So what have the sections been up to this last month?

  • our Beaver Scouts have been meeting outside – starting the term back gently with splitting the Colony into their four lodges and playing Beaver games, spending an evening at Wicksteed Park meeting maps and compasses for the first time and identifying trees in park, before finishing the month at the John Lowther Centre making dens and being led by our Cub Leaders on the archery range. And on a never-to-be-forgotten evening, we invested 10 new Beaver Scouts into the Colony – we are sure that these Beavers will be the bed-rock of the 1st Kettering’s future for the next 8 years;  
  • our Cubs have XXXX, whilst the younger members of the pack were on the archery range the sixers and seconders navigated around a circuit of Rushton, with the last night spent backwoods cooking over at JLC;
  • after drying themselves off from the rafting, the Scouts have been preparing for the Expedition this month – breaking the compasses and maps out, learning what equipment to take walking, and cooking and trying a range of backpacking meals on the small Trangia stoves we use. And on the evening of England’s historic win over Germany (when we were not expecting great things) nearly all of the Scouts turned out to to path-test their kit back from Pytchley to Kettering on a glorious evening. Planning for our Expedition next week carries on a-pace, and we will be taking our Scouts onto the River Nene on our kayak fleet shortly – watch this space next month!

Whilst the start of the Summer Holidays approaches for our young people, the Leader Teams will continue to resolve further challenges thrown our way – we have to find open inside venues willing to take all of our Sections, and have yet to gain approval to our new indoor and residential risk assessments. We will continue to plan to the best of our abilities, to ensure we continue delivering quality Scouting for all of our people safely. It is a great relief in these times not having a gaping hole in our Group finances to sort as well – and means that the Leaders can focus on delivering Scouting … it’s what we are here for, and it’s what we can do well after all!  

We finish by repeating our “Thank You” again from all of our Group members for your continuing support