20th Oldham Uppermill Methodist Scout Group
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July

1/7/2018

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​Summer is always a busy time for 20th Oldham. We try to get out and about as much as we can, and our Beavers enjoyed an evening at Brownhills where they went pond-dipping, made leaf rubbings and photographed the different flowers. A big focus for Beavers this term has been finding out about people who have a visual impairment, and conducting their own research about the difficulties they can have getting around. They are going to be presenting their findings on July 7th, and you are invited to come along to find out more.  

We try to make the most of local Scouting facilities when we can: our Scouts spent one of their evening meetings at West Yorkshire Scouts’ water activity centre at Green Withens enjoying paddling and sailing, and the Beavers and their parents will be there in July to do some bell-boating. It’s a busy place, so the Cubs will have to wait until September for their day of water activities, but based on previous years I’m sure it will be worth waiting for. 

The Cubs have had plenty to keep them busy in the mean time. They have spent most of their summer meetings outdoors, and have been making regular visits to Brownhills to work on their Naturalist badge, and they are also completing the badge requirements for Environmental Conservation. As part of this, they spent an evening balsam bashing with UCAN, trying to help clear this invasive species from the river bank. Next term, we would like to cover the local knowledge badge and would like to know if there are any volunteers who have lived in Saddleworth for a while and would be willing to come in to talk to Cubs one evening about how it has changed?

Cubs and Scouts have just come back from the Oldham District Camp at Waddecar this weekend. Everyone had a great time thanks to the team of volunteers who put it all together. Freya was one of the climbing team, and we also had Matt, Andy H, and Pete (a Cub parent) helping out on site. Many hands make light work, and we are always happy to welcome parents (or grandparents!) at camp or at our evening meetings.

The Scouts also spent an evening balsam bashing, and had a very interesting evening at Saddleworth Church, where we were hosted by the bellringing team. They explained how change ringing works, and gave the Scouts the opportunity to try out handbell ringing, and chiming the big bells. They are on the look-out for new ringers, so if you think you might be interested, why not get in touch?

One of our Scouts is just finishing the last parts of her Chief Scouts’ Gold Award before she moves up to Explorers in the Autumn, she was one of the first to join us when I took over the Scout group, and we will miss her, but we have recently been joined by two more, and when 2 Cubs move up in September we will have 24 Scouts. Cubs will move back up to 23 when 6 Beavers move up, and then we have 10 eager would-be Beavers on the waiting list. It’s the Circle of Life, Scouting Style, and you know what comes next - we are looking for volunteers to help us work with all these amazing young people. You can choose what (and how much) you do, so if any of this sounds like fun, why not drop in one Tuesday evening during term time, or email [email protected] to find out more?!
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June

1/6/2018

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May, and its mostly better weather, has seen a lot of activity for all of our sections. A key date for many of us was Whit Friday, and although the rain was horrendous we had our best turnout yet, with 18 Beavers, 11 Cubs and 9 Scouts braving the elements to walk, joined by a lot of parents and other family members.

Our Scouts are practising their navigational skills this summer, and they are also working towards their Geocaching badge at the moment, getting out and about as much as they can. Our Cubs are also enjoying the outdoors and have started work on their Naturalist badge, using the reserve at Brownhills. We are hoping to do some pond-dipping on our first meeting back. We are very grateful to all the parents and grandparents who enable us to go out each week, by complementing our ratios. We keep hoping that some people will enjoy it so much that they join the team - without that we are going to have difficulties next term.

The Beavers are taking part in a Scout Association called “A Million Hands.” After finding out about different good causes, they chose to find out more about Guide Dogs for the Blind and had a very interesting and informative talk from a visitor who brought along Paige - who is being trained to be a Guide dog when she is older. After this the Beavers went out around Uppermill to discover some of the hazards that make life more difficult for blind and visually impaired people. You are invited to join us at UMC on July 7th to find out more - watch out for the posters at church for more details.

Seventeen of our Beavers also enjoyed the District Sleepover at Hesley Wood this month. With almost a hundred Beavers on site, it was quite an event, and our young people enjoyed lots of games and activities. As well as Andy (our Assistant Beaver Scout Leader), Erica and Freya, we were also happy to be joined by four of the parents who shared tasks and helped to make it a more enjoyable experience for all. Thank you very much to the Dream Team! 

