What we've been up to
2024
November 2024 - Cubs meeting with the Brownies
This week the cubs have joined forces with the Brownies, showing them all about everything we do at Cubs. We played a game of Lighthouse at the hall, then we sang some of our best campfire songs and of course toasted marshmallows. We finished by investing some of our newest cubs, welcoming them to the pack.
April 2024 - St George's Day Hike
To celebrate St Georges day, since St George is the patron saint of scouting, our Cubs, Scouts and Explorers went on a hike up Portsdown hill to Nelson's monument where they renewed their promise. They then spend the afternoon at the artillery museum finding out all about the history of artillery before catching the train home. All the young people were exhausted by the end of the day however had great fun!
March 2024 - Cubs Police Visit and Sleepover
This march the cubs had a visit from the local community officers for Swaythling who spoke to them about how they can keep themselves safe, at home, on the street, and online. They then let the cubs have a look through their police van and showed them some of the equipment that they used.
Some of the cubs then stayed on for a sleepover where they watched the Lego movie, learnt all about forensics, followed by not much sleep, and then pancakes for breakfast. Thank you so much to Southampton police for visiting!
February 2024 - Beavers/Squirrels Pancakes
To celebrate pancake day this year both the Beavers and Squirrels have been honing their kitchen skills by making pancakes. They learnt how to keep safe in the kitchen, and some even managed to flip the pancakes successfully! Nice work Squeavers!
2023
Scouts Autumn Term 2023 - Video
Check out what our scouts have been up to this term in their latest video.
November 2023 - Remembrance Day
This year the group has been busy support the poppy appeal at Sainbury's in Portswood with both our Squirrels and Cubs helping out with the collection for the Royal British Legion.
On remembrance Sunday the group paraded at St Alban's church in Swaythling. The group was out in force with more young people than we've ever had before. We we're incredibly proud of all of our Squirrels, Beavers, Cubs, and Scouts who showed up to represent the group.
October 2023 - Beavers and Squirrels Climbing
As an end of half term treat our Beavers and Squirrels were at boulder shack in Portswood trying their hand at bouldering. Some were a little bit nervy at first, however all overcame their fears and were quite literally climbing the walls by the end of the session. Big thank you to Boulder Shack in Portswood for giving our young people a great time!
Autumn 2023 - Cubs DIY Badge
As part of their DIY badge, the cubs were let loose with saws, hammers, and drills (with adult supervision of course!), to build planters out of scrap pallets. They spent the first week cutting the wood to size, then nailing the planters together. The week after they painted them with waterproof paint so they would last in the english weather, and then finally they painted them with designs and planted them with herbs. We are super proud of all of the cubs and their efforts with their planters, and we think you'll agree, they look great!
Scout Camp Summer 2023
This summer the 26th Scouts ran a camp hosting the 12th Guernsey Scout Group at Ferny Croft Scout Campsite. They enjoyed adventures around New Forest and afar including a hike around Winchester, water parks, and ninja warrior. In true scouting style, the scouts had to endure storms, rain and even a large river flowing through one of the leader's tents however everyone enjoyed it and returned with a smile on their face and keen to go away again. Check out this video for how they got on.
Scouts Summer 2023
The scout leaders have produced this fantastic video showing what they've been up over the summer term. Over the next few weeks they will be setting off on their Summer camp with the 12th Guernsey Scout Group for an amazing time away filled with great activities.
Meanwhile some of our previous scouts are away on some big adventures - two are off for a trip around europe for Project 23, and two are also off to South Korea for the 25th World Scout Jamboree. We look forward to hearing all about their adventures when they return.
Cubs end of Term
For an end of term treat, our cubs went off to Ninja warrior in Thornhill. They had a great time on the inflatable course, as well as trying out the Ninja Warrior Challenge. To finish off the term, the cubs had a water fight at the HQ, and even the leaders got invovled! Akela, Chil, and Hathi ended up getting absolutely drenched by the pack, Baloo very sensibly brought a coat!
We hope all of the cubs have a great Holiday and we look forward to seeing everyone again in September.
June 2023 - Cubs and Scouts - Tracking and Sword Fighting
This week our cubs and scouts have been very busy. The cubs have been learning about navigating over the last few weeks and to put this into practice they took part in a tracking exercise at Stoneham estate. Each team set a route for the other group to follow and layed out the tracking signs on the ground and then swapped with the other team. Each team was able to follow the signs successfully!
