This years St Georges Day Parade is taking place at:

St Georges Day Parade
Sunday 17th April, 2011
Central Hall, Longton

Everyone is to meet at 1.30pm on the car-park of TILE GIANT, Longton, using their entrance in Bridgewood Street, Longton ( just above the back entrance to Longton Police Station), NOT the main entrance on Anchor Road.
Please note NO cars will be allowed on the car-park.

  We will leave there at 2pm to parade around the streets to arrive at The Central Hall at 2.30pm.  The service will last 1 hour and then the parade will be dismissed in church and Groups will be asked to leave in turn for children to be picked up by their parents.

  We advise everyone to park on Tesco car-park and walk to Anchor Road.  Parents could drop children off in Bridgewood Street and then park on Tesco.

 A successful overnight camp where all 13 cubs attended. All gained the Scientist Badge.
They Learnt about electrical circuits, air, motion, chemical reaction and lots more.....

Also revised on 1st Aid (bandaging)
 

 ** SECRET SANTA ATTENDED  **
"Snow is falling all around us, children playing having FUN !!"

Each Section did there own creative activities based around Christmas.
Beavers made Salt Dough , Xmas Cards, Crackers
Cubs made Salt Dough Baskets, Jigsaw Photo Frames, Tree Decorations, Xmas Cards.
Scouts made Table decoration, Cakes & Baskets, Xmas Cards and Tree Decoration.
The group came together with guests on Saturday for there Christmas Dinner. After Dinner a Talent Show was Organised with the Guests being the judges. Chris Allerton won by playing the drums. As tradition Skip put on a Camp fire where each sections and GUESTS put on a Sketch or sang a song.

Over All - Everyone enjoyed themselves....including the Leaders !

 All the cubs that were going on the Group Xmas Camp showed off there talents. Dancing, Singing, Rapping and a Trick were shown. Now it's practice, practice and practice until the Talent Show on Saturday Night.  - Good Luck Everyone !!!

Give a Cub a Paint Brush, Creosote and something to Paint, what are the odds there will be more on the floor?
Well luckily for us we used a 5x4m floor cover !

Overall we think they did a fantastic job with not too much creosote on the floor !

* a selection of photo's.

Well Done to the 3 Cub's that gave up there time to represent our group in the swimming gala...... Sophie, Mat & Finlay. 

With 12 hammers banging in the nails they finally built a Bird-Box.......the noise was quite loud in the hall this evening. 

The Cubs started their DIY Badge - Week 1 (Trestle Building).

Cub's learnt how to use a Hammer and Saw SAFELY
(No Cubs were injured during this exercise)

Took 4 cubs on a gentle walk from Denstone to Oakamoor picnic site along the Old Churnet Valley Railway line which took us past Alton Towers, where they heard the screams !!!

Whilst on the walk they learnt how to use a GPS and enjoyed a new activity 'Geocaching' where they inputted co-ordinates into the GPS and found hidden treasure (caches) along the route. In total they found 11 caches, they even visited the 'Chained Oak'

"Well Done !! Finlay, Matthew C, Regan, Greg, Kian, Sophie, Sam whom performed really well during the matches and reached Semi-Finals..... " -  Akela

Cubs & Scouts had there Summer Camp at PGL, Ardres, France for a funfilled week of water activities, Kayaking, Sailing, Rafting, Dragon Boating & a visit to Disneyland Paris.
Weather = Great
Facilities = Excellent
Cubs & Scouts = FANTASTIC !!!!

 Group AGM, Not bad turn out. Trophies and badges handed out with a presentation from scouts.

We took 9 Cubs to Stoke Town Hall to be presented with the Highest Award in the Cub Section; The Chief Scout Silver Award. It was presented by the Lord Mayor of Stoke on Trent.

"Congratulations to all of you" - Akela

Cubs camped at Beau, while doing many fun activities they also went off site for a few hours to go and do some sailing. The Cubs completley loved the camp!

The Scouts camped at sherratts wood most completed the Outdoor challenge and some are very near completing it. Well done you worked hard.

The scouts had a very hard weekend who attempted to survive with the minimum. Learning what they can and cannot eat and how to make a meal out of nettle leaves!

