November Newsletter from the DC Team – Ben, Simon & Heather

Hello again,

What does adventure look like as we approach the Winter months? It’s clear that in Ealing and Hanwell many of us see this time of year as an opportunity rather than a time to curtail things. We’ve been reminded of just that on a number of occasions recently  – including when we arrived at 1st Hanwell to find a firework display designed not only to excite but also to teach the cubs about the importance of staying safe. Then there were 16th Ealing scouts at their Autumn Camp at HOAC, plus both 1st Ealing North and 8th Ealing Scouts at Gilwell Scarefest. Not forgetting Beavers squirting giant hoses at Acton Fire Station or experiencing their very first Sleepover.  Simon and Ben, in our role as Explorer Scout Leaders, have over 20 explorers signed up to attend Gilwell Park’s Wintercamp in January so it’s clear that our local version of adventure continues long after the clocks have changed. That’s exciting for our young people and – hopefully – for all of us as adult volunteers too. Let’s all keep challenging ourselves to keep bringing those high quality programmes to life!

Remembrance Day Parade It was the annual Remembrance Day parade on Sunday.  Thank you to all the leaders, young people and parents that attended and paid their respects.  Thank you to Holly Smallman, GSL 16E, and John Matthews, our District Vice-President, for all their hard work organising and marshalling the event.  We look forward to the reports from those groups that attend their own Remembrance Day events.

St George’s Day 2019 – Thank you to Malcolm Turner, and the team at 1st Ealing North who have agreed to host the district event next year to ensure that it returns to the diary. The planning is starting and our aim is to include every group from around the district. Ideas are still developing, so if you want to be involved and have some ideas for the event please do get in touch with Malcolm directly, or through us.

Leighton Hall – Just a quick reminder that our District HQ is available for the use of ALL our  Groups for scouting activities (please note – scouting events only). As most of you will know,  9th Ealing are based here, so obviously all their regular section meeting slots take priority. Subject to the availability of a willing keyholder, it’s a resource for any Scouter in the District to use for a scouting activity. If your Group would be interested in using Leighton Hall for an evening or at the week-end (either a one-off or a series of meetings/events), please contact John Matthews. Details of his new email are at the end.

The District Swimming Gala The annual District swimming gala took place at Gurnell pool in October.  The event still proves popular with representation from almost every Group in the District taking part.  

In the Cub events there were some tight races, culminating in 1st Ealing North (St.Peter’s) narrowly taking the aggregate points trophy by a single point over 16th Ealing.  The Inter-Pack relay was won by 25th Ealing with 16th Ealing second and 6th Ealing in third place.

In the Scouts’ events, the aggregate points trophy went to 25th Ealing, followed by 1st Ealing North and then 7th Hanwell.  The Inter-Troop relay went to 16th Ealing with 25th Ealing taking second and 1st Ealing North the third place.

As for the Inter-Group relay, 1st Ealing North were eventually crowned victors after a stewards inquiry, with 5th Hanwell and 7th Hanwell taking second and third places respectively.  The Leaders relay always ends up being a rather competitive affair – and this year was no exception. It finished with 6th Ealing taking the plaudits, followed closely by 25th Ealing and 7th Hanwell.

Well done to everybody who took part; and my thanks go to all those people who assisted with the running of the event.

If the revised schedule for Gurnell is kept, it could mean the gala in 2018 being the last for a while unless a suitable alternative location is found. We will keep you posted, through these newsletters, as to how this unfolds.

[A massive thank you to Stuart Flaye, our ADC Scouts who led the organising team again this year – DC team]

News from around the District (thank you to our roving reporters)

Gilwell Scarefest

Everyone has a fear, be it the dark, clowns, spiders, heights – imagine an event where you could confront them all at once! Welcome to Scarefest!

Several hundred Scouts and Explorers spent the last weekend in October exploring the spookier side of Gilwell Park. With special themed activities and late night scares 8th Ealing Scouts were guaranteed an action packed Spooky weekend.

With activities such as Tomahawk throwing, laser tag, haunted mazes, bumper cars, archery and a giant slide to name a few as well as the static Gilwell activities like the 3G swing and rock climbing , the scouts had a bash at all of them….apart from myself as I refused to visit the haunted mazes. I don’t do haunted mazes/houses!!  It was a great activity weekend for both Scouts and Leaders.

The weather was rather cold I must admit, with the leaders donning all of their layers. Aoife ( Scout Leader) winning the challenge of how many layers can someone wear- she had counted she had on 8 layers.

