Eccleston Scout Group Annual Report 2024
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Contents
| Report from the Chair | 3 |
|---|---|
| Group Scout Leader Report | 4 |
| Squirrels Report | 6 |
| Beavers Report | 7 |
| Cubs Report | 8 |
| Scouts Report | 9 |
| Explorers Report | 10 |
| Coast to Coast ’24 | 11 |
| Quartermasters Report | 12 |
| Finance Update | 13 |
| Scrutineers Report | 14 |
| Trustees Signatures | 15 |
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Report from the Chair
Welcome to the annual report for Eccleston Scout Group’s 20[th] year. As we look back on 2023/24 we have again had a great year with Family Camp, Group Camp, Operation Twilight, the Group trip to Manley Mere, and a hugely successful cross country bike ride (but more of that later).
Our maintenance programmes continue to deliver the planned improvements to the Scout Hut to enable the health and safety of all our young people, leaders, and others who hire out the Scout Hut for much needed revenue. We really are very fortunate as a Group to have such a great asset as the building and the outdoor area at the back, but it does come with a cost of time, effort, and of course money. Once again, the appeal goes out to all the Scout community (and yes parents – that means you) to get involved when we publicise events and support all of us in this endless range of activities.
In addition, we also completed our year as lead Scout Group for Chorley District, which meant representing District as various parades and events throughout the year – including St Georges Day (where we led the parade), the Mayor’s parade, Remembrance Day (as well as attending our own in Eccleston), and the Christingle - all which were well attended by the various Sections.
Once again, the Trustee Board puts on record the whole Group’s thanks and appreciation of our operational leadership team - led by Alison - but again the success of the Group depends on having the leaders who give so much of their spare time to lead all the Sections. I encourage all of you to get involved where you can – we need the support of everyone in the community if we are to carry on growing – it really is very rewarding – honest.
As ever, the Trustee Board have worked hard to support Alison and the leaders. We meet quarterly to make sure that Group governance, and issues which support the various Sections of ESG, are kept on track and pushed forward to completion. I would like to formally put on record my thanks to the Trustees and other nominated members who continue to support me, and in turn support Alison, the leaders, and the whole of ESG. The 2023/24 Trustee Board and Group leadership team were:
| Trustee Board | Leaders | Young Leaders |
|---|---|---|
| Mike Taylor - Chair | LyndseyPennington - Squirrels | Matt Dewhurst - Beavers |
| Jane Taylor - Secretary | Hannah Hunter - Squirrels | Matt Slater - Cubs |
| Pauline Elton - Treasurer | Janet Lawson-Marsden - Squirrels | MollyPennington - Squirrels |
| Alison Kirby- GSL | Alison Kirby- Beavers | EmilySavage - Squirrels |
| Paul Kirby- Scout Leader | Sarah Clifford - Beavers and Scouts | Matthew Cleasby- Beavers |
| Phil Metge -Quartermaster | Jane Taylor - Beavers | |
| AndyCaunce – Explorer Leader | Chris Cote - Beavers | |
| Alison Riley- Cubs | ||
| Steve Mellor - Cubs | ||
| Natalie Bidder - Cubs | ||
| Ryan Ashton - Cubs | ||
| Stuart Reeves - Cubs | ||
| Oscar Williams - Cubs | ||
| Paul Kirby- Scouts | ||
| Dave Cousins - Scouts | ||
| Nicola Williams - Scouts | ||
| Russ Clifford - Scouts |
Happy Scouting - Mr T.
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Group Scout Leader Report
I just don’t know how we have got round to the AGM again!!
This last year has been as busy and rewarding as ever – seeing all Sections achieving and challenging themselves. Definitely pushing out of their comfort zones and learning – and that is just the leaders!!!
I always have to take the time early on to say a massive thank you to the leadership team for making all of this possible.
