Skating details and consent

Here's the consent form - You must have this to skate as it is an event that has broken scouts previously! No form =no skate!!!
We aim to meet at Telford Ice Rink at 7:00 and end about 8:30pm to avoid the end queues. The popular vote was just to make your own way there so I will see you at the rink! (Although you may choose to catch the train if you like so long as your parent says that you are making your own way home on the consent form)
Bring warm coat, some change for snacks? Gloves (so if you get your fingers sliced off they will be kept handy inside your glove :) )
I have booked places for everyone that registered a ticket and you have been sent a confirmation email by Eventbrite!

Skate away at Telford Ice rink for our last meeting

We meet at the hut tonight to do the DofE planning/tidy-up etc but I need to get numbers for next weeks meeting where it is our end of term thing...
Book a ticket - I will choose whether we train it or just meet there depending on how many book each type of ticket and then decide which way to travel :)

There will be a consent form here in due course!

Bear hunting

Bearly any of you turned up last week so we will be more outdoorsy tomorrow at the hut - be warm and waterproof with a light!

Scotland 19

It's time to book up for glissades and snow holes again - here's the first info for our regular Scotland trip!

I need you to sign up so I can go again too! 😀

bad weather

We're hoping for some bad weather to brave and triumph over for the mountain group hike this Sunday - you need to book with Richard or let me know NOW (oops! I can probably take names tomorrow...) for Sunday 9 December. Its in the Clwydian hills (that's where one of my bronze DofE groups had a helicopter called to find them as they were playing hide and seek with the leader...)

Here's the info!

Visiting...

As we discussed last meeting - I am away this Thursday... but Rea Valley Explorers have invited us over to their meeting. 

John and Libby who are leaders there are our District Leaders too and Adrian, the other leader is a friend from the mountain walks and our usual DofE assessor. Also it is good to see how other units run their meetings and programme, so go along and make some friends, have a chat, and tell them we want to run an incident hike for them - the Bear Hunt...

Their prog this week is to have a talk from Jonathan Walton (scout archery man) about a local issue and them to have games/activity so a hut night.

Let me know if you get any good ideas off them when I'm back next week!

It is 7:45-9:15pm on Thursday (nearly usual time) at Pontesbury Congregational Hall

Pontesbury Congregational Church
Minsterley Road
Pontesbury

SY5 OQH

...incidentally

We said we'd prepare an incident hike for Rea Valley explorers (or maybe police cadets?)… Lat time we had a 'secret agent laser honey trap' - a bit like 'secret agent laser chess' but with honey crunch chocolate in the trap... It kinda worked...
Meet at the hut and bring a head torch and warm stuff and your genius (as Mr Cabbage would say...).

Chipper!

It is time to check that our favourite chippy is not resting on its laurels but still delivering the chips we love! The Chip Advisor is back and we will meet in Shrewsbury in the square at 7pm to finish by 9pm having presented the winning certificate to our favourite chip shop!
I will bring chip-maps for the town and funds to enable us to properly chip-test the contenders... Wear some identifiable uniform (I know you all have that now!) and a chip advisor badge (why be anonymous when our chippies want to bribe encourage us to give them the coveted Boreatton Explorer Chip Advisor awards!)

Brecon Beacons walk

Here's the info for the next mountain walk! I can't make this one as they changed the date after I'd agreed to go to the Rifle Squad meeting, but its a great hike - ask Eefer!

Let me (or Richard and me) know you are going as soon as you can - the official deadline is today but we can usually accept a few Boreatton late decisions….

Remembrance Parade - 100 years

It is a special remembrance parade this year - the centenary of the Armistice. This is the one occasion that I expect you to prioritise your duty as an Explorer Scout over other weekend activities so hope to see you ALL at the parade on Sunday. 
It is a longer march this year so that all the village get to hear us, and we will meet up at Prescott Surgery at 9.50, marching at 10.15. The service will end at about noon.

Wear full ironed uniform, wearing a poppy and with some change for the collection. I have the district neckers at last and will bring them along - I have to charge £5 for these but can collect that in due course... Make sure that you have sewn all your badges on - thats why they were handed out last meeting! - and don't forget to bring a woggle for the shiny new district necker.

...so many poppies to remember... ... just our villages...

Battle's Over Beacon

Not a Scouty event as such but we have been very kindly invited to attend as a Group.

Bonfire Night!

Our regular meeting will be a bit brighter this week! Come a bit early if you can (6pm?) and help set up!

Thursday 8th November 
at Leaton Hall, Leaton near Bomere Heath 

All the family welcome! 
6.30pm to 8pm - Car Parking in Holy Trinity Church on the Berwick Road - please slow as you approach the turning and drive even slower in the car park as it is unlit. Marshalls will be at the gate. 