As leaders we all said that it’s an amazing camp, well organised with plenty of activities for the Scouts and Explorers to do themselves. All in all we had a great weekend.

[Thanks to Mark Yates, and the team at 8th Ealing – DC Team]

DC Team Visits

Heather and Simon bumped into the 9th Ealing Beavers coming out at the end of their meeting on 30th Oct – all in wonderful spooky costumes (as were Mary and Tash – wish we’d had a camera handy!)

7th Hanwell AGM Ben attended the 7th Hanwell AGM at the start of November.  The 7th have the fantastic tradition of combining a bonfire, bar-b-q and fireworks display with the AGM which makes it a really special evening….fortunately the fireworks were all outside.  It’s a very exciting time at the 7th with their new building plans submitted to Ealing Council and the fundraising underway.

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LOOKING AHEAD

District Cub Concert planned for New Year  – hopefully late January (provisional date 29th)  Watch this space! (Information from John Stanton and Nisha Patel to follow)

Grow Your Group – the 2nd session on 4th November covered lots of very useful modules.  Those of us who attended got a lot out of it and we very much appreciate the time and effort Glen put in to help us. However, despite really good engagement from several groups, and at least partial representation from a number of others,  the overall level of support didn’t meet the required threshold to continue the process at this time. The third session on 2nd December has therefore been withdrawn and the next stage in the process will now be somewhat different from our original plan. The DC Team and Glen are exploring a re-launch later in 2019, and we plan to send out a survey to help us determine what would work best. In addition, a number of Groups – those who attended both of the first two sessions and who have sufficient ‘buy-in’ from their Group to proceed – will be offered some additional top-up sessions in January.  

Heather, Ben and Simon.

DC team, Ealing & Hanwell  

dc@ealingandhanwellscouts.org.uk

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USEFUL INFORMATION

District Trailer We have one. It’s looking amazing. While we work out a plan for the bookings please contact Ben Pearson (b.pearson@ealingandhanwellscouts.org.uk) if you would like any further info or would like to book it.

District Website We have one. It’s looking amazing. It’s now got the new branding – and you’ll see the functionality grow over the coming months. If there’s anything you want to see or add, do let us know – getting the content right is a team effort.

District Contacts

Some of your regular District contacts now have new email addresses.  Please see below:

John Matthews – District Vice-President and Leighton Hall Bookings – j.matthews@ealingandhanwellscouts.org.uk

The District Executive Chairman – Jonathan Bartlett –

chair@ealingandhanwellscouts.org.uk

Please update your contact lists for these as it’s really important that we reduce the number of ‘business’ emails going to people’s personal email accounts.

Key dates for the District Diary

November

• Modules 14,15 & 18 (Supporting Young People) PACCAR  – 17th November
• Modules 12B, 13, 19 (Great Programmes) PACCAR – 18th November
• Young Leader Training – 24th November@LH

December

• CANCELLED (Grow Your Group, Session 3, 2nd December)

• Scout Managers Training – PACCAR 1st – 2nd of December

January 2019

• District Executive Committee – Tuesday 15th January, 8pm (@LH)

• • DCs & ADCs Team Meeting – Wednesday 23rd January, 7pm @LH

• District Cub Concert (Cubs performing) – late Jan (provis date 29th)

February 2019

• • District Beaver Party – 2nd February

• Young Leader Training – 3rd February@LH

• • February Freezer Camp – PACCAR 15th February

• District Cross Country (all sections) – date TBC

• District Cub event – 5 aside football – date TBC

March

• Module 1E – 17th March  @ LH – ALL DISTRICT & GROUP EXECUTIVE MEMBERS WHO HAVEN’T YET DONE 1E PLEASE  BOOK A PLACE (contact Jenny)

• District Beaver Sleepover – 22-23 & 23-24 March (at SAC)

• Young Leader Training – 30th March @ LH

April 2019

• St George’s Day Parade 28th April (pm) – TBC

May 2019

• District Cub event – Athletics – date TBC

• Young Leader Training – 19th May@LH

• GLMW’s All American Adventure, Paccar – 24th May

July

• Young Leader Training – 6th July@LH

Summer 2019

• Camporee (District Cub Camp, week-long) – July 2019 (dates tbc)

• World Scout Jamboree, Scout Mondial, North America 22nd July – 2nd August

2020

• WINGS – 25th July – 1st August, Windsor Great Park

Contact Jenny Foxwell to book onto any training courses

Get in touch with us to add any further dates to the District Diary