Each Section continues to deliver full and varied programmes of events, camps and activities and the AGM gives me an opportunity to give thanks and appreciation for how much time and energy the volunteers put into the Group. Several leaders have had personal challenges to battle this year, and I feel I have to say an extra special thanks to them not only persevering through their own challenges but bringing the same level of energy to the Group. You are all phenomenal!!
Behind the scenes as you can imagine there is also a lot of work to be done and the Trustee Board continue to support me with the regulatory, technical, HQ maintenance and much more. Their hard work ensures the smooth running of the Group.
This year’s highlights have to be again all the amazing trips and camps - Group Camp, Family Camp, Group Trip to Manley Mere, Panto, Twilight and of course Coast to Coast which you will read about later in the report.
I don’t often look back. As soon as we’ve finished one thing it seems that we are straight on to organising the next so writing this and seeing each Sections report gives me the opportunity to remember how much fun the kids have and how much they have learnt.
I am reminded within so many areas of life the benefits of Scouting for young people and how their membership to Scouts really does put them in front of the game when it comes to applying for further education, jobs, and other opportunities. Seeing them progress and receiving requests for references from some amazing places - I feel proud of every one of them.
Each Section is working hard to develop life skills within the Young People to prepare them to move to the next Section, the next adventure and ultimately towards their Chief Scout Awards. This year we’ve seen an amazing number of top awards – congratulations.
| Squirrels Acorn Awards |
Beavers Bronze Awards |
Cubs Silver Awards |
Scouts Gold Awards |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cassie Fairhurst | Cole Clarke | Matthew Kirby | MollyPennington |
| HarryBunce | Jessica Baron | Nathaniel Lylyk | MaisyClint |
| Reuben Atherton | Eva Argile | Freddie Wilson | Yasmin Elliott |
| Beatrix Mason | Zach Latham | Alex Riley | George Aspinall |
| Luke Astley | Fenlon Klayh | Nye Thorpe | Matthew Johnson |
| Thomas Humphreys | Austin Reeves | Luke Tolson | EmilySavage |
| William Millington | Daniel Hogarth | Daniel Traynor | JudyWinnard |
| Eli Cuming | Robert Gray | Thomas Tuson | Matthew Cleasby |
| William Pennington | Tom Hodgkinson | ||
| LucyWoodhead | |||
| Mia Argile |
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As always, we will also hold our breath as to who will be awarded; Squirrel, Beaver, Cub and Scout of the Year. I don’t want to spoil the surprise by naming them here, but an amazing achievement for those who receive these awards.
I do hope you will continue to help and support us through into 2025. I’m looking forward to it already!
Yours in Scouting
Alison
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Squirrels Report
Eccleston Squirrels
What a busy time we’ve had at Squirrels, moving into our second year. It’s been full on with lots of activities, trips and badges earned.
We have represented Eccleston at Remembrance parade, Christingle service, St George’s Parade, Walking Day and always looked smart and keen to carry our flag. The Squirrels had a trip to a soft play centre this year and burnt lots of energy whilst having fun earning their Get Active badge. We visited a local farm in spring and got to meet some newborn piglets and lambs and some of our Squirrels asked the farmer lots of questions! We of course had a splash at the steppies on the way home. Squirrels took part in the Group trip to Manley Mere, which was a great hit, everyone got stuck in to all the muddy activities and the leaders were very grateful for our amazing young leaders taking control when it came to the mud river.
We have been out and about in the summer term, when weather permitted, we’ve had a campfire & s’mores, had a great litter pick across the field finding everything from a box of cereal with a spoon to random clothes and had chance to spend some time on the brandnew equipment at the park.
Our Squirrels have taken on lots of new exciting challenges this year with plenty of energy, smiles and their can-do attitude, we have completed lots of badges, including Exciting Experiments, Get Active, All Around Us and the new Space badge to name but a few. We have had 8 of our Squirrels complete their Chief Acorn Award before moving on to Beavers, which is a brilliant achievement at 6 years old!
