Whilst the corona virus Pandemic is with us, all face to face Scout Leader training has had to be suspended, this is especially challenging for the mandatory First Response Module, where elements of the programme are required to be demonstrated by participants in order to complete the course (for example CPR). This challenge means that the theory part of the First Response will be completed on online by our Kyle and Carrick Scout Leaders. Over the last week there has been 2 zoom meetings going through Introduction and Principles to First Aid and then Emergency Life Support and finishing with tonights Zoom session of Identify and Manage Life Threatening Injuries. With over 15 leaders taking to the Zoom first aid sessions, it has been a really useful way to still be active with leader training. Of course the leaders will still have to participate in the practical assessment when restrictions are eased.
Well done Kyle and Carrick Scout Leaders for getting involved in these new training initiatives.
Since being given the go ahead to resume face to face Scouting the Cubs from 2nd Ayrshire (Ballantrae) have been very busy doing what we like best; exploring all of the fascinating places around our village!
We hiked through the glen learning about all of the different trees and creatures, (the Giant Redwood and Monkey Puzzle trees were our favourite) before lighting the kelly kettle for some well earned hot chocolate!
The past two weeks you could find us down on the beach practicing our fire lighting skills and toasting marshmallows while we learned about coastal safety, different types of rock and skipped stones.We have also been making our own local beach art, learning about Ballantrae’s history and how the village has grown over the years!
My name is Innes Begen, I am 7 years and 11 months old. I am a Beaver in the 18th Ayrshire Scout Group (St. Columba’s, Ayr). I have achieved lots during lockdown and over the summer, so I will tell you about some of my badgework and adventures in this blog…….
In July I went on holiday to the Lake District. Whilst I was there I learnt to drive a motor boat. I wore a life jacket and so did my mum, dad and sister. I had to steer the boat, keeping the green buoys to my right hand side. The boat went fast but I liked to go slow, then surprise everyone by speeding up!!! We camped in a landpod and cooked dinner on a fire. In the lake district, a small river is called a ghyll, in Scotland we call it a burn. I took part in a really scary adventure activity called Ghyll scrambling. It is when you wear a wet suit, a life jacket, old trainers with no laces and a helmet. You then trek up a mountain, and slide, jump and half-swim down the ghyll to the bottom. It was cold and wet. It was very terrifying. I was one of the youngest people to take part. These activities helped me achieve my time on the water badge.
Horse riding was something else new I tried out and absolutely loved. My mum organised it as a surprise. She told me to wear smart boots and old joggies so I was very confused and had no idea what I was going to do. I guessed on the way it was horseriding. I learned how to mount the horse, and to ride it slowly and gallop. If you kick its side, it moves forward. The harder you kick it the faster it will move. If you pull the reign on the right it turns right, if you pull the riegn on the left it turns left. If you pull both reigns at the same time, the horse stops. I even did a jump. It was so much fun!
I love making and creating things. At the beginning of lockdown I created the blue peter badge with paper quills. I mounted it and posted it to Blue Peter at the BBC. 10 weeks later I recieved a Blue Peter Badge award through the post. I also designed and made henna tattoos and a tie-dye t-shirt.
My family grew in lockdown from 6 (me, mum, dad, sister, 2 fish) to 8. The new Begens are Flopsy and Fluffy, our rabbits. They are so adorable, cute, sweet and a little bit naughty. They likle to steal treats from each other even though they are sisters, and when we give them corn they still sneak through the nets of our veg patch to nibble the corn we grow. I took lots of pictures and videos, then edited them to make a movie with music to show my Beaver friends my rabbits. I showed it over one of our Beavers zoom calls. For all my work I earned my pet care and digital citizen badges.
My Beaver leader Fiona delivered loads of badges for me and I have now been made Fir lodge leader. That made me really happy. I am excited for even more adventures, sleep outs and virtual camps over winter with the Beavers!
Fiona Beaver Leader “It is great to see how determined our Beavers are to carry on Scouting, even during these difficult times. Innes has proven to be unstoppable he has worked hard completing his Teamwork and Outdoors Challenge badges as well as 4 Staged badges, 2 activity badges and earning his Leadership Stripes. The Leaders of 18th Ayrshire are incredibly proud of Innes and all he has achieved. Watch this space as I believe this young man is about to earn himself a Bronze Award too!“
Given the Government’s guidance, all face-to-face Scout meetings, activities and events were suspended in March 2020. The suspension applied to young people and adults, which sadly means no face to face scouting, for a while. The safety of everyone involved in Scouts, both young people and adults, is our number one priority. That is always at the heart of our decision making.
With the reactions to try to get ahead of the COVID-19 virus, most Scout meeting locations had to close. This is understandable, yet it poses a challenge to youth groups like Scouting. How do we still do Scouting when we cannot get together? Zoom meetings have been our answer!
