Apr 24 2017

2017 St. George’s Day Parade

  • 24/04/2017

Well over 500 Scouts, Guides and adult volunteers from Newcastle paraded through the town centre yesterday to celebrate Scouting, Guiding and their patron saint, St. George on St. George’s Day itself.

The parade was led by the 1st Porthill Scout Group’s Drum Corps. The young people were watched by the Borough’s Mayor, Councillor Ian Wilkes, and Scout and Guide Commissioners, and went on to St. Giles Church for a service of celebration and picnic.

This year the parade and celebration were organised by the District’s Youth Executive. The celebration and promise renewals took place in St. Giles Churchyard, where the weather was sunny and warm (unlike last year!).  Scouts and Guides of all ages renewed their Promise and awards were presented to Scouts, adult Leaders and helpers.

After the dismissal, everyone joined in a picnic in the Churchyard.

Click here to see more photos.

Permanent link to this article: https://newcastledistrictscouts.org.uk/2017/04/2017-st-georges-day-parade/

Apr 14 2017

The Co-Op Community Fund

  • 14/04/2017

Newcastle District have been chosen to be recipients of the Co-Op Community Fund for the next 6 months.

When Co-Op Members buy Co-op branded products and services, the Co-op will give 1% to a local cause. Your support can help raise more for causes in your community.

Go online coop.co.uk/membership and make us your cause!

Permanent link to this article: https://newcastledistrictscouts.org.uk/2017/04/the-co-op-community-fund/

Mar 21 2017

District Night Hike

  • 21/03/2017

On Saturday 18th March 80 Scouts, along with 40 Leaders and young leaders from all across Newcastle District, descended upon the Guide campsite at Maer.

After pitching their tents and then helping their Leaders pitch theirs, the Scouts started the afternoons activities:

  1. Learning how to use and read 6 figure grid references.
  2. How to use a compass and walk on a bearing.
  3. How to locate your position on a map.

After this they had a challenge to figure out what 90 different symbols are on a map.

The Scouts then filled their bellies with pasta bolognese and greasy garlic bread before getting ready for the evenings walk.

At 17.30 the first groups,  Knutton, Red Street and Whitmore were ferried out to Swynnerton, the starting point for the hike. They were followed in 20 minute intervals by Ashley Air Scouts, two Clayton troops, Holy Trinity, Porthill and St Giles scouts.

The hike routes were around 5.5 miles long and we saw the first group walking down the drive at about 21.00. Some Scouts were still out walking until around 00.30. When they eventually arrived, warm soup was on offer before swiftly collapsing into their tents for the night.

The following morning Scouts and Leaders were greeted with a nice warm cheesy oatcake.

Everyone then helped out dropping all the tents and tidying the site, even with the gale force winds.

They then broke camp, but not before handing out some prizes to the winning teams.

St Giles came in 1st, with Ashley 2nd followed closely by Whitmore in 3rd place. Congratulations to those groups and well done to all the other groups for taking part.

A special thanks to all the leaders, young and older who made this event the success that it was.

More photos can be seen in the gallery.

Permanent link to this article: https://newcastledistrictscouts.org.uk/2017/03/district-night-hike/

Mar 05 2017

Help Inspire Beavers in Madeley & Betley – Adults Wanted

  • 05/03/2017

Would you like to help inspire Beaver Scouts (6 – 8 year olds) in Madeley & Betley to have great adventures? If your answer is “yes”, then come along to Betley Village Hall on Wednesday 15th March at 7.45pm.

We are recruiting Leaders and adult helpers. Come along and have a tea, coffee or soft drink and have a chat to find out how you can help enrich the lives of young people. You don’t need any previous Scouting experience or the ability to tie knots, just enthusiasm and a ability to inspire!

Contact details are on the below flyer and please see the below map for directions to Betley Village Hall.

2017-03-15 Beavers Open Meeting

Permanent link to this article: https://newcastledistrictscouts.org.uk/2017/03/help-inspire-beavers-in-madeley-betley-adults-wanted/

Feb 28 2017

Newcastle District Scouts Promote Good Mental Wellbeing

  • 28/02/2017

Last weekend, Leaders from across the District took part in the first training session to provide awareness of mental health.
By completing this training, provided by North Staffs Mind, Leaders will have a better understanding of mental health and mental ill health and will be in a better position to provide support for young people involved in Scouting. This will help to ensure the District’s young people know that they are safe and supported by their Leaders and Scout colleagues in their community.

The training was excellent, very informative and professionally delivered. It was encouraging to see how many positive mental health strategies our Leaders employed, many of which were connected with an active lifestyle and Scouting activities.

