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Welcome to Edition 47 of Tails of the New Forest. With plenty coming up, lots of oportunities and updates for you and a round up of what you’ve shared with us, check it out below. Fingers crossed our email doesn’t run into difficulties like last time…
What’s coming up?
We’ve got plenty coming up, including a district Squirrels Sleepover very soon and an impromptu trip from the Beavers to see Hoppers at the cinema.
Volunteers are invited to the next All Leader’s Meeting at Copythorne Scout HQ on Tuesday 17th March at 8.15pm, where there’s an opportunity to plan for district events to support you and your section.
Cubs Quiz
Cubs and volunteers are welcome (in fact leader participation is encouraged!) to a Cubs quiz on Tuesday 10th March at Copythorne Scout HQ between 6.15 and 8.15pm.
Maximum of 6 in a team, soft drinks served by young leaders in the breaks. Let Emma Davies know if you can or cannot attend.
St. George’s Day
St. George’s Day celebration returns! After a number of false starts, it will be the first as New Forest district (last time Lyndhurst hosted us was in 2019 as New Forest North district). Details have been sent out to groups, but it is included on our website too. Hope to see loads of you there!
Learning events
Every day is a learning day, and 2026 promises lots to prepare you for your role. All courses mentioned here can be booked via the County website at 2026 Adult Learning courses.
Firstly, we have 2 opportunities for those looking to earn the prestigious wood badge, with two residential weekends covering all you need to know. Taking place at Ferny Crofts, join them on March 7th & 8th or October 3rd & 4th.
Already got a wood badge? Can’t quite make it away for a weekend? The team area also two skills weekends again, back by very popular demand, once again at Ferny Crofts within the forest. On the weekends of March 28th & 29th and October 24th & 25th, you can join them as residential stays away, or drop in and just do a few sessions. Details of what is on offer in March can be found on the County website along with sign ups, but as a teaser they are offering pioneering, knots, map & compass, science, cooking and First Aid plus more…..
Plus, for those wishing to obtain a Night’s Away Permit, there will be two Module 38 Skills for Residential Experiences courses on May 9th & 10th and October 3rd & 4th to give you all the skills you need.
Looking further ahead:
- Fawn Trophy for Beavers, 9th May
- Donkey Derby, 16th May (see below to sponsor)
- District Team Meeting, 20th May
- Scouts Expedition Challenge, May TBC
- GLV and Group Chair support days, 9th May, 6th June and 13th June
- Young Leader B-K weekend at Lyndhurst, 19th-20th September
Reminders, opportunities and notices
Sponsor at Donkey Derby
The 4th Eling and 5th Testwood Scout Groups are hosting their Donkey Derby community event in May and there are still opportunities to sponsor donkeys, races, and in their programme or alongside the track. Find out details in the post below:
Can you help?
Many of our groups are looking for volunteers right now to help with a whole host of tasks to support a local charity. You can find details of these and loads more at volunteeringopportunities.scouts.org.uk and there are more coming there and on our social media this coming month.
This month, 4th Eling Sea Scouts launched their campaign to find new leaders for every section, and behind the scenes support too. Check it out below:
Plus, their neighbours at 5th Testwood are on the lookout for Trustees, including a Chair of the Board of Trustees, and a Treasurer for the Group. Do you know anyone who would be a great fit?
District events
To allow section leaders enough time to plan and organise their attendance at district events, those leading district events should aim to get details to Programme section leads, GLVs and section teams in plenty of time, at least a month out. We are actively working to improve the communication between those leading events, the district team, GLVs, and section teams as it will make it easier for sections to attend events and for events to go ahead as we’ve unfortunately had some events cancelled due to a communications breakdown recently.
If you are in section teams, please help organisers by clearly stating if you plan to attend or not, as far ahead of the deadline as possible, and confirming numbers as you go.
