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1st Larkfield Leader's Message Board. |
All leader's messages for Beavers, Cubs and Scouts will appears here. |
LARKFIELD HOLY TRINITY SCOUT GROUP – DESIGN OUR LOGO COMPETITION Larkfield Scout Group does not have its own emblem - a logo that represents us, something that other people will recognise instantly as Larkfield Scouts. Many other local scout groups do and I thought it would be great if we could too. So I would like to ask all Beavers, Cubs and Scouts to try and design our new emblem; it can be any shape or colour but remember we are - 1st Larkfield Holy Trinity Scouts and our scarf colours of red and gold. I also plan to introduce some inexpensive group t-shirts with our new logo on that can be worn to camps or messy evenings. This will not replace any part of the formal uniform. The chosen emblem will be embroidered on to the t-shirt, we will also have it made into a badge for our uniform probably to be worn on the back of the scarf. So the challenge is on – can you please design your emblem on a A4 piece of paper – with your name and section on the back. Your Section Leader will choose the best 3 entries and David Walker, our Vicar at Holy Trinity will choose the winner. Deadline for entries – Saturday 1 May – please deliver entries to your Section Leader. The winner will be announced at the Group's AGM evening on Saturday 15th May. Gaynor Group Scout Leader Monday 22 March 2010 Scout Troop plans for Spring/Summer Terms Our Scout Troop is so successful (with around 34 children) its not really possible or practicable for us to meet as a whole inside the hut, and so we will need to continue to split the troop for the next few terms. As you know we have been splitting the troop in their patrols recently and it appears to have worked very well. We have now have Julie and Kellie in training to become Assistant Scout Leaders and along with the support of parents we have been able to effectively split the pack for the last term. The current high numbers of Scouts reflect the work and commitment that your leaders are giving, I think you will agree that Larkfield Scout Troop has a very varied and exciting programme for the kids. Thanks also to all those parents that regularly support the leaders which enables them to arrange such a great programme. Chris and Ron will ensure that the children are mixed up and get the opportunity to be with all their friends and to work with everyone. The only alternative to this is to split the group permanently so they only meet every other week - which neither Chris or I feel is ideal. Family Camp 2010 We are planning this year's family camp for Friday - Sunday 23-25 July at Hope Hill Camp Site. This is a great site with lots of activities, (for anyone used to 7 Mile Line - Hope Hill has hot showers - LUXURY!!!!) Chris Hardy is going to arrange the programme for the weekend, which was fab last year and I and my trusted helpers (Sharon/Debbie and Louise) will help me arrange the BBQ for Sat evening. For any families that have not enjoyed family camp before, this is a weekend where the group (Beavers/Cubs and Scouts) can go away for a camping weekend together (parents & children), siblings that are not in scouts at the moment can still come along. Children are the parents' responsibility for the weekend and so we cannot have any unsupervised children. You will need to provide your own camping facilities (tents, cooking facilities etc), but let us know if this is a problem as we do have some stuff that we can loan out. It's an opportunity to get back to basics and enjoy some activities in a safe outdoors environment with your kids. Booking forms and details of the activities that we are arranging will be available shortly. However, in their wisdom, the Scout Association have decided that all parents attending Family Camp MUST complete a CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) form before they camp with other peoples' children. This is just a formality - the form is painless to complete. I have a stack of these forms and if you would like to join us in July and have not already completed a CRB form please email me at gsl@larkfield-scouts.org and I will drop one round to you. Can I stress this is not a Larkfield Scout Group requirement but a Scout Association rule. Please note that CRB are not transferable and even if you have been CRB checked before, it will need to be done again for the scouts. There is no cost to you or the scout group when CRB checks are completed. Because we are using someone else's facilities we will need to pre book Hope Hill and advise on numbers so please let me know if you are potentially interested incoming along so we can get the CRB form filled in asap - it takes approx 6 weeks to process so beginning of June is the deadline really. Any queries just email me or Chris Hardy. Gaynor 07727 909031 07/03/2010 Group Sponsored Bounce As I think most of you know the KM have kindly donated their 18 ft bright yellow bouncy castle to us and we gave it its maiden bounce on Sunday 7th March, after church parade. And what a wonderful Sunday morning it was too - the sun shone for us and loads of children and parents came along to support the group. In the hut was a very successful tombola, tuck shop and refreshments stall. Read more about it here. Gaynor Hooker GSL 20/01/2010 A message from our Treasurer Hello to all and Happy New Year to you. My son Adam started with Val in Beavers and is now a very keen Scout, and two years ago I somehow volunteered to take over as Treasurer, keeping tabs on the money coming in and going out for the group. Like all the Exec Committee members and the leaders, this is on a voluntary basis. It is time consuming but like all the other members I find it rewarding and made much easier by working with an enthusiastic and skilled team! You may be interested to know that for the year ending March it will have cost £59.19 per child per year just to run the group, this covers membership to County Scouts and the utilities to run the hut, parents paying £69 per child in subs. This leaves less than £10 per year per child for things like equipment, materials needed to do badges plus the badges themselves, subsiding trips, leader uniform etc. I would hope that you will therefore understand our need to increase subs to £25 per term, especially as the last increase to subs was in September 2007. This extra £2 per child gives us nearly £500 extra towards keeping the group running over the year, so you can see it makes quite a difference. Total expenses for the year to March 09 were £6,138 - subscriptions only covering £3,230 of this (fundraising and donations made up the difference). We are fortunate to have excellent leaders whose enthusiasm seems to know no bounds, but their ability to give our