The scouts did work hard even through the misserable rain, Very proud! ~Skip

We held another race night at the florence bowls club, this time was not quite as successfull as the last but we still gained about £30 profit after paying for the hall and the races.

Thanks to those who turned up.

Group paid for everyone to go to alton towers for the day which turned to be an absolute amazing day. We had good feedback from the staff at alton towers saying our scouts used maners and were very well behaved.

Well done!

All the leaders got together and went to the Mango Tree Draycot for a meal and a few drinks. It was nice to see them let their hair down after all their hard work.

The cubs went to newcastle for an atletes day which the cubs loved. Well done to those who took part.

Skip arranged for the group to go to sherratts wood and plant trees which he ordered off the internet to go towards some of their badges.

The day was very good, which also turned out to have some service work which included digging trenches to put pipes down for a tap deeper into the woods.

Scouts have done another hike, which was a really good day with minimum getting lost. Which our scouts have the "nack" of doing.

Well done ~Skip

The AGM now had an extra adition this year with Scouts, who read out some of their things that they have done in the few months they have been open.

Skip received the Frank Redman Shield for his hard work of gaining and building his scout section

We slept in a building at Warslow in the peak district and did a few hikes. Kids loved the weekend and it was something new.

The scouts got a train to congleton and did another hike in a really humid environment.

Group Christmas Camp at Kibblestone

Camp at Beaudesert (Joint With Cubs) Was a big success, as it was our first official scout camp it went really well.

I do have one main story though that i think i need to share with everyone.
Its about a "Squirel" and "Tapp". Firstly Tapp is one of my leaders and the Squirel was just a poor defenseless hungry animal searching for food.
On  the Saturday night a Squirel was wondering past a tent, and smelt some chocolate, and everyone knows Tapp is known for his junk food.
Tapp woke up in the morning to find a few rather large holes in his tent and an empty chocolate wrapper.
Me and Tech could not stop laughing and telling everyone what we saw. It was so funny.
So to all you campers, don't take food in your tents with you, if you do make sure the wrapper is smell proof.

On the camp we covered quite a few activities, Coralcling which is where you sit in a bowl and try balance as you paddle. I stupidly got into one with Tapp, and of course the bowl was too heavy on "His" Side.... we both fell in. So there was nothing left to do than to get everyone else wet and make everyone else fall in. Of course....

We also had a very quick go on the greasy pole, we were still drenched from coralcling and stung like rotten weeds and stuff so we had a go on the to get a bit cleaner. It was okay, but it did hurt when you have Tapp swinging a soaked solid pillow at you straight in the side, Vengance will be mine!

Skip

Grand Opening of 5th City Normacot Scouts Section, Sadly we only had few scouts turn up as other comitments got in the way.

But we had a party and a few games anyway, with enough food to fill the whole group.

Included in the night was:
Eating sticky donuts off a string which after a matter of seconds led to the floor,
volleyball
rounders etc etc.

We got the parents involved and we all had a laugh, a great first night!

Skip.

Scouts first ever hike, on this hike we covered about 5 miles. It was a tough hike for most including our GSL.

We had a great day and the weather was well on our side which is good, there was one point where we had a bit of rain but luckilly we were under a bridge where we decided to do "Oragami Boat Race" which of course... i WON! hehe.

The route was very good apart from right at the end, 500m from finishing where we encountered a very stubburn and very rude farmer who moved the "public" footpath to suit her own farm and said it was our fault we lost track, but hey! we didnt let that stop us! Instead we finished the hike and went to do some clown skills before the parents arrived.

Skip.

We went to Kibblestone to join in on a mass outdoor Orienteering night, this night was run by an official orienteering club.

We only had a few scouts turn up but it was still very fun and they enjoyed it. Me (Skip) and Tech both had a go too, and have decided if there is enough numbers for next year we will join the club and possibly go for the Orienteering Trophy!!

Skip

Here we spent the day out at Kibblestone teaching the scouts how to light a fire and how to use blades correctly. Including Axe, Knife and Saw.

This day was a brilliant success. We also went on the assault course and the orienteering course.