We are looking forward to an action-packed summer, with boating for the Beavers and Scouts, some work clearing himalayan balsam with the Cubs and Scouts, and the Cub and Scout District Camp. Let’s hope we don’t get too much more weather like Whit Friday!
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April 2018

1/4/2018

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Our Beavers and Cubs have enjoyed finding out about the Winter Olympics and Paralympics this term, including learning about some of the inspirational Paralympians, and following on from this our new Assistant Beaver Leader Andy ran a session with the Beavers where they decided upon a cause that they would like to find out more about and support as part of the Scout Association’s Million Hands Project. They selected Guide Dogs for the Blind, and are looking forward to a visit from a representative next term. 

The Cubs very much enjoyed their visit to the gritters, finding out about the work that they do, climbing the mountains of grit, and apparently finding a room full of biscuits - who wouldn’t want to go on a trip like that? Maybe inspired by that, it was one of our Cubs, Thomas who won the junior competition for our Fair Trade Bake Off, with a classic victoria sponge. Thank you very much to everyone who supported our postponed Bake Off on March 17th, we raised more than £100 for our kit and camp fund, as well as helping to promote the use of Fair Trade products.

The Scouts have been developing their creative skills, and learned to make felt, offset by some more traditional skills for knife-work! They have selected the Geocaching badge as one they would like to cover next term, so we will be getting the GPS units out. To finish this term, we had not one, but two sessions in a week. After a relaxed Tuesday evening meeting, when Beavers and Cubs enjoyed some games, and the Lego box, 53 of our young people spent the Thursday evening at Sky High Adventure in Droylsden. Divided into three groups, they enjoyed indoor caving, their high ropes course, and the great, auto-belay climbing walls. For some of them it was their first opportunity to try these adventurous activities, in a slightly safer-feeling environment than our more usual Scout camp or climbing wall. Some of our Scouts are hoping to develop this further, and complete their Climber badge next term, when Freya is back to instruct.
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March 2018

1/3/2018

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Our most notable event this month for the Scouts has been Freezer Camp at the Hesley Wood Scout Activity Centre near Sheffield,  from which we have just returned. It lived up to its name this year, with colder temperatures than we have had for a while. Nevertheless Oldham District took its largest group so far, comprising Scouts and Explorers from eight different groups. We took 11 of our Scouts including six for whom this was their first Scout camp and all of them were great. They coped admirably with the conditions and enjoyed an active weekend of abseiling, archery, axe-throwing, campfire, cavebus, laser tag, orienteering, quad bikes, segways, shooting, zip line, and Barry’s legendary chip butties (well, if they’re not legendary, they ought to be)!

It takes a lot of teamwork to make an event like this happen, and it’s good to be a part of a team of fellow Scouters who work together to give our young people these experiences - we learned how to put up a different type of marquee too. After last year’s leaky tents, we were using some of the new Vango Beta 350s that we took to Southport and Ashworth Valley last summer. They are a good replacement, smaller than our previous tents, which makes them easier for the Scouts to manage, and warmer in cold conditions, although we were happy not to have rain testing them this time.  Teamwork is also one of the Challenge Awards that Scouts work towards, and two of them completed the last of the activities they will need to earn this award, whilst at camp. All of the Scouts had the opportunity to cover parts of two other Challenge Awards: Adventure and Outdoors. 

Cubs have been focusing on their teamwork too, and congratulations are due to Thomas, who earned our newly reinstated Cub of the Month award. Although six Beavers moved up to Cubs at the beginning of the year, new Beavers have joined us, and we are once more up to our capacity of 24. All six new Beavers were eager to sign up for their first ever Night Away, before they had even taken their promise, and we will be taking 18 of them to Hesley Wood in May, when we’re hoping it will be just as dry but rather warmer. 

The weather is still on our minds as I write, as the Cubs are hoping to go and visit the Gritters at their base on Tuesday evening, ironically this will depend upon whether or not it snows, as if it does the Gritters may be out, and the parents may not be enthusiastic about getting there! 