Meanwhile the scouts had great fun learning about sword fighting - using foam swords of course! They learnt all the basics of how to parry, slice and dodge. Whilst one group took part in the this, the other group learnt some basic first aid and took part in a patrol leaders council.
Loggerheads and David's Challenge
A very busy weekend for our Beavers and Cubs! The beavers attended the loggerheads challenge where they competed against all of the other teams from the district. They made catapults and their own coat of arms on a shield along with much more. All four beavers from 26th really enjoyed their day!
At the same time 26th Southampton Cubs were off at David's Challenge camp at Wilverley Scout Campsite in the New Forest. The theme this time was Detectives and each of them took part in different challenges over Saturday. There was a 'whodunnit', guess who, forensic science, and invisible ink mystery base which each team took part in. Once the competition was over, congratulations to 7th Southampton (Bassett) for winning the event, a campfire was enjoyed in the evening, followed by a film during a very rainy Sunday morning pack up. All six from the group did really well and great fun was had by all.
Chief Scout Silver Awards
Congratulations to Corey and Dylan who after much hard work have achieved their Chief Scout Silver Awards and have been awarded them by the ADC cubs just before half term. We're all very proud of your achievement and all of your hard work!
Group Camp May 2023
Knights of the Round table was the theme of this year's group camp at Bragger's wood, and at 6.30pm all of the trainee knights arrived at the campsite. Dinner of Hot Dogs and chilli was enjoyed by all before wide games and then bed nearly on time (sort of!)
The sun rose on a quiet campsite on Saturday morning, and all of the Cubs and Scouts, tired after the antics of the night before, were still asleep at curfew. Thankfully Mark was on hand with some appropriate music to wake all of the scouts up! After breakfast cooked by the Bobs, the Beavers arrived in the minibus loaned to us by 1st Eastleigh Scout Group.
The cubs boarded the minibus and set off to Mudeford Quay, where they were joined by the Beavers later on, and after a short ferry ride over to Mudeford Sandbank, settled down on the Beach. Both Cubs and Beavers worked together on the beach to build sandcastles and to dig holes with some getting wetter then expected when falling over in the water!
Meanwhile, back at base camp, the Scouts took part in a large scale puzzle games where they had to steal eggs from the evil spider - K-Lobb. They made dens in the woods, built a bridge out of pioneering poles, and had to solve a puzzle before the final battle could ensue.
Once back at the campsite, the Cubs and Beavers had a campfire with many songs being enjoyed including Fred the Moose, Cecil the Caterpillar, and the Penguin Song. The Beavers retired to bed, followed by the Cubs and Scouts not long afterwards.
Sunday morning was spent doing site activites with the Scouts and Beavers doing Archery, and the Cubs taking part in Axe throwing. The cubs also designed their own shield to turn into a large collage for the site. King Louis then led the Cubs in fire lighting to see how successful their fire lighting skills were. Before bed, Akela ran a moment of reflection on what we'd achieved throughout camp, as well as a couple of campfire songs before bed.
A great camp was had by all and everyone is looking forward to the next time!
Chief Scout's Gold Awards
Congratulations to five of our scouts who after much hard work have been awarded their Chief Scout's Gold Awards - the highest award that you can get at scouts. They've had to complete 9 different challenge badges which included planning and undertaking an expedition, spending a day volunteering, and leading a team at a group event. A massive well done to Matthew, Victor, Kendra, Reuben, and Tom for all of their hard work and we wish them all the best as they continue their adventures at explorers. We are also very fortunate to have Kendra and Reuben back as young leaders helping with Cubs and Scouts.
Check out what our Scouts have been up to this term....
Beavers Pancakes - February 2023
To celebrate shrove Tuesday our Beavers tried their hand at cooking come pancakes. We then invested many of our new beavers and welcomed them to the colony. We hope all of the Beavers enjoyed making (and eating!) their pancakes,
Cubs fire lighting - January 2023
So far this term the cubs have been very busy! We have completed our astronomers badge, and have learnt how to light fires and cook on them. Whilst much of the group were off at the panto, 7 cubs braved the cold weather to learn about 'backwoods' cooking. They cooked bananas and chocolate on the embers of the campfire and of course toasted the obligatory marshmallows at the same time.
2022
Yearly Report - 2021-22
Beavers report
We started off in September Finishing off The Campcraft badges, Cooking badges and Creative.
Boot laces,
The beavers Did this by Learning to Tie a reef knot using Liquorice Bootlaces, Put up a tent, Learned about healthy eating and Made fruit salad and then did some Junk modelling and wrote a prayer.
