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Autumn 2024


Welcome to our news page. The place to find out what we have been up to.  

Opening Ceremony of our new HQ

The opening ceremony for the new building will take place on:

Saturday 30th November 2024 between 11.00am and 4.00pm

The actual ceremony will be at 2.00pm

All friends of the Group are welcome to attend this open day. There will be activities you can join in and food to eat. Please come along and join in. You will also have a chance to look round the new building and to see what a wonderful opportunity it represents for the young people of the area.

More details will follow soon so watch this space.


Building Work Update 15th November

It is Handover Day

The building is finished, the builder has left the site and it is now ours. Here are some photographs of the building as it was handed over to us.

The building looks really crisp and clean and it is a credit to the fantastic workmanship of Phil Drake and the PD Drake building team. They have done a really wonderful, quality job and we are so happy with the result. What's more, they have been an absolute pleasure to work with and have dealt with all the problems along the way with a really positive, "can do" attitude.If you are looking for a quality builder, well here is the link you need.

Thank you also to Roger Connolly our Architect and Project Manager, to Matt Woollard our Quantity Surveyor, to Emma Macklin who provided the funds and to everyone who has helped to make this possible.

So, take a look at the pictures on handover day. You will probably never see it so clean or so empty again:

accessible toilet
The accessible toilet and shower is complete. It is the floor in the toilets that has been delaying the opening of the building.

ladies
New cubicles in the female toilet

sinks
A nice clean row of new sinks

gents
The male toilet is completed also

kitchen
A brand new kitchen. That notice board on the drainer is going outside by the door.

kitchen hatch
A view of the kitchen through the hatch

hall
The floor in the main hall has had a final coat of paint and the climbing wall has been inspected.

hall
Looking back towards the kitchen

upstairs
The upstairs meeting room has some new chairs (well - new to us anyway)

cupboards
New storage cupboards for meeting equipment.

notice
As you can see, the building was funded by the UK Government.

rainbow pegs
The coat pegs have a rainbow backing to protect the wall.

We now have a separate news page for Building Work updates where you can follow progress from start to finish. Just Click Here to take a look.

You can see our Press Release about the grant we have been given. Click Here to take a look.

More Things Cubs Do

We do something different every week.

fingerprinting
Fingerprinting. Will they find who dunnit.
 Tomahawk throwing
Tomahawk throwing.


Cubs in Summer Action at Barton Turf


cooking
Cooking snacks on a fire

eating
Time to eat what you cooked
 carrying boat

This is how boats get to the water

on the water
Out on the water at Barton Turf

muddy Barton
After all that rain, it sure is muddy at the slipway


Group Camp 2024

This year we were back at the Mike Thurston Centre for our Group Camp. The weather was a bit wet at times, but we are Scouts and we are tough.

getting equipment out
Time to set up the camp

pitching tents
Kitchen areas are set up and dining shelters pitched.

kitchens
Kitchens are ready

hot chocolate
Time for hot chocolate by the camp fire.

hot choc nice
This hot chocolate is nice.

sausages
Above - Sausages for breakfast

Right - This pallet busting tool is great fun to use.
 pallet busting

cooking
Preparing breakfast

nice food
The breakfasts were good.

kayaks
Time to get out on the water

kayak
Its a big boat but I can handle it.

kayak
Out on the lake

confident
Kayaks can be wobbly but when you are confident it is easy.

blue kayak
Out on the lake in blue

nifty knotter
Doing the Nifty Knotter challenge.

archery
On the archery range

friends
It didn't rain all the time and camp is a nice place to be.
 friends

pallets
You can't beat a good supply of pallets at a camp.

chopping pallets
Cutting up pallets was an endless source of entertainment.

Chefs
The 3rd Bromley team get the fires going for cooking the evening meal

kebabs
Kebabs are prepared
 nigel

Nigel leads the camp fire singing.
"Father Abraham had seven sons"

Nigel singing
What's that I hear up in the attic?

camp fire
Toasting marshmallows round the camp fire

friends
It was fun but somehow didn't taste good.

entertainers
Camp fire entertainers with 100 verses aboard a pirate ship

Nathan
A quiet moment to see if the fish are biting.

break gun
On the rifle range you first have to break the gun

loading
Then it is time to load.

fire
Take aim and shoot.

Thank you to everyone who helped to make the camp possible.

