It’s excellent to see that Scouting in Henley is in good health. We have over 100 young people Scouting across our five groups, supported by 30 adult leaders.
We also receive a great deal of help from parents and other volunteers. We participate in scouting activities in Henley and across our District and County,
and – as you’d expect from a Scout group – there’s a lot of camping, a lot of outdoor activities and a lot of fun. Fun is very much at the heart of what we want to achieve as Scouts and as a Group.

I am deeply aware of how much of this fun is made possible by the hard work of our leaders on a weekly basis, and by the work of those whose effort in more in
the background. It’s humbling to see how much effort goes in – and it’s hugely rewarding to see how those efforts are repaid by the enjoyment of our young
people. So as Group Scout Leader, I’d like to thank you all for volunteering – leaders, committee, parents, young leaders, one and all. Thanks!

I look forward to another great year for 1 st Henley in 2020!

Yours in Scouting,
Rhidian Williams

Beavers – Dan Sadler
It’s been an enjoyable year for the Beaver Colony. We currently have twenty-one Beavers with one due to move to cubs at the end of the summer. We will aim to ’top up’ to 24 for September as there is a long waiting list. We currently have three leaders with support from lots of parents. Karina joined us this year and has been a capable and enthusiastic member of the team. Thanks to Alex for his help over the last three years. Owen has been with us too working on his D of E award.

A big highlight of this year has been seven Beavers achieving their Chief Scout Bronze Badge. Six attended the Youlbury presentation event and appeared in the Henley Standard.

We ran a highly successful camp at Youlbury in the Spring where many of the Beavers were on their first ever night away from home. They can all now throw a Tomahawk! Another memorable event was our ’Skype’ with a Beaver colony in Brazil as part of our work on the International Badge. We have enjoyed some great hikes, particularly the night hikes on fine evenings during the winter where we were able to identify the ‘Plough’ and ‘Orions Belt”. In recent weeks we have been working towards the ’Teamwork’ Challenge badge by learning how to play Capture the Flag and Rounders’. 

Monday Cubs – David Singer
We have 4 full-time leaders and a very healthy group of parent helpers, one more leader would be great! The pack has run at 27 since Christmas with a
consistently high attendance.

We have developed a programme that will ensure that all our cubs will have the opportunity to gain the Chief Scout’s Silver Award in their time with us and our 3 most senior Cubs have been presented with their Silver
Awards during this Summer Term. Session highlights were the swimming badge, navigator, pioneer and disability awareness sessions (25 cubs in complete silence watching a video of a man with no legs completing the Spartan Challenge). We had fantastic backwoods cooking session at the Badgemore School fire circle, we built our own go-karts and then raced them on and off-road (slightly scary), the cubs carried their own tents and then put them up themselves on Makins Field, we went air rifle shooting in Marlow…. we did a lot. A total of 4 camps this year including a new discovery, pods (with under floor heating) at Runway’s End in Aldershot, bivouacs in the woods at Butler’s Field and of course CubWorld.

The Cubs performed very well at the Remembrance Day Service and we also had a
great turnout for the Henley Town litter pick up.
We have focused on the basics of Scouting ie. pioneering, camping and hiking and making sure we have fun doing it. Spotlight on the principles of the Oath and the Promise and making sure that our new Cubs understand
them and the history of Scouting. To that end the Cubs produced a handbook describing the kind of behavior that was required at all sessions.

Important that this continues into next year when we intend to do more night hikes, winter camps, bivouacking and perhaps a night out in hammocks. Finally, we have set up a few new things this year: WhatsApp groups to keep parents in the loop and issue photos of the cubs during sessions and camps. 6ers and 2ers meetings at the end of each term so that the senior
cubs can make a proper contribution to the programme plan and how it is delivered. We have also had 2 Duke of Edinburgh volunteers helping with the sessions during the year.

Friday Cubs – Craig Elliot
We are finishing the year with 27 Cubs, 5 leaders and a junior leader. At the end of term, we will be saying goodbye to 8 Cubs of whom 6 will have achieved their Chief Scout’s Silver Award.

By the end of this year we will have run 30 sessions from September to July covering a variety of activities including a number of hikes (Night, Winter Challenge, Summer Challenge), 3 camps (2 at Butler’s Field in Harpsden and 1 County Camp – ‘CubWorld’), First Aid, ice cream making (Chef Badge), Fire Station visit, karate, stop/go animation, fire lighting, making shelters in the woods, numerous games sessions both indoors and outdoors, Chinese New Year including fire lanterns (inside following a dynamic risk assessment…) and several Challenge Badge sessions.

We are looking forward to welcoming our new Cubs coming up from Beavers will continue to run at capacity thanks to the fantastic commitment of our leaders.

Friday Scouts – Linda Cookson
In the final run to the summer holidays Friday’s scouts have 18 members. We will be losing two scouts as they are at the age for moving on.

Our summer term was full of sports, t shirt printing, night hikes, survival techniques, bivvy building and Hobo stove making and cooking on. 

September we are planning on doing Scarefest camp, a full moon night hike, sending older patrol leaders on to CPCW and more! We are really looking forward to meeting all our new scouts and to our new term ahead.

Sunday Scouts – Dave Edwards
Sunday Scouts were too busy having fun to write a report