Alastair Beaver and Scout Leader for the 12th Ayrshire Scout Group said ‘Our Zoom meetings have been a big learning curve for our Scout team. Our Zoom meetings are a Friday evening and last week our Beavers baked cakes in mugs and this week they are working on their Book Readers Activity Badge, something the Beavers are really excited to get involved in.”
‘The Scouts were set a challenge to make their favourite pizza! They looked brilliant!”
Although we can’t wait to get back to face to face scouting at some point, it’s been great fun getting together and doing fun activities and challenges with the young people in the 12th Ayrshire Beavers and Scouts.
We may have been in lock down but that hasn’t stopped the 18th Ayrshire Beavers! Since lock down began at the end of March our Beavers have continued camping, hiking, learning new Scouting skills such as fire building, back woods cooking, knotting and even learning how to use an axe!
Jacob carefully roasting marshmallows
They have been trying new sporting activities such as kayaking, motor boating, fishing, horse riding, paddle boarding and bike riding.
Innes having fun learning all about boats
They have had fun taking part in the first ever virtual district camp, Loch Down Lodge. Which saw over 70 Beavers, Cubs and Scouts from around the district camping out in their back gardens or building a den in their house!
Lachlan camping in Loch Down Lodge
They have tried new arts and crafts including, sewing, tie dying, paper quilling and baking. They also became scientists during our zoom calls, making rainbows with skittles, growing Gummy bears as well as other fun experiments.
Jacob enjoying making jam tarts
They have achieved so much and of course this has all counted towards their badge work. Fiona Beaver leader for the 18th Ayrshire Scout Group said ‘Since lockdown our Beavers have completed in excess of 100 badges including 8 Bronze Awards. We are very proud of how hard our Beavers have been working and we can’t wait to see what they achieve next!‘
My name is Jamie Pitt and I am 7 years old. I am a Beaver Scout in the 14th Ayrshire Scout Group (Prestwick). During my summer I have been learning new skills in the water around Ayrshire! I have written this blog all about my new hobby and trying to earning some new badges at the same time!
I take sailing lessons at the Sailing Club in Prestwick. I wear my old shoes, wetsuit and a life jacket. We had to pull the sailing boats down to the beach and at the end we have to jump off into the water and get the trolley for the boat. You have to hold the setting the right way, like a dagger – if you push it right the boat goes left if you push it left the boat goes right!
Photo credit: Eddie Wallace’s amazing Prestwick Bays sunset. Jamie and 3 fellow Beavers were lucky enough to be captured in this photo having their sailing lessons (Jack, Lewis & Harris C)
One of the best bits of the sailing lesson is at the end we all get to jump into the water! The life jackets keep you a float but we all splash and laugh, its really great fun.
I have also started paddle boarding with my friend and Beaver Jack. We wear wetsuits and try and keep our balance while paddling. Its hard but I can stand up now and paddle quite far! Once when I was on the paddle board I fell off, but Jack threw a surf board to me and saved me! You always need to paddle board with a friend.
On holiday I got to go fishing and I got to drive a motor boat and sit in the drivers seat – I loved it! I also went donut-ing! On my first try I managed to stay on but on my second try I fell off but I was all right and swam back to the boat. It was brilliant.
I LOVE WATER SPORTS!!!!!!!
Fiona the Beaver Leader from the 14th Ayrshire Scout Group said ‘ wow what water adventures you have had Jamie. I am delighted to see you embracing new hobbies and skills.’
‘There are lots of staged water sport badges to earn and you have already earned the first stage in Paddle Sports, Sailing and Time on the Water! What a busy summer you have had!’
The Beaver Scouts from the 2nd Ayrshire Ballantrae got their hiking boots on and set off on their Bear Hunt! Some were looking for Bear Grylls (we didn’t see him 🙁 ) and others (including me!) were looking for real Bears… thankfully we didn’t see any of those either!
Ok so in reality we were going on an evening hike, but calling it a Bear Hunt gives it that edge I thought… !
Kate Thomson, Beaver Leader for 2nd Ayrshire Ballantrae said ‘After such a long time away from face to face Scouting the young Beaver Scouts got straight back into the swing of it, Bear Hunts, Scavenger hunts, and MUD! The excited chatter was hilarious. I really enjoyed our first hike!’
A MASSIVE thanks to the parents helpers who came along with us, and of course the Beavers who should have slept well after walking nearly 1.5 miles…!
The 100th Ayrshire Cub Scout Group in Alloway resumed face to face scouting, with their Cubs section last night. (Monday 14th September 2020) Their first outdoor meeting since pre COVID times!
The leaders worked hard to ensure that all Government and Scouting guidelines were met. They also filled out their risk assessment and had it approved before restarting.
Due to the restrictions they had to split their pack in 2, because they have too many young people to meet on one night to abide by the guidelines.
The young people had a great night full of fun, blackberry picking. All the cubs went home with their blackberries and some cooking apples, along with instructions on how to make a Blackberry & Apple pie or crumble which will go towards their chefs badge!