Things Cubs Do

Here is a look at some of the things that the Cubs have been doing at Pack meetings this year. In the Scouts we do something exciting and different every week. These are just some examples:

on the floor
Making things with balloons

bag packing
Raising funds by packing bags at Roys Supermarket in Hoveton. Fund raising helps us to keeps the costs of Scouting down.

friends
 more friends
You can make things with food and you can eat it too

sky at night
Learning about the stars on a dark night

first aid
On First Aid night, learning how to do resuscitation could save a life tomorrow.

what is wrong?
Above- What is wrong with this patient?
Right - How to stop bleeding from the head.
 bandage

recovery position
Putting the casualty into the recovery position

defibrillator training
Learning how to use a defibrillator can save someone's life. Hands off if it says it is going to shock.

on floor
Making bird boxes

bird boxes
The boxes look good

Happisburgh lighthouse
The top of Happisburgh Lighthouse is a great place to meet.

the view
The view is not bad either

boating
Time to go boating with Horning Sailing Club

leaning out
To balance a sailing boat you have to lean out. Well, maybe not that much.

Oppies
Out in Optimists

by the Swan
Passing the Southern Comfort

safety boat
If you fall in you get rescued.

table
Amazing what you find in ponds. Just so much life.

on farm
Holding chicks down on the farm.

tractor tyre
One way to ride a tractor


Scout Events in January 2024

The Scouts are working on the Mechanic Badge. They went on a visit to City College to learn about vehicle maintenance as well as building bird boxes and doing a Lego challenge:

Group of mechanics 
Scouts with badge certificates

under car
 Tyres

Under car lift
It is much easier to work underneath in this way

Lego challenge


Bird Box Time

We learn lots of new skills in Scouting and a bit of woodwork is a really useful thing to be able to do. As always, we learn using the Scouting Method of learning by joining in.

Here you see the Scouts in action honing their woodworking skills on bird boxes. The birds will be grateful. I am sure you will agree there is a fine selection of different boxes on the table,
 bird box
on floor
 bird boxes galore

Christingle Service

Christingle services bring the magic of Christmas. Here we are in Wroxham Church with Rev Liz.

making

lighting

andy lighting

small christingle
 candle light

in pew

group in candlelight

in asile

Liz


The 25th World Scout Jamboree in Korea

A Jamboree is a large Scout camp with participating Scouts drawn from all over the World.
World Scout Jamborees are the biggest ones and take place every 4 years.
In 2023, the 25th WSJ was held in Korea, and two of our Leaders, Cath and Nigel, were at the camp as part of the International Service Team (IST). This is a team of up to 10,000 adults who make the camp happen for the 45,000 participants.
The tiger is called Chingu by the way and was the logo of the UK participants at the Jamboree.
 Chingu
Many of you will have seen news reports about problems at the Jamboree. There were problems with infrastructure not working and some serious weather problems including monsoon rain causing flooding, a heatwave with temperatures in the high 30s with 90% humidity and then, finally, Typhoon Khanun put the emergency evacuation plan into operation.

Despite the problems, Cath and Nigel had a fun and interesting time at the Jamboree. Cath was involved with running coach visits to an offsite archaeological site and Won Buddhist temple. Nigel was running a dance activity and helping with the Ham Radio station. After the site was evacuated, they moved to the capital Seoul and were involved with running Jamboree activity bases around the city.

Here are a few photographs:

tea
Nigel finally finds a cup of tea at the UK food house

dancing
Scouts from round the world show us their dance moves

Ham Radio
The Ham Radio team with their aerials

surreal in Seoul
Cath (middle) being surreal in Seoul

The 26th WSJ will be in Poland in 2027. Be ready.


The Beavers make Lanterns

Its always more fun in the dark, but a lantern is always useful when you are outside. Even better when you make your own.

Beaver and Lantern
 Beaver and Lantern
 Beaver and Lantern
 Beaver and Lantern

Outside with Lanterns
Spooky Beavers at Halloween

Halloween is a chance to dress up and do all sorts of daft things. Here are the Beavers doing just that:
Mummy!

line of spooky Beavers

Mummy again
Twists
A Twist is a long strip of home made bread which you cook over a camp fire by twisting it round a stick. They really do taste nice.

Of course, half the fun is getting your hands in the mixture. They taste particularly good with a lot of chocolate spread on them.

It can get a bit messy, Here are a few pictures. See for yourself.

get your hands in

cooking twists

chocolate spread
Beavers and chocolate spread are a messy mix.

cubs mixing

Cubs like to make twists too.

As you can see, they taste good.
 Cubs cooking

Cubs eating



 news in brief

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Group AGM
Thank you everyone who came to our AGM in September. Your support is much appreciated.

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Press Release
A press release giving details of the grant which is paying for the HQ rebuilding project is now available. Click Here.

