Shackleton ESU – Mountain Activity Camp 2023 10th April 2023 (updated 10th April 2023) | By Sean Edwards From Thursday 6th April to Sunday 9th April, Shackleton ESU held our Mountain Activity Camp in the Peak District. After departing Crawley at 10am, we travelled up to Gradbach Scout Campsite where we pitched our base camp before eating dinner and preparing the activity days ahead. On Friday after waking up and eating breakfast we headed to Windgather Rocks where we spent the day in glorious sunshine doing single pitch top rope climbing. We also set up a speed climb to see how quickly they could scale a simple climb with times between 8 seconds and 16 seconds. After a full on day, we returned to the site for dinner and a well deserved rest! On Saturday we headed out bright and early to Edale to setout on our day of hill walking on Kinder Scout. 2 groups scaled up Grindsbrook Clough with some introductory scrambling. The third group headed up a slightly easier ascent so they could familiarise themselves with hill walking. After another glorious day of walking, we returned to the campsite for dinner and started to strike camp. On Sunday, we had our earliest start yet so we could leave site at 9 and be fully packed. Needless to say, Explorers dont like early morning when we woke them up at 6.15am! After striking camp, loading the minibus and trailer, we travelled to Poole Cavern for a cave tour before eating lunch and travelling back to Crawley. The camp was a great success, all of the Explorers behaved well however if we would have asked for one thing, that was warmer temperatures over night – having ice on tents and sleeping bag outers in the morning isn’t too pleasant!
Expedition Training 31st March 2023 | By Sean Edwards On Monday we rotated around 4 expedition training bases covering: First Aid Route Cards / Navigation Tents Expedition Cooking We also did some programme planning for next term and finalized details for our mountain activity camp next week.
Monopoly Run Live 2023 5th March 2023 | By Sean Edwards On Saturday 4th March, 24 Explorers set out to London for Shackleton’s first attempt at the monopoly run. Fuelled by much coffee, sweets and fast food, the Explorers competed against 7000 other scouts to try and be crowned champion. Many steps were walked in a day and the Explorers all looked very worn out by the end of the day! All of our teams were involved in Game 35 and the results were as follows: Game – 35 Game PositionOverall PositionTeamScout GroupBank Balance1201Fluffy SheepsShackleton ESU£39922246BlackberriesShackleton ESU£35613538Pretzel Twists5th St. Ives Scouts£11884612Red Onions5th St. Ives Scouts£6905673AntShackleton ESU£2856698AvengersShackleton ESU£12071135AddidasShackleton ESU£-2533 Well done to all of our teams and thanks to the organisers for a great event. A few photos of the event are below.
Warhammer Part 2 / Hungry Hippos 28th February 2023 (updated 28th February 2023) | By Sean Edwards Tonight we continued with our second Warhammer evening learning how to play the game as beginners. We also played a life sized version of hungry hippos before discussing the final arrangements for this weekends monopoly run.
Pancake Cooking Competition 28th February 2023 (updated 28th February 2023) | By Sean Edwards Last week, the explorers competed to be named the best pancake chef. With a minimal budget, they had to plan and purchase a topping which would be voted most highly by the other teams. The results were varied and scores ranged from 1 to 9 (out of 10) – some teams certainly need more practise!
Chief Scout & D of E Awards 10th February 2023 (updated 10th February 2023) | By Sean Edwards Congratulations to all the young people who were presented with D of E bronze & Silver awards and Chief Scout Diamond and Platinum Award certificates by Superintendent Alex Geldart of West Sussex Police. Shackleton had a full house at the last awards – lets keep this up in the future!
Badminton 1st February 2023 (updated 1st February 2023) | By Sean Edwards On Monday, Shackleton Explorers visited Hazelwick for a game of Badminton. Everyone had fun but not sure we have any future competitive stars in the unit based on their performance during the evening!
Chief Scout Gold and Platinum Awards 25th January 2023 | By Sean Edwards On Monday 23rd Jan, Shackleton had a good meeting on mental health and identity. All of the leaders were incredibly proud of how engaged and mature the young people were during the informative evening. We also invested 2 new members to join the unit, welcome Mirjam and Ben. We also had the pleasure of presenting 3 chief scout gold awards and a chief scout platinum award. The CSA Gold is the highest award a Scout can earn. To complete it, you need to complete all nine of the Challenge Awards, plus six Activity badges. The CSA Platinum award is the next Top Award after Chief Scout’s Gold Award from the Scouts Section. The Platinum award overlaps with the Bronze DofE award, but can be achieved even if you don’t have the Bronze DofE award. Just like the QSA you will need to complete some specific Scout requirements and at least 6 nights away. Well done Harry, Leon, Mirjam and Joe!
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 DateActivityLocationOther Details09/01/2023Trading Post4th WorthFull Uniform16/01/2023HuntedTBCOutdoor Clothing23/01/2023Mental Health Awareness / Identity4th WorthFull Uniform30/01/2023BadmintonOriel SchoolSportswear06/02/2023Warhammer Part 1 / Games4th WorthFull Uniform13/02/2023NO MEETINGNO MEETINGNO MEETING20/02/2023Pancakes4th WorthFull Uniform27/02/2023Warhammer Part 2 / Games4th WorthFull Uniform06/03/2023Crossbows / Tomahawk Throwing4th WorthFull Uniform13/03/2023Crossbows / Tomahawk Throwing4th WorthFull Uniform20/03/2023Cycling / OrienteeringTilgate TBCOutdoor Clothing27/03/2023Expedition Skills4th WorthFull Uniform03/04/2023NO MEETING – EASTERNO MEETINGNO MEETING Events DateEventOther Details04/03/2023Monopoly RunLondon06/04/2023 – 09/04/2023Mountain Camp 2023Peak District29/04/2023 – 01/05/2023Silver D of E PractiseNew Forest26/08/2023 – 28/08/2023Silver D of E AssessedNew Forest22/07/2023 – 29/07/2023Summer Camp with DrakeYorkshire22/07/2023 – 29/07/2023Gold Expedition PractiseCombined with Summer Camp07/10/2023Downsman HikeSouth DownsTBCBronze D of E PractiseDate TBCTBCBronze D of E AssessedDate TBCTBCWinter CampDate TBC Shackleton-Programme-Spring-2023-1Download