DBS checks delay
For reasons that we are not quite sure about, DBS checks are taking a lot longer than usual at the moment with many being stuck at the Local Police Force. Therefore, if you get a 90 day reminder that your disclosure is going to expire, do act on that promptly with your lead volunteer.
If an application has been stuck for a length of time, you can alert the Scout Support Centre ([email protected]) who can raise it with DBS directly. If a DBS expires while an application is in progress, then the volunteer can still volunteer under supervision, however they cannot attend any Nights Away activity. Guidance on scouts.org.uk.
First Aid learning
Demand for First Aid courses is high at the moment, so do not delay in renewing or completing your First Response learning. Book onto First Response learning events at this link here (also linked at the bottom of Hampshire Scout Update emails).
If you have not completed First Response yet, you have 12 months from the start. If you have achieved it already, then it lasts for 3 years before needing renewing. You can find out when First Aid expires by logging into My Membership and checking the Learning page. First Response is required by all youth-facing roles – double check if you;re not sure on the Roles Table in POR.
What’s been happening?
Scouts Navigating the Forest
In a packed day, Scouts from across the district met at Wilverley for a day of learning navigation skills and, for the hardy, an evening putting them into practice at the Eagle Trophy Night Incident hike. Sandleheath Scouts sums it up:
25 years volunteering award for Ann
Tim Le Bas attended a recent 3rd Ringwood Cubs meeting to present Ann Gillam with her Chief Scout’s 25 years Service Award. Almost a fixture at 3rd Ringwood – Ann’s service actually goes back to ‘a time before records began’!
She started staying on weekly as a ‘section helper’ at her 6 year old son’s 1st Ringwood Beaver meetings in 1991, and continued her service in a ‘Section Assistant’ role when they both moved across to the 3rd Ringwood Cub Pack in 1993 – where she remains to this day.
Always a willing helper, she simultaneously completed 5 years helping hubby Dave with the Scout Troop in the late 90’s, 4 years helping 3rd Ringwood Beavers during a Leader shortage, helped organise dozens of fundraising events for the Group, and has served continuously as an elected member of the Executive Committee/Board of Trustees Since 1998.
Oh, almost forgot – she’s also hall booking secretary, assistant to the treasurer, manager of the Group’s uniform stock and badge ordering, part time hall janitor – and probably loads more. A true Legend in the making – and showing no signs of slowing down yet!
Scouts on Ice
These Scouts may be more used to water than ice, but that didn’t stop them from getting out to Bournemouth and making the most this winter:
Squirrels getting stretchy
Yoga with Squirrels for their Be Active badge, and look at some of those smiles!
Cooking from different cultures
Food and international discovery? Yes please! Sandleheath spending the time to cook some amazing meals, such a skill for life:
Pancakes with a difference
We’ll put our hands up, I suspect many of our Scouts of all ages had some fun making pancakes this month. Kudos to Fordingbridge by thinking outside the box with some pancake art:
Lyndhurst build race cars!
So this half term, Lyndhurst Scouts have been building individual race cars. Each scout was given a pre-sawn rectangle of 3.6mm ply board. They had to mark up the board so they could saw & cut out two rectangles to insert the upcycled cans they had collected.
Week 2 saw them inserting kebab sticks through the cans, before mounting the cans onto the board with one end having a rubber band around it. Then, they mounted the motor onto the board (ensuring the elastic band was tight but not too stretched), before attaching the battery to drive the motor and set them off running.
Who looks after animals?
What’s the day in the life of a vet like? Sandleheath Beavers found out:
They’re glowing!
Why let the dark hold you back from fun, Fordingbridge Beavers more than made up for it with some glow stick fun:
Remember you can stay up to date with what’s going on on our Facebook page (/newforestscouts) or Instagram (@newforestscouts). Plus if you’re a volunteer you can be part of the Facebook group for members too. Do remember to share your stories with us throughout the month so we can share them directly and keep having great Scouting adventures.
Robin and Kevin.
Send your news and items for the next edition of Tails at the end of March before the 25th to [email protected].