Posts by: Sean Edwards

Volleyball and Expedition Cooking

   |   By

Over the last 2 weeks, the explorers have had a volleyball evening where the teams battled it out to be crowned the overall winners and refine their skills ahead of the summer expedition!

They also practised expedition cooking on the multi fuel stoves to diversify their go to d of e meal from pasta and tomato mix!

County Awards

   |   By

Well done to one of our Explorers who has recently been presented his Duke of Edinburgh Bronze and Young Leader Belt Buckle.

A Bronze DofE programme has four sections: Volunteering, Physical, Skills and Expedition. You must do a minimum of three months activity for each of the Volunteering, Physical and Skills sections, and plan, train for and do a two-day, one-night Expedition.

The Young leader Belt and Buckle set is awarded if you have completed all modules and missions from the Explorer Scout Young Leaders’ Scheme.

Both of these are big achievements so well done!

Chariot Pioneering

   |   By

On Monday, the Explorers partook in Pioneering challenge to build an a frame and walk it a set distance, usually in a race. The frame is manned by a jockey who helps the legs swing when pivoted to move the frame.

A few photos are available below.

D of E Bronze Expedition

   |   By

Well done to our 7 Explorers who passed their D of E Bronze Qualifying Expedition in Ashdown Forest this weekend.

The Bronze Expedition is a two day expedition, with one night spent camping. There should be six hours minimum of activity planned each day, with at least three of these hours journeying. 

D of E expeditions teach:

  • First aid and emergency procedures
  • An awareness of risk and health and safety issues
  • Navigation and route planning.
  • Campcraft, equipment and hygiene.
  • Food and cooking.
  • Countryside, Highway and Water Sports Safety Codes.
  • Observation recording and presentations.
  • Team building.

Some photos are available below.

Slip N Slide

   |   By

Tonight the unit members constructed and then used a slip n slide. Whilst it could have been warmer, the weather was fairly kind with sunshine and no rain!

Some of the Explorers managed to slide the full 25 metres which is impressive, others had less solid techniques getting less than 5 metres!

Some photos are available below:

Kwik Cricket

   |   By

On Monday the Explorers took part in a game of Kwik Cricket. Well done to the winning team who scored significantly more than the other! We did learn Explorers need to practise throwing a ball in a straight line as there were a large number of wide throws!!!

Sweden Race Night Fundraiser

  |   By

Thankyou to everyone who came and supported our race night last night. In total we made £538.73 towards our expedition fund to Sweden in the summer.

A special thanks goes to all of those who helped organise and run the night including the delicious cake stall and those who donated raffle prizes!

With only 7 weeks left until we depart, this is one of our last events towards the expedition and we have managed to hit our target of fundraising / grant applications of over £10,000!

Games Evening / Code of Conduct Review

  |   By

This week we had a much more relaxed evening at the HQ. We played several games including relays games, Stinger, stuck in the mud and naughts and crosses. We also reviewed the scout Values and updates our code of conduct for the unit going forward.

A few photos are below:

D of E Silver Practise 2024

   |   By

6 Explorers and 2 Leaders have just returned from the New Forest on a D of E practise expedition. Both teams successfully completed the three day expedition during which we had beautiful weather on day 1 and 2, however the rain finally came in on day 3!

Well done to the team, all of them did really well! Lets hope for sunny weather for the assessed expedition in August!

First Aid

   |   By

On Monday, we had an evening of First Aid Training ahead of our upcoming expeditions and summer activities. We focused on:

  1. Life support: The principles of first aid and initial response (arriving and managing an incident), emergency life support, CPR (including technique for children and an explanation of what AED is and how to use it), management of an unconscious casualty (child and adult), and choking. 
  2. Trauma and injury: Shock, bleeding, fractures (ambulance imminent and non-imminent) and sprains, head injuries, dental incidents, and burns.
  3. Major illnesses: Asthma, anaphylaxis, heart attack, stroke, seizures, diabetes, sepsis and meningitis.

Everyone got fully involved and we hope you never have to use these skills in reality but they are a #skillforlife!