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| What’s Coming Up?
| Reminders, opportunities and notices
| What’s been happening?
Welcome to Edition 51 of Tails of the New Forest. In this edition there’s lots of dates for the diary as we begin to plan next term’s adventures, a new Explorers programme, awards for adults, Carnivals galore and plenty of safety tips too. As we head into more summer adventures, make sure you share your adventures with us: [email protected]!
What’s coming up?
District Diary
We’ve made a real effort over the past month to ensure the District Diary is as up-to-date as possible and includes all the important dates to support you as a volunteer, and so your young people can take advantage of the amazing events on offer.
Plus, in addition to all the District or Group run events in bold, we have also added some County or Ferny Crofts events too (in non-bold text) so you can add them to your calendar and to help organisers avoid clashing with other popular events. Any dates you want to add? Email [email protected] and we will add them in. We’re not mind-readers, so do make sure you share. We issue an updated Diary each month with Tails.
Section events coming up in next 3 months:
- District Beavers Picnic, 7th July
- District Scout Summer Camp, 25th July to 1st August
- Hampshire Network Moot at Wilverley, 11th-13th September
- Young Leader B-K weekend at Lyndhurst, 19th-20th September
- Fun Days at Ferny Crofts: Squirrels on 19th September and Beavers on 20th September.
- District Cubs Muntjac Trophy on 20th September at Burley
- Stag’s Head Trophy for Scouts, coming September TBC.
Learning events
You will likely have seen in Hampshire Scouts Update details about the events being put on by the County’s Adult Learning team later this year. There are two weekends in October in particular that you should put in your diary, full details on the Hampshire Scouts website:
3rd to 4th October: If you’re a newer volunteer, or have only been a more casual helper, then the Wood Badge weekend may be ideal. This two-day, one-night residential course at Ferny Crofts covers all the learning needed to prepare you to earn your Wood Badge – the traditional sign of leadership competence within the Scouts (validation still required). Covers skills of leadership, working with adults, growing the section (recruitment), introduction to residential experiences (Nights Away), practical skills, and the international nature of Scouting including events.
3rd to 4th October: Need the skills to earn a Nights Away permit, or want to build the knowledge needed to level up your own camps? That same weekend is the Skills for Residential Experiences course, covering all the information you need to plan a safe, fun and well-organised camp and get you well on your way to earning a Night Away Permit.
24th and/or 25th October: No matter how long you’ve been volunteering, there’s likely a session or two at some point this weekend that would interest you. You can stay for as long or as little as you like on this weekend covering both practical skills like cooking, fire lighting, knots and maps and other useful leadership skills such as dealing with challenging behaviour, getting inclusion right and making the most of digital tools. Taking place on our doorstep at Ferny Crofts.
Archery competition
Hampshire Scouts Archery Club have announced the details for the annual competition for all Scouts in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. It all takes place on Saturday 3rd October at Lyon’s Copse and open to Cubs and older. Rules, poster to promote and registration all on the Hampshire Scouts website.
Reminders, opportunities and notices
Including all the relevant information on Nights Away Notifications
As we are well into the camping season, a reminder please about ensuring all the relevant information is included in Nights Away Notifications. For a NAN to be granted, the programme plans, risk assessments and contingency plans need to be checked – any applications missing this have to be rejected. Please ensure you include your event programme and contingency plan when submitting your NAN form.
Following the recent Safety Alert and Learning Notice about Carbon Monoxide poisoning and dangers, we would also expect to see a line in the risk assessment for any event that uses gas appliances about what control measures have been put in place to reduce or remove the dangers – there is guidance on this.
Sun and Water safety
With more hot weather expected for the final weeks of term in July, it pays to be prepared now. So where can you find help and advice?
- The Scouts‘ have hot weather and summer activity safety guidance on scouts.org.uk including a video from Scout Adventures.
- The NHS has advice on sun safety and the safe application of sunscreen.
- If you want to learn more, consider this free course from the Melanoma Fund on sun and heat protection.
As temperatures rise, more young people are going to be tempted to cool off in outdoor bodies of water like rivers, lakes and the sea. These can be very cold, have hidden dangers, and as we have seen this month in our own patch can have disastrous consequences. You can find useful water safety resources from the RNLI to help you explore the topic with your young people.
Memorial Service
The Hampshire Scouts Memorial Service, to celebrate the life of all those who have served in the movement and ‘gone home’ is coming up in the autumn on Sunday 27th September at Pinsent Campsite, Winchester. Ahead of this event, the team at County office compile the list of members being celebrated since April 2025 and ensure the family is contacted – if you are aware of any members who have gone home, please inform Robin now so he can update County Office.
Using OSM for Incident forms or accident books
Following the updated Purple card earlier this year, we’ve seen some sections and groups take a look at their first aid and safety processes. As a result, we’ve had a question about using OSM for Incident forms instead of using a paper accident book.
Some sections and groups are already using this to great effect, whereas others have yet to, to make the process or recording simple first aid administered (the kind that doesn’t need reporting to HQ as on the purple card) easier especially on-the-go. Plus it helps with GDPR and data retention, as you can set how long it needs to be kept before being deleted – if your Group uses the Scouts’ template Data Retention Policy then that is 7 years after the incident or 7 years after the individual turns 18 if later.
If you have yet to set-up the Accident Forms feature on Online Scout Manager, there is a handy how-to guide found here and on the Help Centre of OSM itself.