Weather shouldn’t be such an issue for our next event though - we are running the Fairtrade Bake Off at Uppermill Methodist Centre on Saturday, March 10th. We hope to see you there!
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February

1/2/2018

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We have had a typically busy start to the year, six new Beavers have joined us, to replace those moving up to Cubs, and we have had a new Scout join, in addition to the Cubs moving up. This means that we now have nearly 70 young people who are members of 20th Oldham. Well done to all of those who made it to the Parade Service on the 14th - I know weekends are a busy time, and lots of people have sporting commitments. One Beaver even came along after taking part in the Junior Parkrun - there’s dedication!

There was more exercise for all sections last Sunday lunchtime, when 22 of our young people, joined others from across the Oldham Borough District at Royton Baths for the H2O fun, which included games, races and just general splashing about!

We are beginning to think about camps, and other “Scouty” activities, with 11 of our Scouts signed up for Freezer Camp next month, and a lot of our Beavers hoping to join the District Sleepover in May. This week we will also be asking the young people and their families about the water activities they want to take part in over at Green Withens - a great resource, almost on our doorstep.

Closer to home, the Scouts will once again be hosting the Uppermill Fairtrade Bake Off at Uppermill Methodist Church on March 10th. All bakers are invited to take part - all you have to do to enter is to pick up an entry form from UMC or download one from the website and return it to Erica, then bake something that includes at least one Fairtrade ingredient (clue’s in the name!) and bring it along before 9.30 on the day. 

Judging will be done by all those who attend the coffee morning on the day, and there will be prizes for the winners of all 3 categories - Open, Under 16 and highest proportion of Fairtrade ingredients. If you’re not a baker (or even if you are) then you can still participate by coming along on the day to taste and award your points.
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November 2017

1/11/2017

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We  have had a busy half term across all our sections. With 27 Beavers currently on our register, there is never a dull moment, and they have been focusing on their Health and Fitness and Cook Activity badges. We’ve made carrot biscuits and practised our knife skills making fruit kebabs, as well as playing games and finding out about healthy eating. 

Cubs and Scouts have been baking too - and met the challenge of making scones, butter and jam all in one night - I can’t tell you if they tasted good, they all vanished too fast! The Cubs have also been working towards their Home Safety Badge, whilst the Scouts have been making the most of the fencing coaching course that Freya attended last year, and have nearly completed their Master At Arms, with just one more session to go after half term. 

We finished the half term with two sessions at the Extreme Air trampoline park in Oldham. With 30 young people in each session plus leaders, everyone had a great time, although I have to admit I breathed a sign of relief when everybody went home unscathed.

The leaders from Oldham Borough Scout groups have met up to plan District events for the coming year, and the What’s On page of our website is now looking considerably busier. If you would like to know what we are up to, why don’t go you and take a look? You can find out more about us at www.20tholdham.co.uk and we also have a 20th Oldham Scouts Facebook page, and can be found on Twitter @20tholdham - it’s a wonder we have time to get anything done!
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September

1/9/2017

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Our Beavers, Cubs and Scouts only meet during term time, so we don’t usually have anything to report for August, but this year was a little different.

Freya spent 2 weeks at the World Scout Moot, meeting up with a wide range of Scouts and seeing the wonders of Iceland. Thank you very much to everyone at Uppermill Methodist Church who has supported her. She will be telling Monday at 8 about her adventures on September 25th.

Thomas, Freya and I also spent a weekend in August at the Leaders Gathering at Waddecar Scout Camp. There were professional tutors in bushcraft and coaching young people, with opportunities to learn new games and activities and to develop our skills. There was also rain and plenty of opportunities to make new friends (we were the only ones there from Oldham). It was just like going to our very own Scout Camp really, apart from the bar!

