Team building and problem solving tonight for the scouts from the old school rooms troop in Stoke Gifford. This was coordinated through zoom during their normal session and extended for 80 minutes. Each scout used a single player game so they could get the full experience of getting from the dormitory through various rooms and entering the final code to reveal a completion code and freedom. The scouts talked through their progress on zoom and used the chat facility to record passwords/ codes and various info. The leaders had a fab time giving clues to help with progress and the scouts some of which were very excited at their achievements and others scratching their heads trying to workout the clues.
We all had a very enjoyable evening and a big ty to the team that created the escape room for us to play for free. Well done to all the scouts

Sue Baker, a Beaver Scout leader and Michele Grattidge, Scout and Explorer Scout leader were presented with awards in December for their dedication and support to scouting in Stoke Gifford.
Michele started as a parent helper at 1 st Stoke Gifford Beavers in 1997, when her son Chris joined the colony.
She soon went into uniform as an Assistant Beaver Leader and from there has been a Cub Leader and then on to be a Scout Leader with the 1 st Stoke Gifford School Scouts, based at St Michaels Primary School.
In addition, she was a founding member of the Solar Explorer unit in 2007 and was an Assistant Explorer Leader until 2020.
She is a trained Duke of Edinburgh assessor and played a leading role in many Solar D of E expeditions and camps as well as supporting other groups with their assessments. She has been on more camps than she can remember and played a part in the growth and development of so many young people over the years.
She is the first person to be a leader at all our units, i.e. Beavers, Cubs, Scout and Explorers. Chris has gone on to be a Scout and Explorer Scout Leader himself, keeping up the family tradition.
Michele was given an ‘Award for Merit’. This award is given for outstanding service of not less than 12 years. It rewards keen, conscientious, imaginative and dedicated service over a sustained period.

This weeks challenge for old school rooms scouts in Stoke Gifford was to write a weekend camp menu and cook a 3 course meal for their families. The scouts were involved in shopping, storage and cleaning up after. The parents were sent a score card to record their scouts preparations, technique, presentation, and taste of all 3 courses.
The scouts had fun and learned new things. As a bonus if all 3 courses were from the same non UK country they earned bonus points plus it counted towards the international activity badge as well as cook activity badge.

This week the scouts from OSR troop in SG were set the challenge to identify 12 local landmarks around the village and using theyre exercise per day to travel around taking photos at each scene either portrait, landscape, action, time lapse etc. Then after duplicating the photos turning 6 black and white and 6 altering the image in some other way using features on their phone or camera or an App. Lots of the troop took part with their families and enjoyed the exercise with some imaginative photos being taken. The session also increased their knowledge of the local area.