20th Southgate Scout Group
An up and down start to the summer term!
It's summer term time again, always the busiest time for the Cub Pack with lots of outdoors activities planned so hopefully the weather will oblige. Summer term is also of course the time for Pack Camp and before then there will be a taster for our newer Cubs with another Sleepover at the Hut. The older Cubs aren't being forgotten and they have got a day of water activities to look forward to. The summer term will also be featuring some new activities including a visit to the EcoPark and a District Cross-Country competition, so here we go again! This year is also the 110th anniversary of the formation of Cub Scouting and so our first meeting back celebrated this with some party games from back then and each Cub will receive a special commemorative badge. To celebrate this special anniversary our Cubs also enjoyed having a bouncy castle at the Hut and so it was quite an up and down, and up and down, and up and down first meeting back!
Our busy St. George's weekend!
The second weekend of the summer term was a particularly busy one for our Cub Pack. It began on the Saturday afternoon, 25th April when our full allocation of 18 Cubs took part in our second ever Sleepover in the Hut. Designed in particular to give a taster of a night away before our main Pack Camp in June, this activity began with some games that we can't usually play when everyone is there before we divided into two groups to go on a local area walk and chip shop survey - well done to George's who were the winners! Back at the Hut it was time for some pizza and ice cream before craftwork and then a film show, before bed and a 7/10 sleep rating! The morning featured breakfast and volleyball before time for a couple of hours at home to freshen up! Delighted to report that 23 of our Cubs came to the District St. George's event in Broomfield Park later that afternoon for a few hours of ceremony and games including a popular tug of war competition. A big thank you in particular to our parents who slept over on the Saturday night.
The Our World Challenge Award
I am sure that many parents will know that all Cubs must complete seven Challenge Awards if they want to achieve the Chief Scout's Silver Award. I think that the most challenging (no pun intended) is the Our World Award which the Cubs began working towards in the spring term. Some of their hard work included completing the Disability Awareness Badge, having an international evening (Poland), learning about the importance of teamwork - and what happens when there is a lack of teamwork, and learning about the environment. Moving into the summer term and one meeting had a focus on Community with the Cubs all designing own community maps, the quality of these needs to be seen to be believed, before (with thanks to Abdullah and Aydin) learning about Islam. Hard work rewarded with the completed badges.
Fantastic visits to the EcoPark
On two evenings towards the end of half-term our Cubs enjoyed visits to the EcoPark at Lee Park Way. These 90 minute sessions were packed full of activities and fantastic opportunities for the Cubs, beginning with learning about the recycling journey through the eyes of Ned and Nancy, and the Cubs given some practical challenges on how to decide what items should and shouldn't get recycled. All of us living in the area will have seen the EcoPark's chimney/cigarette on the horizon and next the Cubs were given a privileged behind the scenes tour including the control room for the whole operation. The sessions concluded with a debrief and I have also been given details of a competition which the Cubs can take part in. A huge thank you to our hosts at the EcoPark.
Animal Carer badge
On the Wednesday during summer half-term, 12 of our Cubs went to Pets at Home in Enfield for an Animal Carer Badge workshop. During a fantastic and interactive session, the Cubs learnt about how to look after a range of different pets including handling techniques, basic health checks and types of food which they eat. The handling techniques were then put into practice with the Cubs able to hold some of the guinea pigs from the store. This was the most popular part of the visit and at the end of the session we needed to do two head counts, first to make sure that all the Cubs were there and second, that none of the guinea pigs had been smuggled out! A huge thank you to Pets at Home for the session and it meets the requirements for Part 1 of the Animal Carer Badge which the Cubs who went can complete at home, perhaps during the summer holiday. Thank you also to Annette, Monika and Sheryl who stayed to help during the session.
Anyone for tennis?
Actually 12 of our Cubs were very keen to come along to an introduction to tennis session on Saturday 13th June. With thanks to Anna for arranging it, the Cubs enjoyed an excellent two-hour session at our neighbouring Conway Tennis Club, learning a range of tennis techniques in addition to lots of fun drills and games - at least one of which will be borrowed and adapted for football sessions! All of the Cubs got involved really well in the session and of course and as always, tried their best. Thanks to the excellent coaches at Conway for a fun afternoon. All of the Pack enjoyed a different type of sport a few weeks earlier when at one of our Thursday evenings we had another gymnastics session in the Large Hall. Juliette and Clare brought along loads of different equipment for the Cubs to try and they all took full advantage. It was also so nice to see them all encouraging each other throughout.
Anyone for Camp?
Yes! A record number of 33 of our Cubs slept over at this year's Cub Pack Camp at Gilwell Park, along with two further day visitors. The theme this year was Space and featured in Friday night's wide game where the Cubs had to build the tallest launch pad out of Lego. Other themed activities included making aliens out of Play Doh and air rockets. In addition to the regular favourites of rounders and volleyball, tug of war and mind the gap, the Cubs enjoyed six on-site activities, pedal karts, Aeroball, tomahawk throwing, crate stacking, raft building and of course the ever popular 3G Swing. Way back last September some of the older Cubs had helped plan the Camp including the excellent idea of mixing the younger and older Cubs into teams and this worked perfectly. Equally excellent were the games which four of our Cubs delivered during the Camp as part of their Team Leader Award. A fantastic weekend and the biggest thank you to everyone who helped make it so successful and fun.
Why our Cubs are always told to try their best
The summer term is always the time when we do the most outdoors activities and 2026 has been no exception. Save for the one Thursday when there was a "Red" heat warning and activities needed to be cancelled for safety reasons, our weekly meetings have included a new wide game around Broomfield Park and shelter building at Scout Park, with a note next time to fill up the buckets higher for the "water tests"! Outside of weekly meetings, many of our Cubs took part in a busy range of activities for the Cyclist Badge and an end of term football session where Seb won the 'World Cup'. All our Cubs are always told to try their best, it's impossible for anybody to always be able to do their best, and whatever the outcome of a competition or event, reflect on it afterwards and then move on. So it proved to be with the first ever District Cross-Country competition at Trent Park where this organiser tried his best, not helped by his co-organiser dropping out at the very last minute, but the event had to be voided because some Cubs took a wrong turn and ran further than others. Well done to our 10 Cubs who took part and some improvements will be made for when it's re-rum (no pun intended!)
The final weekend of the Cub Year
The final weekend of the Cub year - 11th and 12th July - was a typically busy one. The Saturday saw us visit Foot Golf in Barnet for a 9 hole challenge (too hot for 18 holes). Everyone did really well and at the end of the session one of our medal winners was Charlie who was here for the first time. That is what Cub football is about, providing opportunities for everyone to come and try football without needing to undergo trials or pay lots of money etc. Very well done to Charlie and our other medal winners: Joseph, Leo and Seb. Sunday saw us visiting another of our favourite locations, ESSA near Broxbourne for a full day of water activities. A busy morning saw the Cubs enjoy katakanuing (a Cub powered catamaran) and then canoeing. The wind kept us all cool on another scorching July day and although it unfortunately meant that the Cubs couldn't do the scheduled activity of paddleboarding. they instead enjoyed lots of jumping into the lake and swimming. As always the Cubs were fantastic and thank you to all our parent helpers who came to ESSA.