What sort of thing do Scouts do?

During their normal weekly meetings, Scouts enjoy a variety of activities interspersed with games. They have cooking sessions, hobbies evenings, IT sessions etc, and quite a few meeting are held away from the HQ. They enjoy playing wide games, cooking outdoors, hiking, going ten pin bowling, cycling, and outdoor sports.

Camping still remains an extremely popular activity with the Troop. We regularly camp at Longridge Scout Boating Centre on the Thames near Marlow. Our Scouts have taken part in a wide variety of activities there, including sailing, kayaking, dragon boating, raft building, and they have also tried out the climbing wall. A few years ago they had brilliant fun on these inflatable hamster wheels, but sadly these are no longer available, due to the constant problems with punctures.

We also hold "back to basics" camps locally. Scouts still enjoy building fires, pioneering, cooking and building bivouacs. In the winter we use our local Youth Hostel, at Court Hill, near Wantage, for an overnight stop on a hike along the Ridgeway Long Distance Path.

There are now a whole new series of badges for Scouts to work towards; these include eight Challenge Badges, ranging from the Outdoor Challenge to the Creative Challenge. The highest award in the Scout Section is now the Chief Scout's Gold Award. To achieve this a Scout must gain the Outdoor Challenge, plus four other challenge badges and a personal challenge. There are a huge selection of Activity Badges to cater for the wide range of hobbies that Scouts enjoy. There are also new Participation Awards to mark the number of years that young people have been involved in the Scout Movement.

The Scout uniform has also changed and Scouts are wearing new teal (blue/green) shirts with the new navy blue activity trousers or shorts. They continue to wear their Group scarves, which for 2nd Thatcham Scout Group are pale blue and claret.

Another change, which has recently affected the Scout Section, has been the formation of Explorer Units for young people aged from 14 to 18, and the Scout Network for those aged from 18 to 25. There is now an Explorer Unit, based in our HQ, which caters for all the 14 to 18 year old Scouts from all the Troops in our District. The new Scout Network, which caters for young people aged from 18 to 25 (another change in age ranges here) is a County based section. This caters for young people who have become Leaders and Helpers with the younger Sections as well.