Thought I'd update this. Both my girls are still loving girls and boys brigade and go every week. They seem to have a couple of new members but numbers are still the same at 10-12 most weeks. Enough to have fun but I'm still hoping a few more join up.
Eldest seems to generally enjoy brownies bar a couple of times. That group has had one new member but still never seems to get more than 6 or 7 girls. It's odd they are struggling so much, the guides are next door at the same time and have decent numbers. My eldest has chosen not to go last couple of weeks, I'm unsure if she's decided it's not for her or not.
Beavers is brilliant! I'm so glad I pursued getting her in that lodge as it's fabulous and came at a time where she changed schools and with 4 other turquoise ninjas at her new school and in her class it definitely helped her settle. She's really enjoying the activities and now has several awards badges best of all, last night she went on a sleep over at the hut, I collected her this morning and was met by a beaming smile 😁. So will be confirming she's not changed her mind later and booking her place at group camp. I'm as excited for her!
Boys Brigade volunteer here. I don't do week to week, just the outdoory stuff where it's useful to have ML, DofE, biking tickets and experience. I also end up driving the minibus to all sorts of things
We're greatly down on numbers. We're struggling with all sorts of behaviour and lack of social awareness/norms.
A lot of the drop off I would suggest was some of the 'free childcare in Friday night' group.
A few of the lads with bigger challenges in life have parents determined that they stay in bb's and school. While I welcome that, it's posing some behaviour issues that some of the volunteers have had enough of.
As a volunteer locally, I'm very welcome and appreciated and it's shown by boys, parents and the local leadership. On a national front, like so many other youth organisations, I'm seeing a lot of extra training for safeguarding and leading outdoor/adventurous activities. I'm being asked to sit a 2-day introduction to outdoors, including navigation etc, despite a decade of BB volunteering and 30 years of leading such activities at work, and holding a lot of outdoor tickets the course leaders don't even hold... I know from other friends that scouts has similar robust to excessive training and sign off.
I thought I'd give a little update and a big thank you to all the volunteers running clubs. 7 months on and:
Girls brigade: both my 5 and 7 yo still go every Friday and love it. The ladies are lovely and just make it fun for all the kids. Mostly the faces are the same every week. Numbers wise I think they are up slightly but no more than 14-15 kids guess. Tbh I think the ladies running it like that, it works for them and they aren't pushing for more. Fine, our 2 love it and it's 2 minutes from our door.
Brownies: the eldest was enjoying it but the numbers remained a problem with my daughter being one of only 2 or 3 some weeks. She started to find that frustrating as it prevented them doing some stuff and she started to go less regularly. My wife and I understood why she was less keen and with it being a bit less conveniently located we didn't push. Then she's needed to do some booster school work on the same night and that made it too much. Dropped but not missed, although grateful that it got her out meeting others when she needed it.
The 5 yo has just started rainbows at a different pack. She loves it, mainly as her 3besties from school also joined. It's limited to 14 girls and they seem to be doing fun but simple games so I suspect her interest may drop. Tbh, I hope it does as its the same night as beavers, one ending at the same time the other starts, with a 7 min walk/sprint between them. So far that is OK as I can wfh that day and between my wife and I we can collect the 5yo and deposit the 7 yo, even if that means the 2yo gets taken out at the sort of time he is getting tired. The problem comes in June when, at 5¾ daughter 2 can take a place with beavers.
Beavers: this is fantastic and I'm so grateful my daughter got a spot and immensely grateful to the leaders. Its now my eldest's favourite club. Her confidence has grown over the time since I started this thread and I'm sure beavers is part of that. As one of, or perhaps the, eldest in the lodge now she has just been made red Lodge leader, and smiles each week as we walk home and she tells how she has kept the 'fidgets' in her lodge in line that night! When going she now wants to be left to walk the last 200m on her own (not a chance!), she loved a sleep over at the hut and is now bouncing with excitement about group camp at the end of May. Any other Croydon scout groups off to that, look out for the 61st, and the turquoise terrors from red lodge 😀
They have a full group, 24 I think, but surprisingly no one waiting to join besides my 5yo. Last half term a few moves to cubs created spaces and we were all asked to put the word out. The places were soon filled though and a couple of the new kids are in my 5yo's class. So I'm hoping that she gives it a good try and likes it as much as her big sis, and the early collection from rainbows and dash around the corner can end with her dropping rainbows. However with her besties in rainbows I suspect that dash may continue a while. Fair enough.
