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‘What Scouts says to people is: Every child has a right to have an adventure. Life is about grabbing opportunities.’ Bear Grylls

Once again, the leaders and young people have enjoyed a year of adventures and opportunities at 23rd Salisbury Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Explorers. The scouting values – integrity, respect, care, belief and cooperation – are at the heart of planning and delivering all our activities, as I hope will be clear from the following section reports for 2024.

I started with 23rd scout group as a Cub Leader ten years ago, and I am now an Explorer Leader. It has been remarkable to watch those 8-year-old children develop into such amazing young adults. Explorers have shared many adventures together; they reminisce of fun under canvas, muddy wide games and being immersed in the outdoors. They have become firm friends and they leave now as responsible, kind and enthusiastic adults.

We have 137 young people growing up, enjoying an amazing program supported by our 37 adult volunteers. I also hope their parents have found a home in 23rd with the Family Camp at Buddens and the Kings Coronation Events last summer, the bonfire party in November and, in the new year, the opening of the outdoor space, which took a look back at 23rd scouting history.

2025 is the 80th anniversary of our group and we will be looking forward to doing some exciting family events to mark this achievement.

Thank you everyone for your support of such a wonderful group.

Ed Halsey, Group Scout Leader

Beavers

We continue to have a full colony, with a fun and active programme. Towards the end of 2023, we had a great “Wartime” sleepover, held in the Youth Lounge at St Francis church. We enjoyed archery, soldier training, made our own poppy, went on a trail and enjoyed a campfire. As a group, we finished our sleepover by attending the Remembrance Parade.
 
We visited Laverstock community farm: it was really interesting learning about all the animals. Other badges we have worked on include: Faith badge at St Francis church, Musicians, Air Activities, Space, Book Reader, and Digital Maker.
 
Beavers really enjoyed the annual river dipping with Cubs and the cardboard caving with the rest of the group. But this is not all (oh no, that is not all!) We have
  • eaten Haggis for Burns night,
  • done some gardening,
  • litter picking,
  • made the King & Queen a Coronation card,
  • and decorated biscuits, to name but a few.
14 Beavers have achieved their Chief Scout Bronze award in the last year and about 10 have achieved all, or part of, their You Shape award.
 
It has been another great year; the team all enjoy our Monday nights, so THANK YOU to all the beavers who come along and make it fun.
 
Beaver Leaders

Cubs

We opened our report last year with our plans for nights away and we’ve been very busy! Since the last AGM the Cubs joined the district for summer camp at Foxlease, Winifred led a 24 hour camp at Fonthill, King Louie led our annual trip to PGL Liddington and Akela led a sleepover for Solstice at the hut.
 
Earlier this year the Cubs joined the Scouts for an action packed winter camp at Paccar Scout Centre. While wet and muddy great fun was had by all!
 
Our next nights away will come in the summer when Shere Khan leads the pack for our weekend away to the Brecon Beacons or Bannau Brycheiniog.
 
While we’ve been busy out of the hut, we’ve been just as busy there too. We have continued our hard work in earning badges with over 200 activity, staged and challenge badges awarded so far in 2023 with more owed. The Scout shop have loved us! The pack put in extra effort to earn their badges by planning and running an evening within their six so they could earn their badges their way. While we’ve been working hard we’ve been playing hard too with our favourite games and activities such as chaos tag, 007 and my personal favourite SPUD! 
 
The pack have also worked extremely hard working towards their Chief Scout Silver award with most being awarded before moving on to Scouts. We will have two more to present before the summer and we are fortunate to be presenting one at the AGM!
 
The end of 2022 saw a major shift in the leadership of Cubs as many of the Cub favourites moved on to different sections within the group. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Akela, Winifred, Shere Khan, Kaa, Raksha and Dizzy for all your hard work with Cubs! Akela left me with big shoes to fill and I will work hard to meet, and maybe exceed, his standards!
 
Now they have started to settle into their new roles with Cubs I would also like to say a huge thank you to Bagheera, Chil, Ziggy, Rocky and Rikki-Tiki-Tavi for joining Cubs and making my transition from King Louie to Akela a lot easier! 
 
I look forward to another year of Cubs and the many wonderful things I can report about at AGM 2024!
Hamish Davidson, Akela

Explorer unit

At Stratford Swallows, we have a full group of young people, lots of noise, friendships and laughter. Together, we’re treading a fine line between the Leaders’ desire to do lots of exciting things now that the scouts are bigger, and the teenagers’ desire to do as little as possible! The compromise usually involves food, and fires.
 
We’ve been surfing, hiking, camping, climbing, skating, and skiing. We’ve had an amazing rich meal/poor meal evening, where the poor sat on the floor eating chickpeas and playing games, while the rich ate chocolate mousse in isolated splendour.
 
We’ve litter picked and had some amazing conversations. It’s been a privilege to see what happens when young people journey from Beavers, through Cubs & Scouts, and emerge into some rather wonderful young adults.

 

Stratford Swallows