New Leaders Information
For New Leaders:
Welcome to the 1st Chalfont St Giles Scout Group, we hope you will have as much fun and enjoyment with your children as we do at Scouts. Scouts is a big family with lots of support available.
There is a closed Facebook Group I would welcome you to join: CSG Facebook Group
Our Group
We have 3 sections: Beavers (Grayburn and Captain Cook), Cubs (Mowgli and Milton) and Scouts (Cromwell and Fleetwood). The Leaders in Beavers have Tree names and the Leaders in Cubs mostly have names from the Jungle Book. As we have a good complement of Assistant Leaders we can have weeks off to manage work/travel etc. What we do each week and who does what is sorted during the planning meetings at the start of each term.
Beaver Colonies:
- Grayburn Tuesday 5:30 to 7 pm – led by Dale Smith.
- Captain Cook Thursday 5:30 to 7 pm – led by Abi Mossop.
Cub Packs:
- Mowgli, Monday, 6 to 7:30 pm – led by Rob Cunliffe.
- Milton, Wednesday, 6:30 to 8 pm – led by Dave Enright.
Scout Troops:
- Cromwell, Thursday, 7:30 to 9 pm – Led by Clive Bishop.
- Fleetwood, Friday, 6:30 to 8 pm – led by Rachel Nelson.
Each section has many brilliant parents who volunteer as Assistant Leaders to spend time with their kids and other adults making friends and having fun. We do work on the basis that if you are willing to volunteer to be a leader to get your child a place you are committed to their enjoyment, growth and development. Each week we also use a Parent Rota to ensure we have enough adults on hand to support learning Skills for Life safely.
We are supported by the Group Executive, parent admins for Group activities including Waiting List, DBS and Leader onboarding and a parent admin for each Colony, Pack or Troop.
We use two primary systems:
- Online Scout Manager to manage our Scout Group, program, badges, events and payments. You will give a login for your child and can also extend this to help run your section. We manage this internally via James Blachford or Rachel Nelson.
- Compass to manage our Adult Leaders. This is the Scout HR system for DBS, training and permit tracking. The Scout Association (TSA) provides this resource.
Induction
You get your scarf and woggle once you are trained and passed the appointment’s interview. At this time you also can “lead” a session and get a key to the hut and car park bollard. Training is at your own pace but must be completed within 5 months of joining and initially are 3 online courses to set the scene and cover GDPR.
New Leader Training – Required to be fully appointed
All the Scout modules/training courses have summaries and information sheets which can be accessed here:
The training modules can be found in Part 3: Complete your training modules. Some modules are delivered by e-learning but others are delivered in person by Scouts.
To achieve your full appointment, you need to complete the following e-learning modules within 5 months of joining:
Once you have completed the training, please save your personalised certificates and email them to Elaine Bentley (e.bentley2@btinternet.com) who manages training for the district and will update your Compass record.
All Leaders – Mandatory Modules
There are 3 mandatory modules which all Leaders must complete and renew every 3 years. These modules are Safety, Safeguarding and First Aid.
The Safety and Safeguarding modules are completed via e-learning using the links below:
Please save your personalised certificates and email them to Elaine Bentley (e.bentley2@btinternet.com) who will update your Compass record.
In terms of First Aid, the requirements are this course needs to be completed within 3 years of joining Scouts. At all meetings that we run, at least one leader attending must have a current First Aid qualification for the session to run so the preference is for Leaders to get their First Aid qualification as soon as they can.
There are two options with First Aid:
- Attend a full-day course. The dates/times/locations of the courses can be found in the attached training calendar. Braid Wood is in Chesham and is much closer than Quarries which is in Milton Keynes.
- Complete the online Module A Part 1 at Module A followed by a half-day course covering Module A Part 2 and Module B. These are the half-day sessions on the training calendar. The online course needs to be done at least a week before attending the half-day session.
Once you have decided which training session (course is free) to attend, please complete the attached application form and send it to Claire Heasman (claire.heasman@bucks-scouts.org.uk) who is part of the County team and will book you on the course.
Term Schedule
Planning meetings are usually in the second week of each term. We broadly follow the government school term, with a break for half-term, finishing a week before each holiday.
This is a good way to meet your fellow Leaders and see what is planned for the next term. We try to make things as easy as possible and share plans whenever we can.
The Safe Scouting Cards
The safety checklist cards are easy references for some of our key rules, procedures and guidelines.
- Yellow Card – Covers what behaviour we expect from our adults, and how you should respond to Safeguarding Concerns. If any adult is unable to understand and/or uphold the Safeguarding Policy and the Yellow Card or is unable to safeguard children, young people and adults at risk, then they cannot be considered for adult appointments.
- Purple Card – Covers what to do if there is a Safety incident, including reporting and actions that should be taken.
- Orange Card – Covers what behaviour we expect from our Young Leaders, and how they should respond to Safeguarding Concerns. You must make sure that your Young Leaders know about this.
- Green Card – Sets out our policy on alcohol for all adults involved in Scouting.
- Checklist Cards – These are pocket checklists aimed to help all adults working with young people to fulfil their roles and responsibilities in managing and supporting safety in Scouting.
Further details on each of the cards can be found on the Scouts website via the link below:
Uniform
The scout group will cover leaders’ expenses for a Scout polo shirt (for meetings), a Scout long-sleeve uniform shirt (for formal occasions, e.g., Remembrance Sunday), and a pair of Scout activity trousers.
These items can be found on the Scout website via the following link:
After purchase, submit a claim with receipts to the Treasurer at treasurer@csg-scouts.org.
For any additional clothing items, please obtain clearance from the Group Scout Leader before making the purchase.
The annual Group events diary is:
September – second week of term: Leader meeting – Scout Hut
September – a week after the Leader meeting: Group Exec
October: Bucks Big O http://www.bucksbigo.org.uk/
November – a week before fireworks: Scouts selling fireworks tickets on the Green
November – Remembrance rehearsal, Tuesday before Remembrance Sunday: Standard bearers, Escorts, Readers 630pm
November: Scouts selling fireworks tickets on the Green
November – Saturday week after the 5th: Fireworks from 6:30 pm to 8 pm (All parents to help run the event)
November: Fireworks Litter parade 8 am
November: Remembrance Sunday parade and service 10 am to midday
November – third weekend: GrymsDyke Hikes for Scouts http://www.grimsdykehikes.co.uk/
January: Leaders and Group Exec meeting
January: Thank-you meal
April: Leaders and Group Exec meeting
April: St Georges Day Service rehearsal, Tuesday evening before St Georges Day Sunday.
April: St Georges Day Service
May: AGM
May – half-term: often Group or Section camps are held this week/end.