Posts by: Sean Edwards

Spring 2023 Programme

17th December 2022 | By Sean Edwards

A new year means a new programme which is available below!

See you all in the new year!

Programme

Date	Activity	Location	Other Details
09/01/2023	Trading Post	4^th Worth	Full Uniform
16/01/2023	Hunted	TBC	Outdoor Clothing
23/01/2023	Mental Health Awareness / Identity	4^th Worth	Full Uniform
30/01/2023	Badminton	Oriel School	Sportswear
06/02/2023	Warhammer Part 1 / Games	4^th Worth	Full Uniform
13/02/2023	NO MEETING	NO MEETING	NO MEETING
20/02/2023	Pancakes	4^th Worth	Full Uniform
27/02/2023	Warhammer Part 2 / Games	4^th Worth	Full Uniform
06/03/2023	Crossbows / Tomahawk Throwing	4^th Worth	Full Uniform
13/03/2023	Crossbows / Tomahawk Throwing	4^th Worth	Full Uniform
20/03/2023	Cycling / Orienteering	Tilgate TBC	Outdoor Clothing
27/03/2023	Expedition Skills	4^th Worth	Full Uniform
03/04/2023	NO MEETING – EASTER	NO MEETING	NO MEETING

Events

Date	Event	Other Details
04/03/2023	Monopoly Run	London
06/04/2023 – 09/04/2023	Mountain Camp 2023	Peak District
29/04/2023 – 01/05/2023	Silver D of E Practise	New Forest
26/08/2023 – 28/08/2023	Silver D of E Assessed	New Forest
22/07/2023 – 29/07/2023	Summer Camp with Drake	Yorkshire
22/07/2023 – 29/07/2023	Gold Expedition Practise	Combined with Summer Camp
07/10/2023	Downsman Hike	South Downs
TBC	Bronze D of E Practise	Date TBC
TBC	Bronze D of E Assessed	Date TBC
TBC	Winter Camp	Date TBC

Shackleton-Programme-Spring-2023-1 Download

Lazer Tag

12th December 2022 | By Sean Edwards

Tonight Shackleton Explorers celebrated the end of term with a trip to Lazer World where they battled out 3 different games.

Red 10 was frequently the best scoring player so I expect there may have been some cheating going on!

Time for a relaxing Christmas break, we will see you all in the new year.

This evening, the explorers took part in a cooking challenge to create the best tomato soup and toasted cheese sandwich. As easy it should have been, after multiple fire alarms, much burnt toast, each team presented their creation. The results were variable but at least it was all edible!

Winter Camp 2022

4th December 2022 (updated 4th December 2022) | By Sean Edwards

From 2nd to 4th December, Shackleton Explorers enjoyed a winter camp at Bentley Copse Scout Campsite. Staying inside in Palmer House, the cold didn’t bother us! Activities including a night hike, zipline, crate stacking, climbing, abseiling, rifle shooting, karaoke and lots of food!

It was a nice relaxing camp to celebrate a successful year with successes at the Downsman, Rifle Shooting Competitions and D of E.

Thanks to the leaders for supporting the activities this year, here’s to a successful 2023!

Jamboree Led Evening

4th December 2022 (updated 4th December 2022) | By Sean Edwards

Last Monday (28th), Joe, Tom and Leo who are off to Korea next year led the evening. They gave a short presentation about the jamboree, led a jamboree quiz, taught some basic phrases and led a couple of Korean themed games. All in all, a very educational evening!

Rifle Shooting / Tennis

11th November 2022 (updated 17th November 2022) | By Sean Edwards

Over the last few weeks, we have split into 2 groups and alternated rifle shooting and Tennis/Chip Shop Hike.

Well done to all the shooters who improved over there turns!

Halloween Wide Games

4th November 2022 (updated 4th November 2022) | By Sean Edwards

On Monday 31st October, we held a Halloween wide games evening. Several of the Explorers dressed up in fancy dress (some costumes were questionable!).

We played traditional games such as apple bobbing, eating the donut from the string plus capture the pumpkin / cone.

A few photos are below:

Indoor Caving

18th October 2022 (updated 18th October 2022) | By Sean Edwards

On Monday 17th, we visited some indoor caving to see how our explorers could navigate through dark, tight spaces!

After familiarisation, we had some head to head races before Avighna was named the overall winner.

Well done all for giving it a try, next year we will have to find some real caves!

Chief Scout Awards / Investitures and D of E Expedition Reports

5th October 2022 (updated 5th October 2022) | By Sean Edwards

On Monday 3rd October, Shackleton Explorers had a very busy evening! We started off with a brief lesson in Heraldry before the Explorers started to design their own coat of arms to represent them.

We then moved onto a more formal part of the evening where we had expedition reports from our 2 D of E Bronze groups and 2 D of E Silver Groups (which parents were welcome to attend).

At the end of the evening, we were joined by Robert Sawyer (our County Commissioner) who presented Chief Scout Gold Awards to Ash, Kevin, Ben and Samuel. He is also presented Chief Scout Platinum Awards to Millie, Jake, Sam and Olivia.

We then invested 6 new members to the unit before Robert awarded the Award for Merit to Sean (who is the Explorer Scout Commissioner) for his commitment to Scouting over an extended period of time.

All in all, a very busy evening celebrating the success of our youth members over the past year – lets hope this continues into future years!

D of E Reports

Investitures and CSA Presentations

Downsman Hike

2nd October 2022 (updated 2nd October 2022) | By Sean Edwards

This year, we entered 2 teams into the annual Downsman Hike Competition.

One team competed in Class E and one in Class B. Both teams completed the competition which is a first for Shackleton. A big congratulations to you all and hopefully it doesn’t take too long for them to fully recover!

Class E – Joe, Nathan, Corey and Charlie

Class E is suitable for Explorers with hiking experience.

Total Route Distance	38 miles. With the rest sections, each person will hike less than the total distance
Route	Steyning Bowl to Eastbourne
Start times	Between 07:30 & 08:30
Time allowed	Up to 18 hours to complete the hike
Age restrictions	Minimum combined team age of 48 years and a maximum combined team age of 62, only whole years are added together. Each individuals must be under 18 years old.
Team composition	4 people to a team, with only 3 hiking at any one time – the fourth will be rested and transported to the next designated Service Area with the Team’s Service Crew. When at a designated Service Area, the rested person will re-join their team, swapping places with a teammate whose turn it is to rest next
Awards	The ‘Chief Scout’s’ trophy is presented to the team that completes the route in the fastest time. A Downsman medal is awarded to everyone who completes the hike

Class B – Xander, Sam, Ben and Jake

Class B is targeted at older Explorer teams with good hiking skills, experience, fitness and endurance.

Total Route Distance	55 miles. With the rest sections, each person will hike less than the total distance
Route	Bignor Hill to Eastbourne
Start times	Between 0600 and 0630
Time allowed	Up to 20 hours to complete the hike
Age restrictions	Minimum combined team age of 48, only whole years are added together. All individuals must be under 18 years old
Team composition	4 people to a team, with only 3 hiking at any one time – the fourth will be rested and transported to the next designated Service Area with the Team’s Service Crew. When at a designated Service Area, the rested person will re-join their team, swapping places with a teammate whose turn it is to rest next.
Awards	The “Boot” trophy will be presented to the fastest team to complete the hike. A Downsman medal is awarded to everyone who completes the hike