The highlight of the night for Cub Leader David Codling was awarding 3 Cubs their Chief Scout Silver Scout Award, before they moved up to Scouts. ‘This was their very last Cub meeting and the first Chief Scout Silver Award we have presented in a couple of years! These boys have all done great Cub work over the lockdown period. Finishing off all the remaining aspects of their challenge badges in order to gain this top Cub award and we are all super proud of them.!’
Pictured from the left: Arran Shaw, Murray Kerr and Harris Vennard.
14th Ayrshire Scout Group & Family ready time start the Beach Clean
14th Ayrshire (Prestwick) Beavers, Cubs and Scouts came out in rather windy conditions on Saturday 12th September to assist in the annual Rotary Club Beach Clean, Prestwick. With fabulous parents in tow, the young people’s strong work ethics and their efforts really paid off. The Beavers, Cubs and Scouts were part of 100 locals, volunteering to clean up Prestwick’s beach. They collected a great deal of rubbish as you can see from the number of bags below. (Over 100 bags collected!)
We met at Prestwick Beach (near Kidzplay) to distribute the equipment (litter pickers and rubbish bags) which were very kindly donated to our Scout Group by South Ayrshire Council. The aim was to clean the grass verges and hedges along the shoreline along with the beach itself, to make it a nicer walk for the Prestwick residents, visitors and wildlife, there was a range of rubbish from bottles and cans to sweet wrappers and BBQs.
Beaver Scout Caleb McCraig said” It was cool and fun and I was glad I could help clear up all that rubbish!”
Caleb working hard
Beaver Harry said “I enjoyed cleaning the beach and it was funny because we had to stop litter flying away in the wind.” He also said he feels good to help clean his beach.
Harry with his Mum
Cub Scout Ethan said “I really enjoyed it and would definitely want to do it again, as I felt good helping save the fishies!”
Ethan and his Mum proud of their hard work
Scout Ben said “I can’t believe the things I found around the beach from used BBQs to washed up plastic, I think we all made a good start to making our coastline that bit better for Scotlands marine and wildlife.”
Don’t think this is going to fit in my rubbish bag!
All sections of the Scout Group are working towards their Community Impact Activity Badge. The young people identified this important local event run by The Rotary Club of Prestwick to help clean up Prestwick’s’ beautiful coastline. The Scouts are making a plan about local issues they want to take action on, and how this will make peoples lives better.
Community Impact Activity Badge
Thanks to everyone who turned up for Prestwick’s Beach Clean especially The Rotary Club Of Prestwick for organising this annual event and South Ayrshire Council for their support and supplying the litter pickers and plastic bags.
Five Beavers have earned the Chief Scout’s Bronze Award during Lockdown. They are the first Beavers from the 14th Ayrshire Scout Group (Prestwick) to have achieved this award. This is the highest award possible to earn as a Beaver Scout
Sandy, Keith, Jonah, Lewis, Forbes
Fiona their Scout Leader made a special socially distance presentation giving out badges and certificates.
Fiona Hainey, Leader of the 14th Ayrshire Beaver Scouts, said: “Being a leader is great fun and I am so proud of the boys working so hard during lockdown to finish off the badges needed for them to receive this award.”
To earn the Bronze Award, the Beavers need to complete four activity or staged activity badges and all six challenge badges. For example during lockdown the Beavers worked on the Communicator Activity badge which required the Beavers to learn:
-their phone number;
-learn how to make a phone call;
-learn how to send a text message or email;
-spell their name using a code e.g. picture code, phonetic alphabet semaphore; and work out a message given to them in code.
Forbes spelling out his name in phonetic alphabet
The boys smashed loads of activity badges and carried on smashing many other badges during lockdown! But most of all doing these badges in their very own creative style!
It has been a joy to watch them through their Beaver Scout journey. They have done things that I am sure were completely out of their comfort zone but they throw themselves into the challenges and came out a winner!
My highlights of their challenge badges was our Adventure Badge – our Nights Aways (camps) – we had some real fun at the Science Centre Sleepover and the Kip On The Ship at the Tall Ship in Glasgow never mind our annual camp in Dumfries House. They showed themselves to be a true Scouts and incorporating the promise into their daily life.
Virtual Scouting
Remberance Day
Kip on the Ship
Dumfries House
The boys are ready to move up to Cubs, but they will be really missed in the14th Ayrshire Beaver Group. All the skills that they have learnt in Beavers will only get better when they do more challenging things in Cubs. The boys will be moving up to Cubs shortly and I know they are confident and independent enough to move up and make a truly fantastic Cub and then Scout and who knows after that a fantastic Scout Leader!
Sandy Maitland, Forbes Hainey, Lewis Fraser, Keith Wright and Jonah Moore received their Chief Scout Bronze Award Certificate, Chief Scout Bronze Award Badge, Cubs Activity Log Book for them to look at all the badges and activities they can do as a Cub
Sandy
Lewis
Forbes
Keith
Jonah
Congratulations again to the boys on this very important Scout Award it really is a big deal in the Scouting Community!!
Kyle & Carrick District Scouts 