ordered now:
Thanks to a number of the Scout's partners, this summer there are a number of card games, table top role playing games and more fun activities that our Cubs, Scouts and Explorers and Scout Network can try for nothing!
Find out about a few of them, and how to order the free resources, below.
Ideal for Beavers and Cubs. Links to the Cubs Collectors Badge.
Get up to 25 packs of Pokémon cards free for your Cubs as part of the celebrations of 25 years of Pokémon. Each pack contains three cards from the latest trading card game Sword and Shield for your Cubs to swap, collect and play with.
Plus there are activities built in to the activity finder on the Scouts website for you to run with if you want to run this badge as part of your programme.
Ideal for Scouts, Explorers and Scout Network. Links to the Scouts Hobbies Badge.
On to another card trading game, this time with a more fantastical element. Magic: The Gathering pits different players of different styles against each other in a game of strategy and forward thinking using the cards in your hand.
With plenty of activities to run this, videos and resources on how to get started, leaders can apply for up to two packs per order with each pack containing two decks of 30 cards. Just pick which colour deck you want to play with (different colours mean different characters and attributes to play with) and you're away.
Ideal for Scouts, Explorers and Scout Network. Links to the Scouts Entertainer Badge.
Chances are you've heard of Dungeons and Dragons or D&D. It's been around for a while but you may not have known what it was about. Together you're telling a story with players saying what they're characters are doing and the game's referee filling in the blanks for everyone else.
As part of the Scouts' Entertainer badge, groups can order a free starter pack (either in digital download form or a physical pack) with ready made characters and an adventure to play.
Plus there are videos and helpful resources to get you going both on the page and in the wider internet. How you play is up to you - it's about having fun after all and not about following every rule to the letter.
Ideal for Scouts, Explorers and Scout Network. Links to the Scouts Model Makers Badge and Explorers Creative Arts badge.
Take the fantasy elements of D&D or Magic and centre it around figurines that you create and paint and you've got Warhammer.
Scout Troops can apply for kits with everything a Scout needs to complete the badge and as many kits as needed for every Scout in your troop. Plus there are videos and resources a plenty to get them off the ground.
Meanwhile Explorer Scouts can use it for their Creative Arts badge and they and Scout Network members can take advantage of a programme of support where Warhammer staff act as assessors if they choose to complete it as part of their Top Awards Skills section.
Plus, they offer store sessions where groups can come in and visit. Check out the story of when Scouts in Aldershot visited a store here.
Find out this, full details and videos at the Warhammer pages linked below.
Did you know there is now a Scout Book Club? Run in partnership with Walker Books, every two months a new title is chosen with videos with the authors and a free chapter to read available to Scouts. Plus, if you like the book, you can buy it through the Scout Store or using the details find it in your local library.
The books vary each time but are often best suited for Cubs and Scouts.
Find out more about some of the Scout's other supporters and what they have done for us on the Scouts' Supports page. Many have supplies activities for badges down the years.
Words by Steven Osborn.
You’ve heard of Taskmaster - are you ready for the County Commissioner’s challenge?
Over the next few weeks, we're running a Hampshire Scouts Challenge Master, that your sections can take part in! There are a series of challenges available now, which you can take part in over the next few weeks, and you can even get a badge if you earn enough points! Watch the video below to find out more, and visit the Challenge Master page of our website for all the details.