Anyway, we are really glad all these clubs exist and are very grateful to the volunteers that run them. I'm also very grateful the beavers group is so good, and so close by! Fingers crossed camp goes well.
When going she now wants to be left to walk the last 200m on her own (not a chance!)
Out of interest, what worries you about her walking that?
No chance of my wife agreeing. Yet. Tbf, we both know she'd get there safely but just on the slim chance of :
A. It's been cancelled late or beaver leaders are late my wife and I want to know she's in safe. Or (and related)
B. If the hut door is still shut it's common for the gathering beavers to start running about playing tag. The space by the hut seems to be one of those surfaces that can be a bit greasy and it's common for 2 minutes of tag to end with a beaver on the floor with gravel rash. If that beaver is mine (again) it's my responsibility to dust her down, tell her she'll be fine and dry any tears. I know the leaders there will do it and stick a plaster on, but if I at least am there to calm her down until ready to go get a plaster then it should disrupt less of the hour for everyone
I'll admit there's also some of she's our eldest and we've got to learn what space is reasonable.... but all the other beavers are delivered to the door still so ... maybe when the uniform changes to forest green we will let her walk ahead!
Oh and you aren't from Croydon are you poly? Se19 where we are is a nice bit, but as our local pcso told the residents association last week, Croydon is number 1 for knife crime and other stuff does go on. Only the same sort of distance from our front door but in the opposite direction, a young lad not much older was killed in a stabbing a few years ago. He wasn't a gang member, he was thought to have been mistaken for one. So although I will ensure my kids are not living in fear, I can understand my wife's concerns. We have also had a family member's life changed dramatically by being hit by a car in the last 18 months. So we are still working on road safety with our kids, and working on our own comfort in where and how we trust them.
Out of interest, what worries you about her walking that?
I'm not from Croydon but know the answer to that one and that's from someone who is lucky enough to live somewhere that we don't fret nearly as much as I might. The other issue is often "the rules" we live 200m from the Scout Hut
Until Scouts they couldn't leave without a parent. Something I'd have been doing from Cubs age.
As regards the Guides/Scouts type stuff generally I think the opening up of the Scout movement to not be gender restricted in any way has likely hit Guides hard alongside the fact that parents don't (I think) value those types of activities the same way they would have done in my youth so overall numbers are perhaps not as high as they were.
If I look at my son's group I'd say there's roughly a 50/50 boy/girl split and enough at each level that there are sub-troops at each level to spread activities across two nights. That, I suspect is where some of the Rainbows/Brownies/Guides have gone.
Our Scout group is maybe only 10% girls, we get odd little bubbles of 2-3 working their way up through the sections, then a year or two without any. Girls in a section really changes the dynamic, leaders often comment that you soon tell which boys have disters and which don't.
Not sure allowing girls into Scouts has been a problem for Guiding - it was originally only done because Scouts needed to fill up struggling groups, but has definitely been a positive thing for Scouts.
MrsMC is a Guide leader, and is firmly of the opinion that Guiding offers girls a safe, male free space they don't get anywhere else, which I kind of see.
Guiding's problem is that while they are big on empowering young women, they are more restrictive on activities and risk assessments, so many girls lose interest or move to Scouts. I suspect my daughter would have got more out of Scouting in the challenge sense than she has out of Guiding.
But the two different groups give girls a choice at least.
I hadn't really thought about the mix at beavers other than that it was good they come from at least 2 schools. 75% ish are from a school adjacent to the scout hut, and I think those beavers are almost all boys. The other 25% like my daughter come from another primary school and I've just realised they are nearly all girls. Think they are all girls currently.
