The Beavers section has now been ‘live’ for 2 years. Four original leaders are still with us! We now have a BSL, 2 ABSL (one working towards their wood badge), 2 SA, 1 YL. Two new parents have joined the team this term, but we are yet to find out their roles as they have not been DBS checked. The core team is settled, but with the introduction of new members comes an additional workload and challenge. We would appreciate the Exec’s support in this area.
We have a full colony of 24 Beavers. 5 new Beavers joined us this term. 5 will swim up to Cubs in December, including our final 2 original Beavers who joined us before their 6th birthdays.
One Beaver is waiting to be awarded their Chief Scout Bronze Award and several others are working on the final part of their Personal Challenge Badge in order to gain their awards also. Our new ABSL is taking on this large and time-consuming project.
This term we have a great programme planned. We have already hiked in St Neots with our families, taking oodles of photographs as we explored somewhere new. Some of the Beavers used the Samsung tablets that were donated to the group for this activity. On the same evening, our newly appointed ABSL attended the District Beaver Leader meeting.
We have also been visited by a Police Officer (a contact via a parent) who spoke to us about water safety, and have taken part in some creative activities using natural resources.
We are the only Beaver Colony in the District to be attending the County Beaver day at Duxford in October and will be taking part in the annual District Sausage Sizzle. The Beavers will be visiting Gymfinity Kids in Cambridge for an afternoon of both gymnastics and ninja training in December. Falcon is busy organising a joint JOTA/JOTI Sleepover with Fenstanton and Hilton for half term, which we are hoping some of the Scouts will attend also.
We are to be visited by a local children’s author and take part in a children’s yoga session, led by Julia Scarboro who is newly qualified in this area. Akele is also coming along to talk to the Beavers about her adventures over the summer at the world scout jamboree.
We will be painting candles and writing reflections on what we are thankful for and in line with ‘youth-led’, we will be asking the Beavers to vote on what they would like to do in the future, as part of Parliament Week. Hawk plans to make terrariums with the Beavers in time for Christmas and we look forward to the arrival of Santa Woody for our party at the end of the term.
Falcon is already busy working on the next terms plan. We have booked a sleepover in St Neots for February Half Term, a day trip to a Falconry Centre and Farm in Bedford for April, and are working with the Community Cafe for an event around Shrove Tuesday. Along with this, we will attend the District Night Hike in February at Hinchingbrooke country park. We are also looking at visiting a new venture in St Neots that is due to open called The Refill Shop, which night also feed into this year’s colony fundraising event. We will take part in Fair Trade Fortnight, make bird feeders and are looking at completing the Digital Maker Stage 2 Badge.