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Builder and Architect
The builder of the HQ Project is P D Drake Ltd.
The Architect is Roger Connolly.
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Awards for Leaders
We are pleased to announce that our Lead Volunteer, Terry, has been awarded a Commissioner's Commendation for life saving first aid.

award

Also, there are long service awards for other Leaders as follows:
Sam 5 years
Jody 10 years
Steven 15 years
Dean 15 years
Carol H 25 years
Mina 30 years

That's a total of 100 years and still going.

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 New Web Host
Our website has now moved to a new host. You will notice that you no longer get "insecure" messages on your web browser when you visit.

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New name for Group Executive
We are now called the Board of Trustees, but it is still us. The new name reflects our responsibilities as charity trustees.

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Group Camp 2024
The weather could have been kinder, but we had a good time. Lots of photographs here:

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values badge
Norfolk Scouts have a new badge which you can get for upholding the five Scouting Values.
Below, we see Nigel receiving the badge from the DC. He got it for writing Risk Assessments.
Nobody wants to do paperwork, but they had to be done.
You can find all our written risk assessments by clicking on the Useful Information button above.

Nigel gets badge

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At last! - New Heating

Yes, good news, our new heating system has been installed at HQ. It is an air source heat pump so it is also better for the environment.

Update - The heater has gone into storage while the building works are continuing at HQ. It will be replaced when the works are completed.

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Awards for Leaders

Congratulations to Mina, Akela at Wednesday Cubs, on the award of the Silver Acorn.

Congratulations also go to Cath, Beaver Leader at the Eagle Colony, on the award of the Chief Scout's Commendation for Good Service.

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We have new suppliers for our recycling banks. Please help us by bringing along glass, cans, paper and textiles for recycling.

Please note that the can bank now takes tins and foil trays as well as drinks cans.

Update - Recycling is currently suspended during the building works.

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If you have any comments or anything you want to add to the website, please contact our webmaster, Nigel.

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To see a calendar of Group events just click on this link. For Scouting activities and events, see your section leader.

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We are looking for volunteers to attend training courses to become boat instructors.  Let us know if you are interested.

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We have our own group on Facebook. Everyone is welcome to join. The group ID is 73679667848. It's a good place to contact members old and new and to find out what is going on.
Remember you must be at least 13 years old to have a Facebook account.

facebook

We also have a Car Show Facebook Page. Click here to go to it.

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You have probably noticed we are now working with easyfundraising. Now you can help the Group every time you shop on line or search the internet.
Just click the fund raising button at the top of this page.
It's easy to do and it costs you absolutely nothing.

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Thank you everyone who helped at the last Jumble Sale. Over £400 was raised for Group Funds.

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While we were on Brownsea Island, some of the Scouts were introduced to Geocaching. We found a couple of geocaches on the island but there are many thousands more out there waiting to be discovered.
For details go to www.geocaching.com

Our travel bug which has a group badge attached has recently completed a second journey from New Zealand to Norfolk traveling from cache to cache. This time it crossed North America from California to New York before returning to England. It will go out on a new mission soon.

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The Group has increased its fleet of Toppers meaning we can now get more sailors out on the water.

capsize
They are not always on their side like this, but everyone has to learn to capsize and recover a sailing boat

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Because so many young people are wanting to join us, there can be a lot of pressure on places in the Group. If you know of any young people who want to join, please make sure they are put on the waiting list as soon as possible. Having the waiting list helps us to plan for the future, so please don't wait until the young person is 6 years old, get their name down as soon as you can.
We try to find places for everyone and planning ahead really helps.

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Our subscriptions are now £27.50 per term. We are one of the cheapest Scout Groups in the country. We use fund raising to keep the cost down and we make every effort to make Scouting as affordable as possible

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Thank you to everyone who has taken part in our various fund raising events. Jumble Sales, Street Collections, Bag Packing, Book Sales, The Car Show and many other events help to raise the profile of Scouting in the area as well as keeping the cost of Scouting down so that it is affordable for everyone.
The latest bag pack event at Roys Supermarket raised over £850 for Group Funds. We are planning to buy climbing equipment for our new climbing wall.

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Thank you to everyone who helped out on the work day.
There is still work to be done. Please try to come along and help at work days. Every little helps.

wonky shed
Here you see the team in action sorting out our very wonky shed.

divider

If there are any adults out there who would like to help us by serving on the Group Board of Trustees, you would be most welcome. Just go back to our home page and send us an e-mail.

divider

We are looking for someone to help the Group with publicity work. If you can help, please send us an e-mail.

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email