Oh and you aren’t from Croydon are you poly? Se19 where we are is a nice bit, but as our local pcso told the residents association last week, Croydon is number 1 for knife crime and other stuff does go on.
sorry I forgot about this thread having asked a question, that probably came across as a bit trolly…
im not from Croydon, but I grew up in Glasgow in the 80s and fear of knife crime is not lost on me. I’m not sure your local PCSO is actually helping the situation by stoking that fear (people are irrational - the statistic may be true but some people will respond to that by arming themselves!). If I genuinely believed that my child’s life was at risk from walking 200 yds to a scout hall I’d be appraising if whatever else that kept me in Croydon was worth it. I don’t believe society is more dangerous today than when we grew up, it’s just more publicised. We risk mollycoddling our kids, and scouts (and some inherent danger there) is part of the antidote to that. My attitude to this stuff is slightly different (just like your wife) which is odd as she didn’t exactly grow up in a Royal Palace, although she never got threatened with knives, shot with air guns, or chased down the street with a baseball bat - all of which happened to me before I was 16 (but not at Cubs/Beavers age).
dropping off and picking up are slightly different things in my book, and perhaps dark v daylight. But I think your other concern about mucking about outside the hall is actually much more merited. I recall standing outside the scout hall at pick up time (sometimes prompt, sometimes 10 mins late) chatting to some other parents and actually when the hall needed some DIY work done, or the kids needed taking somewhere parents knew each other to club together to get stuff done.
The question didn't seem like trolling and I hope the answers didn't. Sorry if they did.
The main difference between zone3 London now and 40+ years ago when I was that age is the traffic. I was allowed out in the street with a friend and no adult from 6+ iirc, but it was a quiet street. It's just not the same even though its pure suburbs and housing here we see more cars and a few idiots they must be approaching 3x the 20 limit. My wife is more cautious than I am but understandably as she nearly lost her mum to a road accident 18 months ago. Statistics don't help the unlucky individual.
Our troop has recently tipped to just over 50% girls- we were on camp this weekend & had 8 girls & 6 boys.
The question didn’t seem like trolling and I hope the answers didn’t. Sorry if they did.
Good - it wasn't meant to be. I just remembered the thread and thought oops that perhaps came across as argumentative especially as I never came back - life got in the way.
I know there is anther thread about volunteering at clubs but....search is frankly **** and I absolutely must say this.
Holy Mary mother of God! In fact Mary, Joseph and the wee donkey! That was an eye opener! I volunteered to help at Beavers and do knots.... I'm going to have nightmares .....20 beavers all screaming, 'is this it? Have I done it?' While holding the biggest tightest not-a-reef-knot-granny-knot .... I need a beer!
I TAKE MY HAT OFF TO ALL WHO VOLUNTEER!
Well eldest is away at group camp ( beavers, cubs and scouts) at Frylands Wood. Just one night for her as a beaver. I took her down and did my bit for 3 hours erecting tents. Looked around and was surprised it looked 2/3rds girls at least. I counted 7 turquoise terrors of which 6 were girls. I don't know any of the cubs or scouts but numbers looked more girls then boys, another 29-30 across the cubs and scouts in total I think.
I took her down and did my bit for 3 hours erecting tents.
You have no idea how grateful the leaders will be for that! Hope she has a great time.
Mrs SC is running a scout camp this weekend.
Last weekend she was in London at a World Jamboree Camp. Single-occupancy car use is not enough to destroy the planet so she flew down.
Sunday: got back at 11pm
Tuesday: online AGM
Wednesday: local scouts (leader)
Thursday: prep so had to miss her best friend's birthday
Friday: another local scouts (assistant leader) plus camp shopping
Saturday morning - off to scout camp.
She's been to scouts this week more often than she's walked the dog (once).
Wife: we should have a family dinner on Sunday.
Me: we had one last week but you weren't here.
Just saying.
I have an idea morecash. 37 scouts across beavers, cubs and scouts, 21 minute drive from the scout hut so not far. Me and iirc 3 dad's, and about the same number of mums stayed to help get them set up.... although I looked round after about hour 45, and it may have been just me still there. I left with a couple of tents to go still I think but I reckon they could manage from there.
I suspect my daughter it's having a great time and not missing us.... but kind of feel sad at the same time if that's the case.
