News

This year’s Teamwork Challenge event took place on a freezing cold, snowy afternoon in March. It was attended by 9 colonies from across the District. Beavers worked in teams where their problem-solving, team-working and leadership skills were put to the test.They tackled a variety of tasks which included creating animal paper sculptures using small pieces of paper which had to be easily identifiable by  their leaders, building the tallest tower, present wrapping, quizzes and a scavenger hunt in the snow! The final task required them to work well as a team using their pioneering skills to create a gadget that would enable them to retrieve a bag of goodies from the other side of the hall using bamboo canes, sticky tape, elastic bands, string and garden wire!

A big thank you to Sue Cruse and her team for organising such a fantastic event. The beavers thoroughly enjoy themselves and are already looking forward to next year’s event.

Allyson

On the weekend of the 2-4th of February 28 cubs from Jupiter and Dragon Cub packs attended a Harry Potter camp at Belchamps. The camp was a resounding success and all those that attended the weekend had a fantastic time and all came away with new spells.
The Cubs and young leaders were sorted by the sorting hat into their respective houses, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. The sorting set the tone for a magical weekend.
After this the cubs coloured their household crests and they went on a hike around the site.
The following morning the different houses started to attend their different classes, wand making, Defence against the Dark arts, Find the philosophers stone, and the Sorceress hunt. Each of these lessons were thoroughly enjoyable and the cubs learned lots of new things.
They all came away from the camp with their own wands, uniforms and also medals and wizard’s hats.
The Sorceress hunt was to enable them to find the ingredients for the potions to be used on Sunday. The cubs found the philosophers stone after a hike searching around the campsite. They also discovered how to repel death eaters during defence against the dark arts by using nerf guns.
Each of the classes had house points up for grabs in order to determine which the best house was for the camp. The cubs also competed in an inter house quidditch tournament which they thoroughly enjoyed and got rather muddy.
They then had a wide game which where the cubs earned more points for their houses. It was a really enjoyable and fun day at Hogwarts.
On Sunday they had a few final classes, they had a potions class where they had to perform different tasks in order to make slime. They also competed in the Triwizard’s tournament and a muggle studies class in the art of fire lighting.
The scores were then calculated to determine who was the winning house and the winning house was Ravenclaw, second place was Gryffindor, third place was Hufflepuff and in last place was Slytherin. All those who attended the camp had a great time and can’t wait until the next one.

Jack Bresslaw

Another successful year for the Scooter Rally with 65 Cubs from 12 packs attending. Every Cub that I speak too really enjoys this event.
As you know we hold the event at Crow Camp the ideal home for this event. With the forest and small slopes, we can construct a good track for the racing. We changed the format of the event this year. We now have teams of three cubs this has made it fairer for smaller packs to be able to win this event.
It was a cold day but the rain held off. The track was dry and full of leaves. Cubs kept warm with Hot Chocolate and Hot Dogs which ran out too soon, I will need to buy more next year.
I would like to thank the leaders who turned up to assist with the event without them we could not run this event.
Congratulations to 1st Squirrels Heath who won the trophy this year. The cubs were presented with Certificates for First, second and third.

1st Corbets Tey Cubs came first in this years District Cubs Soapbox Derby. Not such a big turn out this year as the weather has been very wet this week, But on the day only a couple of quick showers showed up. Ten teams took part in the figure of 8, oval, obstacle, team challenge and endurance race. No major crashes during the day (not one plaster used) just a few loose wheel nuts. We also had an individual scooter challenge time trial. Congratulations to Oliver from 8th Hornchurch Jupiter Cub pack who took home the trophy. The best decorated cart was won by 7th Squirrels Heath Cubs.
The final race was the leaders race. Six excited leaders jumped into the carts and were pushed by the Cubs. The unlucky Cubs who picked Jack to push had a very hard job to do. Lisa Millington from 1st Corbets Tey came first closely followed by Mick Cross from 1st Elm Park.

Competition
1st Place Memories 1st Corbets Tey
2nd Place Mercedes Racers 3rd Rainham
3rd Place Terminators 7th Squirrels Heath

Best Decorated cart 7th Squirrels Heath

Fastest cart 2nd Elm Park

Scooter Challenge
1st place Oliver 8th Hornchurch Jupiter
2nd Place Harry 2nd Elm Park

Fastest Cub (Beaver) Leader Lisa Millington

So this weekend saw the first Hornchurch Scout Network Christmas camp bringing together 30 of our leaders and supporters together aged between 18-25.

the weekend was full of xmas themed events in true scouting style and even managed a full Christmas dinner using traditional cooking styles and also the use of a fire.

it went really smoothly and everyone who was in attendance enjoyed themselves i can say that even tho Network is still very young in this district you can see from the photos that it has a very bright future

i would like to say a massive thank you to Jack Bresslaw who took the lead in this event as event co-ordernator bring all these young people together and providing an awesome event

A great surprise last night for Patricia Hipperson BSL at 1st Cranham.
Pat is celebrating 30 years as Beaver Leader with 1st Cranham this year……. yes 30 Years!
We turned up at the Colonies Xmas party to present some gifts on behalf of the Group and the District. Presentations were made by Linda Thorogood and Scott Wilderspin both of whom have been GSL’s at 1st Cranham and DC’s in Hornchurch.
Congratulations to Pat and we are looking forward to 40 years next 🙂
Picture show Pat with her colony last night.