Positive mental health, and awareness in young people is one of the areas our youth executive committee are passionate about promoting in the District.

One of our young leaders had this to say about how Scouting has helped them –

 

When I was almost 6 I can remember standing in front of a flag making the first of many promises I would make throughout the rest of my life.
When I was 13 I sat panicking about the fact I was going  to have to leave the comfort of my Scout Troop and go to Explorers, and I seriously considered quitting Scouting. However, for some reason, my mind decided to tell me not to and I made my most recent promise.
See, when you’re part of Scouting / Guiding, it means so much more than the scarf you wear and the badges you have. The friends you meet become family and the adventures you get the opportunity to go on stay with you for the rest of your life. I’ve done many things, the Monopoly run, numerous camps, car washes, a trip to Norway and I’m a young leader.
Yet, I’m still slightly ashamed to walk around in my uniform and proclaim how good Scouting is. However, I know for a fact that I’ve had more adventures in the last 9 years than any of the idiots at school will ever have!

I watch people make the promise a lot, yet each time I say it ,it means a lot more than the words I say. It’s a sense of belonging and a sense of pride, because Scouting has helped me in more ways than I can count and I would not be the person I am today without Scouting. I owe a great deal of gratitude to the leaders who have literally put up with so much from me, so here’s to the future the friends and memories!

#scoutingforall

There are more training sessions planned for District leaders over the next couple of months.

This training has been supported through the Staffordshire County Council Local Community Fund. Newcastle District Scout Council thanks Councillor David Loades for his ongoing support.

Permanent link to this article: https://newcastledistrictscouts.org.uk/2017/02/newcastle-district-scouts-promote-good-mental-wellbeing/

Feb 08 2017

Young Leaders Weekend

  • 08/02/2017

Last weekend saw the District’s first Young Leader residential module weekend at Kibblestone. Everyone arrived on Friday evening at the Ronald Copeland Training Centre and after ‘getting settled’ completed the first of the 3 modules they would be doing over the next 2 days. The Young Leaders spent the rest of the evening playing cards!

On Saturday they were going to be doing some service for Kibblestone, so after a full English breakfast, they set off to see the Warden, Steve Fern.

Everyone spent the rest of the day sawing, chopping and burning wood to clear the bottom car park.

After tea on Saturday they did the second module and on Sunday morning they completed the third.

Newcastle-under-Lyme District are extremely fortunate to have such incredible, committed Young Leaders and we believe the future of Scouting in our District is in safe hands!

More photos are in our Gallery.

Permanent link to this article: https://newcastledistrictscouts.org.uk/2017/02/young-leaders-weekend/

Feb 07 2017

Newcastle District Helping Younger Mind

  • 07/02/2017

Last night members of our Youth Executive presented 2 cheques to a total of £687 to Lisa Douthwaite from Younger Mind in Newcastle. Younger Mind offers emotional support to young people aged up to 18 years who live in Stoke-on-Trent, North Staffordshire including the Staffordshire Moorlands and is the charity the Youth Executive have chosen to support.

The money was raised at iScout at Newcastle’s Food Festival back in September and the Carol service in December.

Permanent link to this article: https://newcastledistrictscouts.org.uk/2017/02/newcastle-district-helping-younger-mind/

Feb 01 2017

New Youth Commissioner & #YouShape 2017

  • 01/02/2017

We are pleased to announce that Newcastle District has appointed its first Youth Commissioner, Nakita Emmens.

I am pleased to appoint Nakita as the District’s 1st Youth Commissioner. She is the natural choice, due to her skills and leadership in starting the District Youth Executive. I’d like to thank Nakita for her leadership of youth executive and I am looking forward to working with her on #YouShape to help our District develop .

Vera Bloor – District Commissioner

Also, last week at the District Executive, all members signed up to the #YouShape 2017 pledge.

Permanent link to this article: https://newcastledistrictscouts.org.uk/2017/02/new-youth-commissioner-youshape-2017/

Jan 02 2017

2017 A New Year & New YouTube Channel

  • 02/01/2017

We hope everyone had a great Christmas and new year. Newcastle District has plenty of exciting activities planned for this year, so please make sure you keep an eye on this site, our Facebook page and Twitter account to keep up to date.

To add to our social media profile, we now have a YouTube channel. We will have videos on here of the District’s activities, so please click the link below and take a look.

Permanent link to this article: https://newcastledistrictscouts.org.uk/2017/01/2017-a-new-year-new-youtube-channel/

Dec 23 2016

Merry Christmas

  • 23/12/2016

Newcastle District Scouts would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

tree-183x300

Permanent link to this article: https://newcastledistrictscouts.org.uk/2016/12/merry-christmas-2/