Then we had the Beaver Christmas party.
Then in the new year the beavers Did the health and fitness badge, Teamwork and Money Skills.
They achieved this by playing games such as dodgeball, obstacle course and We had a keep fit evening. Then
Learned to light a fire, Made pancakes, went for a walk and went climbing at boulder shack and Then Easter activity evening.
Then we had Worked on the Commun dictators badge, Creative and outdoors challenge badge. To earn these badges we learned finger spelling, Made cards to send to the queen for her jubilee and a Jubilee party, then we went on a bug hunt, made water filters and cooked S'mores on the big fire. We also had a District camp which was enjoyed by all the beaver, many who completed their first night away. .
Hope you enjoyed our pictures and we're looking forward to more adventures this year..
Cubs report
We started the year off at cubs with the communicator badge - sending semaphore signals across the room along with learning about morse code and code breaking. We then spent a few weeks learning about important skills, completing the home safety and internet skills badge; preparing our young people with skills for life.
One highlight of 2022 for our cubs was the Harry Potter themed cub camp at easter, which for many of our young people was their first time camping away from home. It was very cold however the cubs soldiered on through taking part in many fun activities including den building, quidditch, slime making, and a hike through the new forest. We then toasted marshmallows and had some campfire songs before closing camp. 12 cubs were sent home, muckier than when they arrived however with new skills and experiences that they hadn't got before camp. All achieved their first night away!
Not three weeks later we were back camping at district camp where there were many activities on offer to the Cubs. There was climbing, Kayaking, zorbing, along with much more! Again the cubs went home after a great time, exhausted but eager to return to camp at some point.
The summer was spent around southampton with many different activities. We had hikes, the district athletics evening, and one particular highlight was going crabbing at River hamble country park.
The autumn term was just as fun, we had a visit to the fire station, a spy themed sleepover, a christmas party, and also completed the pioneers badge where we learnt how to make rope, tie knots and made chariots strong enough to carry a cub across the room.
We hope all of the young people had a great time, we certainly enjoyed this year with the cubs and we look forward running cubs in 2023.
All the best!
Akela, Bagheera, Chil, Baloo, Racksha, Louis, Shere Khan
Scouts report
21/22 the Scouts came back for their first full year back after lockdown, the scouts hit the ground running. Where the scouts did a mix of more traditional scouting skills such as pioneering, map reading and the always popular blind cooking, and of course fire building. Mixed in with a whole host of less traditional skills, including fantasy world building, electronics, and even tomahawk throwing. (all scouts still have all 11 fingers).
Outside of Fridays the scouts took part in several weekend hikes and build projects such as building a bug hotel for the scout hall and to finish off the year a sand castle building contest.
Having missed out on camps during lockdown we where keen to make up for this, we ran several camps over the year form Winchester monopoly and treasure hunt, and the District camp at easter, but by far the highlight of the year, the scouts spent a week up in the lake District canoeing raft building and jumping down waterfalls, while in the glorious fells of the lakes.
Beaver and Cub Spy Sleepover
To finish off the term the Beavers and Cubs joined forces for a Spy themed sleepover. They started off by practising their sneaking skills with a game of lighthouse out in the graveyard, the aim... to get past the searchlight without being caught. They then all made pizza's in the hut for dinner. Once the trainee spies were well fed they made their way through the a glowstick maze to the campfire where they enjoyed some classic scouting campfire songs. Afterwards it was time for a film and then bed.
The Spies were up bright an early the next morning, keen to not waste a moment of the day. Breakfast was pancakes, fruit, and cereal and once they were fueled ready for the day their proper spy training could begin. Akela ran a lesson in hand to hand combat, learning the basics of martial arts which all of the Beavers and Cubs proved themselves very adept at. They then learnt all about the basics of secret messages as well as learning about how to make and crack some simple codes. At that point it was time, once everyone had had a snack, to clear up, pack everything away and prepare for departure.
A great time was had by all, and well done to all of the young people who got involved!
Akela, Bear, Fox, Hathi, Bagheera, and Otter.
Scouts Summer Camp 2022
In the summer of 2022 the scouts went on an amazing camp to the lake district where they spent five days taking part in many activities including hiking, water activities and much more. Watch their video for a summary of what they got up to.
Most Improved Group Award
26th Southampton was awarded the most improved district group at the AGM this year, as a result of largest growth of any group in the district. Well done and thank you to all who made this possible.