Ninja Warrior Overnight Trials
From Ninja Warrior Southampton (023 8127 7870, [email protected])
Are you looking for a unique overnight experience for your Scouts, Cubs, or youth group? We would love to work alongside you as we respect and support the work you put into provided great opportunity for young demographics. Ninja Warrior Southampton is launching an exciting new overnight challenge experience that combines adventure, teamwork, competition, and fun in one unforgettable event. Participants enjoy exclusive access to our Ninja Warrior arena, taking part in organised challenges, team competitions, and free-play sessions before settling in for an overnight stay inside the venue with films food and fun.
What’s Included:
- Exclusive evening access to the Ninja Warrior course
- Organised team challenges and competitions
- Group social time and entertainment
- Evening meal
- Overnight stay inside the arena
- Breakfast the following morning
- Optional morning Ninja session before departure
Typical Schedule:
6:30pm – Arrival & Welcome
7:00pm – Ninja Sessions
8:00pm – Team Challenges & Competitions
9:00pm – Food & Social Time
10:00pm – Movies & Relaxation
11:30pm – Lights Out
7:00am – Breakfast
8:00am – Optional Ninja Session
9:30am – Departure
We are currently taking enquiries for our pilot events and would love to discuss how we can create an unforgettable experience for your group. Please contact us to request availability and pricing. We look forward to welcoming your group to Ninja Warrior Southampton.
What’s been happening?
Explorer Scouts get a new programme for the next generation
I’m sure all of our volunteers have heard already, but last month saw the long-awaited refresh of the Explorers programme be released to the world!
Focusing on ensuring today and tomorrow’s teens have the skills, wellbeing and adventure they need to thrive. Explorers now has a fresh new look, plus new activity badges that are more achievable for young people and challenge awards to structure a balanced programme and develop skills more easily. Explorer Units have a year to try it out and put it into practice, but top awards aren’t changing.
You can find out more about the launch on scouts.org.uk, or for Explorer leaders wanting to know what the changes will mean, there is the Running an Explorer Unit page on scouts.org.uk too covering the badges, changes and transition period.
New Forest are Growth Champions!
A huge thank you to you all, as the district grew in numbers during the past year we’ve been recognised as a growth champion! The following was received from Elizabeth Henderson, Chief Volunteer of England by Robin, but he was eager that you all heard the thanks because this is only due to the hard work of everyone in every corner of the District:
Well done, team! With your support, Scouts was branching out in 2025.
A very big thank you for all you’ve done to grow Scouts. Your leadership, dedication and commitment have made all the difference. Thanks to you and your teams, even more young people are gaining skills for life and finding a place to belong.
It all points to one thing – good news for our young people and the future of our movement.
We hope you’ll be proud to wear this special badge which recognises your success in growing Scouts in 2025. Whether you’ve been leading from the front or just pointing people in the right direction, we know that we have a lot to thank you for.
Please keep up the brilliant work, and again, thank you for all you’ve achieved and for all you do for Scouts.
Elizabeth Henderson
Chief Volunteer of England
#PlaceToBelong
Pioneering at Lyndhurst
A normal Troop night for Lyndhurst Scouts and the activity for the evening was Pioneering – a scouting classic putting useful knot skills together with teamwork and testing it to the ultimate test. Just to change things around a little bit, the leaders decided to complete a new pioneering challenge.
Together, the Scouts created two triangles of similar sizes using lashings, before lashing both triangles together to create a 3 spoke wheel. Once built the tightness of their knots and the strength of the structure was put to the test as the scouts were challenged to stay on the wheel as it was rolled from spoke to spoke around the training ground. As we hope you’ll agree from the pictures, they did a pretty good job and it held together really well! Bravo everyone.
More adult awards well deserved
As the latest batch of adult awards for length of service, good service or wood badges are received, Robin has been hard at work attending events up and down the District trying to award as many as possible! And it’s been fantastic to see so many adults showing off their success and teir achievements publically for us all to see! Below we have instructors with the Scout and Guide band, and several volunteers at 1st Sandleheath receive their well deserved awards. Fantastic acheivement everyone!
Assisting the community
Both groups in the north of Totton were involved in supporting the community during the past month. 5th Testwood played host to a community information day by New Forest District Council, aiming to provide support to local tenants and residents of support on offer and which included refreshments by the Scouts providing a hospitable and warm welcome.
Equally, 4th Eling Sea Scouts didn’t hesitate to open their hall and provide facilities to the team at Hampshire Search and Rescue while they were undertaking a very important deployment at Testwood Lakes to a very grateful band of volunteers.
Copythorne dodges the rain for Carnival weekend
The annual Carnival hosted by Stanley’s Own was damper than usual this weekend for two out of three days, but that didn’t stop plenty of fun and community spirit. There’s plenty of pictures over on the pages so do take a look:
Band take on trio of Carnivals
The Stanley’s Own band took on three carnivals once more – Copythorne in the rain, Totton in the heat, and Netley Marsh in the days after the infamous heatwave! Here’s a sample of them at all three:
Volunteers Week posts spreading the word on recruitment
And finally, you may have noticed that we used Volunteers week to highlight daily the many volunteering opportunities across our District. Over the course of six days (the seventh we shared a message from the Chief Scout), we shared links to all the voluntary roles we knew about behind the scenes, aimed at young people themselves, and working with the Squirrels, Beavers, Cubs and Scouts & Explorer sections. In total, they’ve been seen by nearly three and a half thousand people!
If you have any of those roles vacant, do share the posts again over the summer, or direct people to search for the role that is right for them on the Volunteering tool on scouts.org.uk!
- Behind the Scenes: Facebook post.
- Roles for young people: Facebook post.
- Squirrels volunteers: Facebook post.
- Beavers volunteers: Facebook post.
- Cubs volunteers: Facebook post.
- Scouts and Explorers volunteers: Facebook post.
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.
Send your news and items for the next edition of Tails at the end of July before the end of the 25th to [email protected].