As the rules changed at the end of April, this has allowed Beavers, Cubs & Scouts to return to face to face Scouting. There has been a lot of work in the background to prepare for this, and it took many hours of work from our Leaders and supporters.
The first night we invited those who have stayed with the Scout Group while we ran over virtual platforms. The excitement from Leaders and our young people was clear to see. We ran a one-hour session, and it flashed by in what felt like a few seconds.
We ran various bases to maintain social distancing and enjoy some of the activities we all enjoy, from s’mores through to a few challenge games. As a result, our Scout grounds were filled finally with laughter, conversation and smiling faces. This reminded us all why Scouting is so important and needed, not just for our young people but our adult volunteers too.
With the success of the first night back, we are now back running weekly sessions for Beavers, Cubs and Scouts.
What about our changes…
Our parents and guardians of our young people have been fantastic, very supportive of our new processes. It all felt a little strange to start with, but it now feels much more normal after the first few weeks. Our interaction with our parents has not been affected, and it’s been great speaking with them all. With sessions still running on a reduced time, we hope to increase the sessions time as we move into the last term before the summer break.
Dropping off & pick up changes
Hear why you should volunteer
Our numbers are growing…
As I write this, we see higher interest in Scout Group and young people joining us. Beavers have been the most popular, and we are currently at capacity, and our waiting list is growing. Cubs and Scouts are also seeing new young people join us, and we still have space available for those interested.
This growth has given us an exciting challenge to increase our leader and supporter teams. Emma has already joined us, and she is having a great time learning all about what our Beavers and Cubs do, helping out whenever she has time. So why not find out more and get in touch? We are happy to answer all and any questions.
What does our near future look like?
We know that more changes to come from the government in June, but we need to wait for updated rules from Scout Association (SA). As we have already seen, new changes from SA may need us to re-write risk assessments and processes, but more importantly, we need to listen to what our leader volunteers are comfortable with. That may mean that some of our current face coverings & social distance rules remain, even after it is not a requirement.