We’re now deep into planning for next term, and one of the first dates for your diaries is the Harvest Service on September 25th, which will be a Parade Service in which the young people will be playing a large part. This will be followed by an AGM at 12 o’clock upstairs in the big hall. We will be sharing our plans, as well as a report of the year and the necessary business and elections. So you can look forward to a bumper edition of our news next month.
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June

21/7/2017

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Beavers have been the most adventurous section this half term, with a very successful District Sleepover at Bramhope Scout Camp, near Leeds. We took 14 Beavers, very ably assisted by 3 parents and our Young Leader Ella, to join a total of 90 Beavers from across Oldham Borough (and we were the second shift, they’d had nearly as many there on the Friday night too)! Although we were sleeping inside, the emphasis was very much upon camping skills, and the Beavers learned how to put up a tent and light a fire, among many other activities. Thanks to the planning and hard work of the new Assistant District Commissioner for Beavers, Kingsley Wood, the Beavers didn’t just have a great time, they also completed all the activities they needed for their Campcraft Badge and Outdoors Challenge. It’s always lovely to hear that Beavers have enjoyed themselves, but there was a particularly nice message afterwards from one parent who said that her son said he had been nervous about lighting the fire, but he had a go and now he knows he can do stuff he is nervous about. I think for all of us, that’s the essence of what Scouting is all about. Thank you very much to Julie, Andy and Martin for joining us in this particular adventure.

Cubs also rose to the challenge this month, with 18 of them enjoying a day at the West Yorkshire Scouts Water Activities Centre at Green Withens. They spent time sailing, bell-boating and building rafts, as well as earning their Nautical Skills 2 badge. Lee and Jude were the leaders who took charge of the Cubs on the day, and the assistance of some of our parents was also very welcome.

It’s been a very special month for our Cub Leader Freya, too. Her volunteering as a Young Leader at 20th Oldham, from the age of 14 to 18, formed a part of her Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award, and on Wednesday 24th she attended a reception in the gardens of Buckingham Palace to receive her certificate. It was an amazing day, with a lot of celebrities in attendance and Freya was particularly fortunate that her group was one of those that met HRH the Duke of Edinburgh, in what was his last presentation for an English group, before he retires. It was a lovely day, and very exciting to be able to be there with her, at the end of what has been quite a journey.

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May

2/5/2017

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The fact that most of April fell within the Easter holidays meant that we don’t have a great deal of 20th Oldham action to report, so I thought I would do something different and tell you a little bit about how I ended up being involved in Scouting. I am very much an accidental Scout Leader, to the huge surprise of myself and almost everyone who knows me - my mother would have been amazed as she was always disappointed that I wouldn’t be a Brownie. Even more surprisingly, I’ve found that I really do enjoy it! So how did it happen?


My son, Thomas, was one of the original members of the 20th Oldham Uppermill Methodist Cub Pack that Derek Stacey formed at Uppermill Methodist Church. He joined when he was eight, and then proceeded through the new Scout group and the District Explorer Unit, whilst also a Young Leader at 20th Oldham. His sister followed him when she was old enough, and Scouting has been a big part of both their lives ever since. As they had got so much out of Scouts, when I saw in the Church newsletter, just over five years ago, that they needed help with the newly re-formed Beaver Colony I thought: “well I can do that!” It turned out that I was offering to help slightly more than I realised - I started going along in September 2011 and by that Christmas, I was the Beaver leader.


In January 2015 we had some major changes: Derek very reasonably decided that ten years with the group was enough, and Andy felt that his increasing responsibilities at work didn’t allow him to continue as Scout Leader. This left us with a dilemma, deciding how we would keep all 3 sections going, without enough adults. I felt very strongly (and I still do) that it is wrong to have a Beavers without a Cubs or a Cubs without a Scouts, since we are meant to be a progressive organisation, developing young people’s skills, so that’s how I more or less accidentally became a Scout Leader and Tom, then 19 took over Cubs. 


Having not previously been a camper I have put up and taken down a remarkable number of tents in the last couple of years, and this year’s exciting birthday present was a new sleeping bag! Other women’s midlife crises seem to revolve around spas and prosecco, mine is more camps and hot vimto, and it really has grown on me. I have learned new skills, made new friends and discovered that I can do more than I thought. As my personal challenge for the Diamond Duke of Edinburgh award last year I chose to complete my Nights Away Permit and take the Scouts away using it. We had a great trip but here’s the thing - I look back on it now, and it’s remarkable that I thought it was a big challenge. We are what we do, and now it’s just become something that I do. This year’s Freezer Camp at Hesley Wood in February was chilly, muddy and having to evacuate the girls from a leaking tent in the middle of the night didn’t make it restful, but seeing the Scouts’ enthusiasm and enjoyment made it all worth it. 