Hot Food on sale to raise funds for Boreatton Scout Group - please bring cash, this is way out of reach of contactless technology!!!!

Bring gloves for the sparklers and I will be bringing our three guys for their deserving and grisly end!! Looking forward to seeing you there for fire, explosions and pumpkin soup - slurp, boom!!

Weeping window

Our 'weeping window' poppies for remembrance of all those that died in WW1 from our villages looked quite nice (not as good as the original Tower of London version but still enough to make you think about the impact of the war on all the small communities we live amongst.

We didn't manage to complete the poppies on our unit meeting but several of you said you would like to do so on Thursday 1 November. 

I suggest that as there are not many of us likely to be available, we meet at my house at 7pm (a bit earlier and a bit more comfortable) for an hour and a half to see if we can complete the 207 needed just for our villages.

Please phone me (or text) to say you intend to come! If there are not enough to be worthwhile I'll then be able to contact you, and if there are too many for my dining room we can relocate and meet at the hut after all

This is what we should be aiming for...

Remembrance 100 years

Its is nearly 100 years since the end of the great War to End All Wars...

To commemorate this anniversary we will as always march in Baschurch with the British Legion in the village Remembrance Parade. 

To mark the centenary, I thought we could do something a bit more. The Imperial War Museum is maintaining an archive of data on the War Memorials across the UK. Many of our village memorials are recorded but not all and for some not all the data is recorded.
Please visit your local memorial and record the number of names, and the condition and take a photo. We can then ensure that our memorials are properly archived to the data will be available in another 100 years time.
Please bring as much data as you can to our meeting on Thursday 25 October. Any images you can put on a memory stick would be good!

Pumpkin head

The nights are drawing in and its time to protect ourselves from bad spirits and rebellious conspirators... what better than pumpkin dragons - bring a pumpkin and a modelling knife on 18 Oct and we'll make dragons to protect our hut...

Hmmm... maybe thats a bit optimistic...

Game on!

By popular request we have booked the sports barn for indoor games!
Bring a game! at the usual time, meeting at the hut, and then walking down to the old sports barn...

Burger off

The Great Boreatton Burger-Off 2018!

Its just like Bake off but meatier!
Your technical challenge on Thursday is to make the best ever explorer burger...
We will provide you with the basic ingredients
1 burger
1 bap
1 fire
...but that would only get you a basic burger...

bring any luxury extra items and transform your basic culinary creation into an extravant feast fit for... well... you! 

We'll be outside so be prepared and with a head torch...

Head for the hills!

Its a new mountain group season so here are the details AND CONSENT FORM

We kick of with the scrammbley one in a week or so - let me know you're coming with me by Weds 10 Oct

PARENTS - PGL drive etiquette

After a change in PGL's rules for entering and leaving Boreatton Park I thought it was time to review etiquette;

Please only start your journey along the drive when there is no vehicle coming the other way.

The mini layby is only for emergency (ooops I got that wrong) use, not for zooming down the drive while another car is coming the other way and pulling in at the last minute. Last Friday I saw 3 cars trying to cram into the small space and not succeeding.

Please, NEVER drive on the grass, this really upsets PGL as the tyre ruts spoil the look of their entrance - they are a business after all.

10mph please - boring but Boreatton Park is a place for children after all and they do tend to pop up Harry Potter like out of nowhere.

Finally if you are late then the buzzer is an option but bear in mind that PGL effectively shuts down in November so you could have a long wait as there won't be anyone answering the intercom.


Please remember that we are probably unique in the whole of UK Scouting - PGL charges us £10  a year rent, gives us free electricity and use of their facilities.  This means that as Group Scout Leader I don't have to badger you all for sponsorship, money, bagpacks and all the extra effort that other Scout Troops have to put in.  Good eh?  Lets respect PGL's rules and we won't have to fundraise £200,000 for a new Scout hut.

Phil

Group Scout Leader
Boreatton Scout Group

turning to the dark side...

We need a form (of course!) for our night hike with Rea Valley - here it is!
Let me know if you need a lift - I'll have 2 or 3 spaces leaving leaton hall about 7ish...

Get knotted

We will be doing a joint unit night hike with Rea Valley next week, but I'm fed up of having to tie scouts boots up for them so thought it would be good to make check whether you all know all the useful knots (or not). (I was a bit shocked one or two of you didn't know some very basic knots recently... what do they teach you when you are a scout these days??!). 
We'll be mostly in the hut usual time...

It's also good prep for our incident hike plan for later this term. 

And to make sure we don't get lost we'll make some tidy ranger beads :)

Back from the breach...

Hols this year was supervising my first Gold DofE expedition - well done to the older explorers/network team!

And all of a sudden its back to a golden autumnal new term! As usual we are a week late (Herbert time as some say...) for start of term and our first meeting will be 13 September at the usual time 8:05pm at the hut!