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Beavers Report
Winter Term 2023
Many of our Beavers attended our Group Camp in September and had a great time doing loads of activities. We’ve made instruments, sang songs and tasted food from Korea, made water filters, did archery and had a sleepover. During this term we celebrated Halloween and Christingle, as well doing lots of crafts and went to a pantomime.
Spring Term 2024
Some of our Beavers went on the District sleepover at Rascals in Preston. During this term we also did first aid, and had a fire drill, planted potatoes and peppers, and made sandwiches for our parents. We learnt about patron saints, putting up tents and went on a hike to the stepping stones. We played team games and ate s’mores.
Summer Term 2024
Family camp saw a few Beavers and their families experiencing a weekend at Waddecar Scout Camp – it was a lovely weekend. As the weather got better, we spent time outdoors wherever we could. We went pond dipping, restocked our bug hotel, harvested our potatoes and made camp blankets. We also made sand pictures and rocky road, cooked sausages in the woods and learnt how to tie knots. Our Group Trip to Manley Mere was a great success and to finish off our busy year, we had a water fight.
Phew.
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Cubs Report
Cubs have had another great year, notably with a number of Cubs getting their Cub Scout Silver awards, congratulations to: Matthew, Nathaniel, Freddy, Alex, Nye, Luke, Daniel, Thomas and William. In order to gain this award Cubs must participate in a personal challenge. This prompted our first challenge hike for the older Cubs, they planned a route, set off from Bibby's farm and navigated their way back to the Scout Hut. A great achievement.
Another first in recent times was that we took a number of Cubs to Wingdings in the summer. They had the best time at this camp – we were the smallest group on site with only ten Cubs but we were soon known to be the noisiest and craziest group. A good time was had by all!
We have also worked towards our cyclist badge, but somehow despite our skills they still said we were too young to go Coast to Coast – maybe next time!
Last term we worked on our personal safety badges and had a great time with our local police officers bringing cars, riot vans and dogs to our meetings and a trip out to the fire station – thanks Ryan!
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Scouts Report
We started the Scout year in September by getting outdoors as often as possible before the weather turned. Lots of wide games on the park, shelter building and night hikes in preparation for Twilight. The annual Group Camp was in September, and as usual this was a fab weekend. A huge variety of activities from archery and splatball, to whittling and tin-can pancakes, and the campfire singing could be heard echoing off the surrounding hills!! In October the Scouts took part in JOTA/JOTI where they could communicate with Scouts from all over the world, whilst on camp at Scarisbrick Guide Centre.
Twilight, our annual memorial manhunt competition was held in November, with teams joining us from many other local Scout Groups. Despite many practice hikes, there was plenty of challenges as the ground was so wet and boggy - great fun though. The term was finished off with our Scout Christmas meal and party. Yum!
In January, we sent two teams of Scouts out on a solo expedition – and they smashed it! They had to plan a route, hike and camp – all without the assistance of leaders. That was followed in February by Operation Moonlight (organised by Ormskirk Scout Group) – another manhunt, but over a much larger area.
We spent some time during the Spring term making planters for the Beavers to use in their Gardeners badge. The Scouts did a great job, even if they looked a little scary wielding hammers and saws! We finished off the term by getting creative – the Scouts worked on their digital media by building websites, and then produced a sketch show using all their own material. We definitely have some budding comedians within the Group.
During the summer term we have learned some pioneering skills and have put them to good use making stretchers, catapults, towers, bridges and even a drawbridge over the river! The knot tying was that impressive, even the leaders were prepared to walk over a bridge the Scouts built. The Scouts have also learned knife, and fire lighting skills. If they’re ever lost in the woods – we’ve no doubt they could survive (as long as they had marshmallows and chocolate biscuits to make s’mores of course).
The Scouts seemed to spend a lot of time getting wet this term. From raft-building at Family Camp to inflatables over a lake at Manley Mere Aqua Park. In between those two events, we had kayaking lessons at Spade Mill Reservoir and a fun evening on the water at Rock & River. We ended the year with a water fight down by the river and finished off with chocolate bananas cooked on the fire.