Scouting is now very much a family concern. I have become the Acting Group Scout Leader, taking responsibility for the group as a whole, Tom comes back to help when he isn’t at university (where he is also a Cub leader) and Freya has followed in her brother’s footsteps to run the Cubs. Freya has also emulated her brother in becoming a Queen’s Scout, and we were delighted to spend St George’s Day in Windsor, seeing her participate in the annual parade at the castle, in front of HRH the Duke of Kent and Chief Scout Bear Grylls. There have been only 3 Queens’s Scouts in Oldham District in the last 15 years or so, so we are very proud that Tom and Freya were two of them. Freya has also been selected to be a part of the UK Contingent at the World Scout Moot in Iceland this summer - the next great adventure!


Unexpectedly, one of the things I enjoy most about being involved with Scouts is going to camp. It’s not so much the mud and vimto, it’s being a part of a team, all working together. There is no doubt that the Scout Association has a lot to offer young people today, and that this is being recognised - the demand for places is high and there are not enough groups to accommodate them. We are building a great team to cover all 3 sections (I’ve been focusing on the family, but Lee, Matt, Jude, Julie and Tessa are great leaders, assistant leaders and section assistants and we also benefit from the help of Jean and Eileen from UMC) but for us to be able to continue to offer a quality, adventurous programme we need more adults to join us, whether your contribution is regular or occasional, child-based or administrative, we would love to have you join our adventure. You can find more on our website www.20tholdham.co.uk.
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April

29/3/2017

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Cubs have come to the fore in March, with their much-anticipated overnight visit to Eureka! the Children’s Museum in Halifax. We set off with 18 Cubs straight after school on Friday, full of excitement. It was a busy evening, which saw the lights finally go out at midnight - to be fair we’d only finished the last of our activities at quarter past eleven, and then set out our roll mats and sleeping bags in our allocated area of the galleries. Apparently we were in the area called the Inspiration Zone.
We were one of six groups there for the sleepover, all of them Cubs and Brownies, and we had a busy evening, taking in a visit to their All About Me gallery, and time to play in the Town Square, including the all-important visit to the shop! We also saw two shows - From the Chew to the Poo, which was just the right sort of disgusting to fascinate the Cubs, and Professor Pumpernickel’s show, where Freya took a (small) starring role, holding the tube for the flame-thrower. It was a full-on evening, proved by the fact that for the first time ever on a sleepover we all actually slept - people had to be woken up when the lights went on at seven! We needed 4 adults for this one, so Eleanor (older sister of one of our Scouts) and Danny (older brother of one of the Cubs), came along to help out, since they both had the necessary Scouting DBS - the new(ish) name for the old CRB.
In addition to this support from others outside our regular group of helpers, we were also happy to welcome two members of the Saddleworth Photography Group along to two of our Scouts’ evenings, where they and Jude helped our Scouts learn the skills necessary to achieve their Photographer Badge. Our second evening involved a dark, muddy walk to the Butterhouse tunnel in Diggle where they learned about take long exposure pictures in the dark, and we played about with lights and sparklers to get different effects. We are looking forward to going through the pictures next term, and selecting some for an exhibition, so we can show them to you too.
Our last meeting of term saw a badge presentation for the Cubs and Scouts, and a very special presentation by our District Commissioner who came to give Freya her Queen’s Scout Award. We were delighted that Barry and Anne from the Oldham Explorer Unit, and a couple of Explorers who weren’t busy being Young Leaders elsewhere, came along to the presentation too. The other focus of this meeting was to try to put together a plan for how we cover the weeks in June when Freya has her A levels, and won’t be there. It was a very promising meeting, and we’ll be putting the programme plan together for all the sections over the next couple of weeks. It’s not too late, if you think you might like to be involved, and we’ll be holding a planning meeting on April 18th, before our sections all return on the 25th, ready for a busy summer.
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