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UK Parliament Week

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‘Toeing the line’

We all see and feel the work of Parliament in our lives but what goes on behind the scenes? Peter Lilley (MP for Hitchin and Harpenden) visited 11th Hitchin (Christchurch) Scout Group on the 3rd of November to tell Cubs and Scouts about the work of Parliament and how our laws are made.

dsc_5913Mr Lilley visited as part of UK Parliament Week (14-20 November) and gave Cubs and Scouts an opportunity to hear about the House of Commons, the House of Lords and what really happens as laws go from an idea to reality. A fascinating evening for the Cubs and Scouts to talk with their constituency MP and we would like to thank Mr Lilley for giving up his time and coming to visit us. dsc_5935

If you have ever heard the phrase ‘Toe the line’ then this comes from the two red lines running lengthways down the Commons chamber. MPs are not allowed to speak from the floor of the House between these lines and if they ‘cross the line’ then the House will call from them to ‘toe the line’ and stand behind the red lines. Tradition says that these lines are two sword-lengths apart to prevent MPs duelling!

Dads and Cubs 2016

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Every year we have either ‘Mums and Cubs’ or ‘Dads and Cubs’ and this year it was Dads and Cubs.

The Cubs showed their Dads how to play lots of exciting games (not that the Dads were competitive) and showed them how to navigate using a map in the rain!

IMG_1708-1Our slightly wet campsite before the sun came out on Saturday

We walked over the Roman Baths at Welwyn and this was the first time for most of the Dads. Best of all we even got to meet Tony Rook who found the original baths just before the A1(M) went over the top of them. IMG_4914-1

Tony Rook and the Cub Scouts making their promise underneath the A1(M) at the Roman Baths

A good time was had by all and next year it is the Mum’s turn!

Cubs Summer Camp

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Well we had a great time (as usual) at PACCAR camp site with lots of activities (abseiling, caving, walking, shooting, orienteering and go-karts).

thumb_IMG_4184_1024Cub Scouts after the ‘Rabbit Run’

This time the weather smiled on us and we had sunshine all the time. The Beavers visited us and spent some time finding out what Cub Scouts do and why we have so much fun.

 

Climbing and Archery at the Priory School

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Cub Scouts is all about the ‘Everyday Adventure’ and we had a climbing and archery evening at the Priory School on Wednesday.

The climbing wall is a full size indoor climbing wall and the Cubs had a great time.

Thanks to Danielle Weetman and Paul Scourfield for the photos.

Gearing up for the wall

Practising on the traversing area

Starting out

It does go up a long way!

A very long way!

We also did archery but not many photos of that

A great evening that we will repeat in the future.

St George’s Day Parade

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It is always exciting to see Hitchin’s Scouts and Guides out ‘en masse’ in the town and to see what a huge organisation we are in Hitchin.

IMAG014911th Cubs were part of the parade and we all re-made our promises and had a great time in the Market Square. The rain held off and a good time was had by all.

PS: You can even see my office in the background!

Cubs Spring Term Six Competition

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Another term over and done and lots of exciting activities (and some badge work as well) but we have one last thing to do to complete the Spring Term.

The bowling at RAF Henlow last night was the final part of the Six competition and the results were nail biting!

At the start of the night we had 4 Sixes separated by only 4 points (80-84) – there was all to play for.

Yellow Six (Nat’s Six) scored the 2 highest scores for the bowling (Felix on 110 and Gideon on 97) and came from the back to leap to the front. The results of the Six Competition are therefore:

  • Yellow: 87
  • White: 86
  • Red and Green: 81
  • Blue: 76

Well done to Yellow Six and they will get to wear the ‘Cubs 100’ Neckerchiefs for the next term.

Green Six (last term’s winner) will hand over the special neckerchiefs at the start of the first meeting in next term to Yellow Six as the competition winners bask in the glory.

Bowling at RAF Henlow

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Where else do you go for 10-pin bowling other than your local RAF base?

RAF Henlow is our local base and they have an excellent 4 lane bowling alley that is available for local people (not just for organisations but also for public). It is a great site and we can take the Cubs bowling and keep them under supervision because we have the whole of the bolwing area to ourselves.

The Cubs had a great time and the winners were Yellow Six (Felix and Gideon were the highest scorers) with the Leaders struggling far behind!

IMAG0140Back next term with more of the everyday adventure.

Lego Nights

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Thanks to a generous donation of Lego from the Lego Foundation (Akela’s son works for Lego) we had two great nights using Lego.

Our first night was playing a competitive version of Creationary. This is where a person in each Six (the Creator) is given a word and has to build a Lego model to show the word. The rest of the Six then have to guess what the Creator has made. Competitive Lego and great fun.

DSCN0156Our second night was playing stories with Lego. Each Six was given an ‘open’ sentence, e.g I was lost …. The Six had to develop a story around the sentence and each person in the Six had to make a model to illustrate part of the story.

The picture shows the winning Six with their imaginative story (led by Nat who eloquently described it ‘as a reworking of ‘Theseus and the Minotaur’).

IMAG0124At the end of the night all the Cubs got to take their models home with them and the rest of the Lego is being donate do the Hitchin Autistic Children’s Lego club.

Mums and Cubs

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12 Mums, 12 Cubs, 2 Leaders and a weekend at Boyd Field: A recipe for disaster or fun?

Well, we all had great fun and the Mums especially enjoyed the 1 mile walk, coffee shop (with great gluten-free cakes) and 1 mile walk back via a playground. If Carlsberg did walks in the country…..

Actually, the Cubs and the Mums all had a great time doing orienteering, challenges (‘Teddies across the River’ and ‘Paper structures’) but the highlight was probably being given the ingredients and then lighting the fires and cooking their own breakfasts!

A great camp and pictures later.

Cub Camp 2015

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Summer in England is never predictable but 15 Cub Scouts had a great time in the worst weekend for a long time.

DSCN0103We have great time at Gilwell and even enjoyed (?) a long walk in the rain in Epping Forest – we were allegedly looking for the Lost Pond but never got that far. We were, however, very close to Dick Turnip’s Cave (stand and deliver your vegetables anyone?) or maybe it was Dick Turpin’s Cave?

We did lots of activities (aeroball, bouldering, pedal go-karts, canoeing, grass sledging and even Jacobs Ladder) and ate very well thanks to Catherine’s excellent cooking.

A great time was had by all despite the weather (dodge-ball in a tent in the rain can be quite challenging).

Lets hope we all dry out in time for Mums and Cubs in a little over a months time.

For more details see here.