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Explorers Report
It has been a real year of change for Yarrow Vikings, with the imminent departure of our older Explorers who are turning 18 soon – making all of us feel very old, the arrival of Carol as a new leader, and the influx of new Explorers moving up from Scouts. This makes for a very different Section from 12 months ago, going from 8 or 10 up to 20 young people!
Members of Yarrow Vikings went on several international trips including Haarlem Jambourette, Red Rose, and Roverway in Norway. We attended West Lancs County Explorer Camp as well as Mersey Moot with a handful of our own camps thrown in for good measure.
All of these experiences have given our young people the opportunity to meet Scouts from all over the world as well as even more locally. This is a key part of Scouting and I'm sure the memory of these experiences will last a lifetime. This year we are looking forward to getting to know all of our newest members better, getting out on camp as much as we can, and generally pushing for more awards, more adventure and more fun!
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Coast to Coast ‘24
After several months of training, on August Bank Holiday weekend, 24 Scouts, Explorers and Leaders set off to Scarborough with a coach load of cycles. Over the next three days, with 20 of us cycling (the rest catering and supporting), we made our way back across the country to finish at Lytham. Staying in Scout Huts along the way, and easing tired muscles with evening yoga sessions, the team worked together to make sure everyone was able to make the ride to the end. Our youngest two cyclists were just 11 years old (we won’t mention Mr T’s age at the other end of the very wide age range!) and did just amazingly. All riders and crew were treated to hot dinners, nightly hot chocolate treats and cooked breakfasts, as well as packed lunches and snacks along the way. With plenty of head wind on Saturday, and a fair amount of rain on Sunday, reaching Lytham on the Monday afternoon to cheers from parents, friends and bystanders was a perfect ending to a very long, hard, but rewarding journey, that raised £1,700 for The Calvert Lakes Trust by all your generous donations.
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Quartermasters Report
The hut has successfully supported the expanding Group activities, but as with all things continues to need areas of attention.
It has fully supported the Section programmes and a number of external hire booking events, and it’s use as a base for the playground development team was a perfect example of village facilities being used in collaboration. The maintenance day provided some limited opportunity to maintain the excellent facilities we have, but there is a growing list of improvements and equipment maintenance we need to get on top of. The drains continue to cause problems, and this will be a major activity if not before, then at the annual ‘Maintenance Day’ weekend in March. Please look out for the date and we’d appreciate a larger number of parents finding an hour or two over the weekend to support the activities we are carrying out. Everything from cleaning to gardening to minor DIY to ‘less minor’ DIY! Tools and kit, tea, instruction, tea & sandwiches & more tea provided – perhaps a BBQ for those who want to carry on in the evening too.
Kit refurbishment is important to us and with the clear focus on safety, this is our priority in sequencing the work of maintenance, repair and replacement. As Trustees, we have a focus on safety and believe we have the right handle on all safety perspectives, but we openly welcome any observations or clarifications where you may feel this is unclear or perhaps not quite adequate.
If I don’t see you before, I hope to see you at Maintenance Day!
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Finance Update
Eccleston Scout Group Accounts as of August 2024:
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Scrutineers Report Scrlrtineer's report to the trustees Scrutineerf5 Report to the Trustees of EccLeston Scout Group I report on the account5 of the Group for the year 1st Sept 2023 to 315t August 2024 As the Group's trustees you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts- you consider that neither the audit nor independent examination requirements of the Charities Act 2011 apply. It is my responsibility wthout carrying out an audit or independent examination to scrutinise the accounts and to reportto you. In accordan with the directions given in the Group's constitution, I have scrutinised the record5 and the accounts set OLrt. In my opinion the accounts are in accordance with the records produtrd to me and complywith the constitution. Name.. Address:....afl.s.......Thé q(.K.Ea................................................ Date.. ,.......fl. .l...l.o l.£.*.......................................................................... Page 14 of 15
Trustee Declaration
This report represents a true and fair record of Eccleston Scout Group activities and financial performance during the year August 2023 to August 2024.
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