Come refreshed for a shiney new term with shiney new ideas of how to explore!

This is the end my friend

...of term that is! Practically a pocolypse! Book now for the end of term paintballing which will be Saturday 21/7/18 10am-1pm at Rednal Paintball Turn up 10mins early... and also note that there will be no meeting on Thursday. 

Tickets are free so 




You will also need a consent form 

Tom and Jack's SURPRISE Night!

Okay, so this week is surprise night, same time, same place. However the activity now that is a secret! But if a compass could be brought along that would be highly beneficial, not to give too much away!

forms for the edge

Here's the consent form for the practice expedition!
Bring it to the meeting on 5 July or with you when we meet for the expedition!

toxophilous twanging

Hey - we're sticking to the prog! We will be having a go with our bows this week at the PGL butts so be on time and we can go down to the new butts together. Usual time and usual place. Wear long sleeves...

trilobity terrain

Well done team - all looking in hand! Here's a picture of the bit of the map you are planning your route through, but it is probably a bit low res so if you click it it takes you to my shared onedrive page where you can download a decent resolution pdf

Team Trilobite

We need to plan our route this week (as I can't make it to meetings next week) so I am inviting the team to Leaton Hall on Weds evening 8-9pm to do the preparation for our Bronze DofE practice expedition.

Its the SBSMG Climbing Day!

For those unfortunate enough to be missing the camp in Manchester you have an alternative, Rock Climbing.
Details below:-

I don't think there will be any Boreatton leaders there as we are all doing other stuff but most of you will Chris from caving and Richard was a Boreatton parent a good few years ago now... so you'll be in good hands. (well the rope will be anyway)!!!

(copyright Pete)

Shropshire Rifles at NSRC

Well shot those that had a go at Leaton a week ago - here at last is the booking form to express an interest in taking part at the National Championships in October. We need to book now as it takes a while to plan for 1000 scouts with guns so if we have a team I will need your forms and deposits very soon (at or next meeting!)
The competition is on 19-21 October 2018!

Bright sparks

Welding night tonight - (or is Pete just trying to get the pedal car mended after the explorers had a play?)
Usual time and place (somewhat unusually)

HAG Shooting

No! Have A Go, not shooting hags... (hahahaha :) )
We will have a go at shooting properly at Leaton Hall this Thursday usual times 8:00 to 9:30, but in my barn...
You NEED to bring a signed consent for this

Swimmingly

Don't forget we have swimming   paddle practice again tonight!
Early start at 7:30 and bring a change of kit if you think you might get wet...

hmm... there's something wrong with our boats today...

There and back again...

Trotting up and down Snowdon these days... but nice to see what it looks like!
Here's some pics from the last SBSMG (Special Boreatton Scouts Mountain Group)

That looks like Richards favourite view...

Everyone wants a selfie at the same spot!

Well done those that got to the top for the first time!

Splish splash

Well it all started out well

Until everyone fell out with each other...

And then it kinda went downhill...

Welcome to the Blog!

Welcome to Jack! First post from our new AESL!
What he needs to say in big letters is that we will meet early this Thursday 7 June at 7:30pm and go Kayaking to get very wet so bring some spare clothes to get dry again at the end! 

You may get mostly wet...



Woop! Summer!

Paddle Fortnight

TL;DR
Explorers, Explorer Leaders & External Instructors
19:35 - 21:30 7/6/18
Lake Benbow, PGL Boreatton Park

Hello World

If you're reading this I have written a blog post (yay!)

This Thursday we will be starting slightly early at 19:35, and slightly earlier still if you can if you need to borrow a Buoyancy Aid / Helmet so we can walk over at 19:30 :)
Basically I want you to be able to dry off before you go home & have enough time to learn everything you need. If you can't make the time please be there ASAP as leaders will have left the scout hut just after the normal time.

On the theme of falling in, a change of clothes and something to dry off with is strongly advised! You may also bring any personal gear you may have but I will need to check it before you go onto the water with it.

Have a great day and I'll see you at the Lake, ready to go at 19:35h on Thursday :)

Yours in Scouting
Jack Gilbert
AESL Boreatton Explorers

Over-compensating

Our shiny updated rocket flew well in the National Finals but reducing drag with glossy paint as well as cutting the weight down meant we had over compensated and now flew way higher than we intended! But still managed to come 5th in the country (phew!). Well done BEASTs! Here they are getting their award from the vice president of Lockheed Martin (Glory! No cash for 5th unfortunately so we had to make do with Glory and Ice-creams - but hey what more do you need on a sunny day?)

Next Mountain Group Walk

It's Snowdon again! (but we might see it this time!) See details below - it's the first Sunday after we come back from half term so I need you to let me know  are coming before our next meeting at the hut!!!