20th Southgate Scout Group
The Cubs
cub activities THIS WEEK:
Thursday 15th May - Special guest meeting: fun fitness and athletics with the World Champion athlete Claire Spurway, 7:00pm until 8:30pm at Firs Farm Playing Fields (next to the Wetlands).
Saturday 17th May - Football session for all Cubs, 2:00pm until 3:30pm again at Firs Farm Playing Fields. All Cubs must wear shin pads and bring their own water. Please vote in our WhatsApp group poll if your Cub will be coming and/or if you can stay - at least 2 adults are needed for this.
Introduction
The core age range for Cub Scouting is between the ages of 8 and 10½ years old and we have got a very active Cub Pack here at the 20th Southgate currently with 28 members.
Members of our Beaver Colony are guaranteed a place in the Cub Pack with priority next given to the brothers and sisters of existing members. There are a couple of places available for new members if you would like to arrange a trial visit. The Cubs are divided into groups called Sixes with a Sixer (usually one of the older Cubs) and a Seconder in charge. The Sixers and Seconders help set a good example for the Pack and also get involved in planning some activities.
What do Cub Scouts do?
All Cub Packs follow a similar programme of activities – a mixture of games and badge work at their weekly meetings. We all work towards seven Challenge Badges and our balanced programmes reflect the requirements for these. The aim for every Cub Scout should be to get the Chief Scout’s Silver Award.
For example, to complete the Our Outdoors Challenge Badge Cubs will need to cook a meal outdoors, build a shelter, take part in a wide game and a camp fire sing-along, and know how to pitch a tent... and these are just some of the requirements!
There are also a number of Activity Badges which the Cubs can complete – some as a group and others by themselves by completing the worksheets on this website – including the Chef Badge, Home Help Badge, Musician Badge, My Faith Badge and Sports Enthusiast Badge.
All Cub Packs are encouraged to incorporate lots of outdoor activities into their programmes and some of the examples at the 20th Southgate include night hikes, a local history quiz, wide games in Trent Park and open fire cooking at Scout Park.
Our Cubs help out in the local community. Our Sixers and Seconders have raised many hundreds of pounds for a number of charities including Mary's Meals, Memory Lane Cafe and Carers' Club, Royal National Lifeboat Institution and the Blue Cross. We have also helped the Friends of Conway Park to pick up litter and tidy around the pond area there.
We take part in all of the District activities available including chess and ten-pin bowling competitions, annual sports day, swimming gala and 5-a-side football competition, a quiz, and “Cub Trek” which is a five mile orienteering challenge around the local countryside.
Camping
For most Cubs the highlight is camping and we usually go to Gilwell Park near Chingford, which is the national headquarters of Scouting.
The Camps always have a busy programme of activities during which the Cubs can enjoy a mixture of wide games, traditional events including a campfire and craft work, and adventurous activities such as climbing and abseiling, archery, zip wire and the “3G Swing”!
Each Camp runs from Friday evening until Sunday afternoon and all the Cubs sleep in tents at them. The Camps also help count towards a number of badges including the Nights Away staged badges.
The "Red Book!"
You can see from the above sections that Cub Scouting provides a huge range of opportunities to children - no other organisation brings together badge work, camping, orienteering, football, water activities, athletics, chess, etc. When our Cubs come to leave they are presented with a "Red Book" featuring photos from their time in the Pack and hopefully they will make their most of their time here and the activities available to them.
