Scouts

Scouts is the third section in the scouting family and is for boys and girls aged 10-14. It comes after cubs and before Explorers.

Our scouts meet as two separate troops at the Group HQ.  Both troops meet between 7:30 and 9.  “Wildcat” troop meet on a Wednesday, “Raptor” troop on a Thursday.

Plus of course both troops have plenty of weekend camps and trips out mostly together. Recent trips have included white water canoeing, a weekend climbing in the Peak District and mountain biking in Thetford Forest.

A typical evening could include anything from wide games to cook offs to falconry to first aid training. Having once even run a fashion show there’s not much we won’t have a try at!

Here are some of the things we’ve done recently:

After long haul summer camps to Northumberland in 2012 and Cornwall in 2013 the troop stayed at close to home this year with a cycling tour around the best that the local area has to offer. That didn’t mean it was any less adventurous with many miles of cycling, sailing, falconry and the center piece of learning to glide!

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Day 1 saw an easy cycle up the river to Waterbeach where Cam sailing club were our hosts. The troop took part in a club picnic before before learning to sail traditional keel boats, common in the fens, including one previously owned by Swallows and Amazons author Arthur Ransome.

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The troop camped in the grounds of the club, right next to the river before cycling on the next day, in glorious sunshine, to the Raptor Foundation near St Ives. Following an afternoon visit to the center, which acts as a conservation and rescue center for birds of prey, the scouts were invited to a flying session with the birds where they had the privilege of the birds flying to their hands and taking foods from their hands.

Camping in the grounds of the center the scouts discovered just how early birds of prey wake up at 4.30am when the massed dawn chorus of some of the world’s biggest birds gave them an earlier start that usual. That morning saw the troop supporting the center, helping clean out many of the aviaries and feeding the birds.

Monday afternoon saw the return of cycling, 19 miles to Great Gransden Airfield and Cambridge Gliding Center.

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The next two days saw all the scouts learning to glide thanks to the Hertfordshire Scouts air activities team. Theory sessions on the ground culminated in each scout taking to the skies in a motorised glider and, after being shown the basics, each scout took control of the glider, the first and for many the only time they will take the controls of an aircraft over 3,000 feet above the ground!

There were a few unsettled stomachs from those that caught a big thermal but the  buzz of being in control saw some big smiles on landing 🙂

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Those not gliding on each day cycled the few miles down the road to Charlie Mill where they got an introduction to horse riding including the process of getting the horses ready.

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With the gliding and riding done the next leg saw the scouts continue the cycling to Shepreth wildlife park where they had the chance to get up close and personal with some serious creepy crawlies before a final evening BBQ and a gentle cycle back to Cambridge the next day.

Congratulations to Tom, a very well earned scout of the camp, and a sad farewell to Nick, our Senior Patrol Leader who is now heading to explorers.

Finally we like to do a “movie” of our summer camps. And of course with gliding as the center piece of camp there was only one 1980s Hollywood blockbuster we could have a nod towards…… Enjoy!

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Full gallery of photos here

Following the highly successful Canadian Exchange in 2013 we now have plans to do it all again….. but on a much larger scale. 021 In summer 2015 our friends from 12th Cambridge Scouts and Venture Scouts in Cambridge, Ontario (just south of Toronto) will be joining us for summer camp which we expect to be in The New Forest. That will then be followed by a week where they will be hosted by families of 12th Cambridge Scouts and Shackleton Explorer Scout Unit. In summer 2016 we will do it the other way round with as many of our scouts and explorers from Shackleton ESU travelling to Canada for a week long summer camp in the Canadian wilderness following which they will also be hosted by Canadian families. The camp in Canada will be an entirely different experience to the UK. In the UK scout campsites of 100 acres are considered large. In Canada they extend sometimes over thousands of acres and come complete with some serious local wild life including moose, wolves and bears. This promises to be the trip of a life time! More details of both legs will be sent to parents over the coming months but at the moment we are now looking for expressions of interest from UK families happy to host one or two Canadians for a week 24-30 August 2015. We are also looking for provisional expressions of interest for those who want to travel to Canada in 2016, including from those who are currently Cubs. If you are interested in either leg please contact Graham!
The Scout troop finished term with a bit of the lighter side of life, building and launching water rockets! It also gave us a chance to meet our new recruits, 6 cubs who will be joining us in September.

A few videos of high lights are below, enjoy 🙂

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Summer camp is still to come, but after that we’ll be back in September with another jam packed term.

The Sun Run is back for 2014! The troop’s annual charity fund raiser will this year be in aid of Child’s Play.

On the night of 21/22 June a mix of scouts, explorers and leaders from 12th Cambridge Scouts will run, hike, crawl and do whatever else it takes to go the 18 miles from Ely back to our HQ in Cambridge. Setting off on the dot of sun set, at 9.24pm they will go through the night to get back before sun rise at 4.38am.

Sun Run 2012 - a 3am check point in the rain!

Sun Run 2012 – a 3am check point in the rain!

Child’s Play are a charity who provide toys and games for and generally try to brighten up the lives of children who are sadly in Children’s Hospitals and Hospices. While they are mainly a North American charity they also support a number of Children’s Hospitals in the UK and we have chosen the closest of these to Cambridge, Sheffield Children’s Hospital, for our donations to go to.

The work of Child’s Play is there to help those young people who are sadly not well enough to take part in the fun and adventure of scouting to remember what is like to be a regular child or teenager and it is massively to the credit of the scouts themselves that they have chosen this fantastic cause to raise money for. This wasn’t something the leaders came up with, it was the scouts themselves.

If you would like to donate to this fantastic cause and encourage young people who are working as hard as they can to support other young people please click on our donation widget below. Thank you in advance for your generosity