November 2019 Newsletter from the DC Team
Hello again from Heather and Ben,
Last weekend was Remembrance Weekend and our annual opportunity to give thanks to those that gave their lives, or suffered terrible injuries in the service of their country. We thank those that attended any Remembrance events and we had a very good turnout at the main District parade in Ealing Broadway. As ever, our marching and parade etiquette always struggles to match up to the military representatives but we are proud of the number of young people and adults that attended. Prior to writing this sentence I (Ben) just watched the documentary Gary Lineker presented on his grandfather’s service in Italy during the Allied invasion in 1943/1944 and the sacrifice that our ancestors made to keep us free is truly incredible. I’d strongly suggest you watch it and our young people could also learn a lot (https://www.bbc.co.uk/
St George’s Day 2020
Sadly no-one has stepped forward to take on the role of coordinator for St George’s Day 2020 (although we did have several people confirm their willingness to participate on a steering group). Little time now remains – our deadline for deciding to cancel or proceed is Christmas. Sadly, as things stand, it looks likely that 2020 will not feature an Ealing & Hanwell District St George’s Day event.
Development support
We are currently in discussions with the GLMW Development Team to identify how we can use their services to expand or create new Scouting places where they don’t currently exist. The thought of reducing the length of our waiting lists and giving more young people this amazing thing we call Scouting is hugely exciting so watch this space as we should have more news in the December edition.
Young Leader Calendar
The training dates for our Young Leader Unit for the year have been set. GSLs and Section Leaders, please distribute to your young leaders and their parents as ensuring our young leaders are properly trained is a really important path to ensuring they are part of the section leadership team and not just drink makers. The dates are:
Tuesday 10th December – 8-9:30pm. Module A session
Sunday 26th January – 10-4pm – Full session
Saturday 28th March – 10-4pm – Full session
Sunday 24th May – 10-4pm – Full session
Saturday 4th July – 10-4pm – Full session.
All at Leighton Hall. Please email youngleaders@
Note – It is mandatory for every young leader to complete Module A within 3 months of starting so if you have new young leaders that started in September they must attend the December session.
Visit Southall Police Station
We have been contacted by the Met Police West Area Youth Engagement Team regarding groups of older members visiting Southall Police Station. I’ve pasted the email below but do get in touch directly if you are interested. Ben has already emailed Nabil regarding taking the Explorers. We don’t know if there are age restrictions.
“I am a police officer from the Metropolitan Police Service youth engagement team, our team covers the west area (Hillingdon, Ealing and Hounslow). I am writing to offer an excellent opportunity for any scout groups or any youth groups who would be interested to attend Southall police station on a set date for an anti-knife, gangs and drugs talk with a guided tour of a real custody suite (currently not in use). This will hopefully give a understanding the youths that attend of the reality of being arrested and knife crime, gangs and drugs. Along with the above topics a brief discussion into the police and the various roles also depending on time we can show some equipment and possibly a police vehicle if available.
The session would take approximately 2 hours for a maximum of 15 persons, if larger groups it will not be problem to arrange another date for them to attend, groups that attend will need their own staff to attend with them and make their own way to our police station.” nabil.ahmed2@met.pnn.police.uk
Carol Singing for Charity – opportunity on Thursday 6th December
6th Ealing Beavers are carol singing on 5th December at Northfields tube station from 6.30pm to 7.30pm to raise money for Ealing Churches Winter Night Shelter as their community project. This is a really worthy charity which provides beds in December for homeless people. Kerry Davis has been in touch to see if any other Groups/section(s) would like to take some of the remaining time-slots on this date, singing to raise money for the same worthwhile cause? Slots can be booked any time from 3pm until 10pm (only 6.30-7.30 slot taken by 6E). It’s a great opportunity to do a community project as it’s all been arranged, and Kerry is happy to be the point of contact to manage the time slots. If interested, please contact Kerry on kerrylfrancois@googlemail.com
District Youth Commissioner – Youthshaped Scouting (and opportunities for Network Scouts)
We have a new District Youth Commissioner. Ben Farmer, our previous incumbent, has been away at University since taking up his post so had limited time to do the job. Rob Scoynes, 8th Ealing Beaver Leader, has agreed to step into Ben’s large shoes. Thank you Ben for everything you did, including helping at the recent UWL Fair, and thank you Rob for also helping at one of the UWL events, and for agreeing to help by taking on this important role. Rob will be working to help improve how we deliver Youth Shaped Scouting in E&H..
Rob is also keen to revisit Scorpions, the Ealing & Hanwell Network Unit, and is reaching out to all existing Network members to arrange some dates in the early new year. If you are aged 18-25 and want to do some of your own Scouting, rather than (or in addition to) helping with the younger sections, please get in touch with Rob at r.scoynes@
Bear’s video response to Tell Bear Postcards
If your Beavers or Cubs took part in this project (between April and July 2019) please do pass on this link to your families, so the young people can see the video reply – or perhaps even screen it for them yourself during one of your meetings- on a laptop or even just on a phone
https://www.glmwscouts.org.uk/
Getting Ready for the 20 in 20 challenge
One suggestion from the Tell Bear project was to have a 20 in 20 Challenge Award/Badge. Put simply, the idea was to set 20 different challenges in 2020 that all members, including adults, can take part in. Richard Williams, CC, and the rest of the GLMW Team thought this was a great idea so they launched a special GLMW badge at the County Conference. Please visit https://www.glmwscouts.org.uk/
Some of the challenges may be harder to offer than others. Could we perhaps achieve more by working together to offer something across all our groups? Perhaps one or more tailored Challenge days as a District – one for each section, or a day for all sections together? Contact your sectional ADC (Laura, Nisha or Stuart) if you have any ideas.
Yours in Scouting
Ben and Heather
DC team, Ealing & Hanwell