children the wonderful experiences that they do is limited by the funds they have to back it up. Over Christmas our fundraising efforts at the Bazaar, bag packing and the hamper raffles made a grand Christmas bonus of £1,521, a fantastic result! This shows just how vital fundraising is, and how important it is that we as parents give as much support as we can at fundraising events, so please do keep those pennies coming in! Lisa Guthrie 05/12/2009 A message from Gaynor re Christmas Bazaar - Sunday 29th November A huge thank you to everyone that supported our fundraising bazaar - we raised a fabulous, fantastic £432 on the stalls. Which was beyond our expectations. I think having the children's stalls was a great idea - the toys and puzzles tables made lots, the biggest total was on guess the number of sweeties in the jar - won by the last person to buy a ticket - Martin Falconer! I would like to thank everyone that gave up their time on Saturday afternoon to sort our the jumble and prepare the hut, to everyone that ran stalls and especially to all those that came with their purses and wallets and spent money! A massive thank you to Akela, Dani who was the Project Manager for this event she kept us all on task and focused. All of the Executive Committee did loads and it made a huge difference to me and the leaders to have this additional support. I also wanted to thank everyone that donated items for our luxury Christmas hampers. They look brilliant. We have one for Scout/Church parents (please contact leaders for tickets) one for the Leisure Centre and one in the Monks Head pub. If anyone has any good ideas for fundraising for 2010 please shout. Merry Christmas all. Gaynor 19/10/2009 A message from Gaynor - GSL re Monopoly run I am sure that there are many parents that would wish to join me in thanking all of the leaders and the parents that gave up their time to take the Scouts up to London on Saturday for the Monopoly Run. It was another HUGE success. I am conscious that the scout leaders have donated a lot of time recently, arranging the police visits, assisting at cub camp and planning the monopoly run to mention just a few of the recent activities - so thank you to all Leaders from us parents. All of those Scouts that I have spoken to had a great time on Saturday (very very tired by the time they reached West Malling Station) but all had a good day. These trips are only happening because we have fantastic leaders that give up their time not just on the day but to complete all the planning and to ensure that each visit runs smoothly and safely. But thanks also goes to the parents that come along and support the Leaders - we could not do any of these trips without you - we have mums and dads that are now regularly giving up their time - some even look as though they are enjoying the activities and getting involved. So please do continue to put yourself forward, this parental support allows the leaders to plan a more interesting programme for the kids. If you haven't been able to spare any time so far please try and do so soon - you might become a regular too! Gaynor. 05/10/2009 A message from Gaynor - GSL There was a very good turn out from Holy Trinity Scout Group for the Harvest Festival Service on Sunday 4th October. 8 Beavers, 11 Cubs and 2 Scouts. All Scouts were very well behaved and a credit to the Scout Group. Val (Beaver Leader) told me today that she received compliments from the church family on the scouts participation in the service and excellent behaviour. The children lead the prayers, took the collection and some of the children that had attended the fun day on Saturday afternoon and went to the front of the church to sing songs. David also commented on how good all the scout children had behaved. Its great to hear compliments about our scout group but the credit should go to the children - so well done to : Beavers - Nathan , Callum, Matthew L, Matthew B, Lauren, Jay, Drew and Briony. Cubs: George, Nicholas, Lauren, Charlotte, Magda, Luke S, Luke B, Louis, Isabelle, James and Kiera. Scouts : Greg and Jake. 02/10/2009 Calling all Cubs and Scouts The District Swimming Gala is on Saturday 21st November at the Larkfield Leisure Centre. Please let Skip (Chris) or Akela (Dani) know if you are able to join in, by THURSDAY 5 NOVEMBER. All swimmers need to arrive by 6.00pm prompt - ready to get changed and ready to swim at 6.30 pm. You will need to be able to swim one length of the pool. The Scouts have races that require 2 lengths so please let Chris know if you are a strong swimmer. Beavers don't feel left out please come along and support Larkfield Scout Group, we need lots of people cheering and clapping for our Cubs and Scouts. Any queries - please speak to me or your Leader. YIS Gaynor 1st Larkfield Holy Trinity GSL 02/10/2009 A message from Akela I would like to say a massive thank you to all those invovled in my suprise evening on Wednesday, a 21st bash to be proud of. I can not believe that I was the only one who didnt know! Our GSL, Gaynor and my mum need a extra special thank you as it wouldn't have happened if they did not have the idea. I just wonder how the secret got past me! I hope you all enjoyed the (homemade) cake and the fire making, it was lovely to see so many parents come along. Yours in Scouting Akela and woods beads. 26/09/2009 Please click here for an introductory message from Gaynor Hooker, our Group Scout Leader for 1st Larkfield. 16/09/2009 A messgae from Assistant District Commissioner (cubs) Dear Supporter, Everyone knows recycling is good for the environment, but did you know that recycling is also good for Larkfield Scout Group. We has just partnered with the experts at the Recycling Appeal to launch an exciting new fundraising initiative that recycles mobile phones , used printer cartridges and drink cans [please no food cans] we at Larkfield would like to be part of it! To raise much needed funds for the Scout group If you use a printer or fax machine, each spent cartridge could earn the Scout Group a lot of much needed funds. Considering more than 1.1 billion inkjet cartridges are used around the world, our fundraising potential is tremendous! Any old mobile phones in your cupboards? You could earn around £5 for every used mobile phone donated on our behalf. Estimates suggest there are close to 90 million handsets hiding in drawers and cupboards in the UK so if any of these are yours, why not use them to raise valuable funds. Or, consider getting your employer involved - recycling is a great way for companies to go green! Please bring your recycling items to the Scout H.Q and hand them to your Leader and place your cans in the recycling bin provided. If you require further information please contact Ken Sharp 01732840318 Thank you for your continued support. Yours sincerely Ken Sharp |
