Scouts is for young people aged between 10½ and 14 years who want to make friends and develop their
widening interests in way that are both educational and fun.
Our activities are about action and involvement and mean more than just camping. Hiking, rock climbing, gliding, sailing, pioneering, canoeing, parascending,
abseiling, putting on shows and exhibitions, motor mechanics, electronics, photography - the list is endless!
Badges
Where do my Badge
Go ? Click the uniformfor a quick guide to show the position of
the most common Scout Badges
What Badges can I
get ? Click
this link to see a list of badges and what to do to get
them.
Troop Activities and Events
Below are just a few examples of the activities we have taken part
in. Many have links to photo galleries
We started our hike from the Plume of
Feathers in Barlaston at 7pm on Fri 17 July. 17 Scouts turned up
and we set off. A mile into the hike we had a phone call from
Teddy's Dad to ask where we all were, so Greg ran back to get him,
he didhave to travel from
Nantwich. Once back with the group we had a good 10 or 15 minutes to
catch up. All the scouts did really well up and down the hills
stopping off at the millennium point for a snack and a drink and
photo shoot. The rain held of and we all arrived back at the Plume
of Feathers with 5 minutes to spare. The total distance hiked was
about 4 1/2 miles and it was for a Hike's Away badge.
June 2011 - Geocaching
What is Geocaching?
Geocaching is an activity that makes it fun to
go hiking!
It is like treasure hunting but more high tech
because you have the element of new technology like the iphone and
GPS.
Geocache boxes are scattered all around the
world so people in any country can go searching for them, they can
then put stuff in and record their name in a log book.
The containers you can find whilst geocaching
are sometimes like mini time capsules.
Our first attempt
Trentham scouts, Phoenix Patrol recently went
geocaching in Trentham Park and it was reasonably successful, we
found 4 out of 5 containers.
The first we found was under the roots of a
tree in the middle of a grove.
The second cache was found under a bush next
to a boundary fence to Trentham Gardens; this box was quite large
and contained a compass, notebook and pen, Dora the Explorer keyring,
a Simpson’s eraser and a bouncy ball.
Within the ruins, the third
cache was discovered. It was a film canister in a plastic bag; all that was in it
was paper where people had recorded dates and names.
Although we didn’t find the fourth we spent a
long time looking and still had fun, some people looked harder than
others!!
We all finally headed to a cache called the
banana tree, we found it was obvious how it got its name
because it was bent and shaped like a banana.
The trek back was a long one but it was worth
it due to the fact that we found most of the geocaches we set out to
get that night; the one that we couldn’t find didn’t make us any
less enthusiastic.
Written by Phoenix Patrol
February 2011
See a short video of our Scouts at Trentham Ice Rink Click the image once to play here or double click to go to our You
Tube Page
Activities 2010
January 2010
The Scouts took part
in two Music related outings, they spent the afternoon at BBC
Radio Stoke, they visited the BBC studios in Hanley and saw what goes into
creating a radio show. During the tour the on-air presenter did a
shout-out (click the player to the right to hear it)
Scouts
also visited Stoke on Trent
City Music and Performing Arts Service - "Gigajam". "Gigajam" uses
special instruments plugged into computers, allowing people to record
a piece of music into the machine's memory using special guitars, drum
kits and keyboards. "Gigajam" then tells the musician which sections
of the music they got wrong, and helps them to correct any mistakes.
(Click once to play, again to open up
full size in our YouTube Page)
Here are a few videos of the practice sessions
......................................
During the sessions some Scouts got the chance to
"jam" on real instruments.....................
(Click once to play, again to open up
full size in our YouTube Page)
And finally, "Wii RockBand" was turned on for a final
sing-a-long.....................
(Click once to play, again to open up
full size in our YouTube Page)
What else we did 2010?
In April we went on camp to Beudesert, Cannock Chase and in June we went on
a hike around Trentham Park
We finished off the Communicators badge, looking at the Phonetic
alphabet, morse code, mobile phone safety and a visit to Radio Stoke.
5 scouts were recognised by the Lord Mayor for achieving the Chief Scouts
Gold Award.
We had a Chinese themed sleepover, another camp in the spring, a group camp in the summer and more backwoods
cooking.
January started with the scouts continuing
their work towards the Fitness Challenge and a great way to start the New
Year working off the excess of Christmas.
We had 4 scouts achieving the highest
award in Scouts the Chief Scouts Gold Award and this was recognised by a
presentation from the Lord Mayor.
We also had a go at making Hot Air
Balloons out of Crete Paper.
We finished the month off with a sleepover
at the Scout House, where we took part in a Wii Olympics competition
followed by a chip supper and a film.
(Larger photo in the Gallery)
February 2009
A shorter month than most due to half term etc. However we
still managed to continue towards our fitness challenge, and two of the
scouts led their own night as part of the promise challenge badge.
March 2009
March saw a four week program giving the scouts a different
activity each week, we spent time starting to work on our garden, (we hope
to grow our own vegetables). We also attempted to build a catapult launcher
to be able to throw a bean bag from one end of the Scout House to the other,
we had varying degrees of success!!
We also cooked omelettes as we continue to practice our
cooking, and we also practised knots and lashings before attempting the
Catapult.
We also had a visit from the Air Scouts in Staffordshire
where we got to have a go at a parascending simulator.
April 2009
Another short month with Easter, but we still managed to
squeeze in some gardening. To our vegetable patch, and did some more towards
our Fitness challenge. We also discussed how to arrange a camp and what sort
of foods we needed to buy and how much it all cost.
We stated off May with some planning for the District Camp,
the 2nd week in May was our District Camp at Beaudesert, on Cannock Chase.
We also had a games night one week to celebrate the end of Sats Week!!!
Lastly we started the first of a new four week cycle for the four patrols,
some more gardening (well they won’t grow themselves) but it does go to the
Community Challenge badge.
The other activities included Backwoods Cooking, a getting
to know you better game and a Phonetic Alphabet Challenge.
June 2009
June saw the scouts take part in a variety of activities including learning
about the phonetic alphabet and sending messages via walkie talkies of Map
Location, we also had a go at cooking food on an open fire.
We also spent time going through the activities the scouts enjoy doing as
well as trying to build on our own vegetable patch, this is on hold
currently and we are looking to begin again in 2010.
We also helped at the Cancer Research Race for Life handing out medals to
the 5000 ladies that took part, this is the 2nd year we’ve done this an we
are planning to be involved again in 2010.
July 2009
July saw our 3rd Annual Group camp take
place at Kibblestone, see the Group pages
for details
Also in July, 8 scouts and 4 leaders walked
a 3.2 mile hike from Trentham Church to the Monkey Forest car park. The
route took us to the top of the ridge know as Seven Sisters then on to Kings
Wood walk around the back of the Monkey Forest , up to the monument and then
ending at the car park.
The weather was good and the views at the
top of the ridge were fantastic. Behind the Monkey Forest we spotted 3 or 4
monkeys at the edge of the tree line. When we got to the monument we stopped
for a photo shoot and a snack. The scouts used their map reading skills to
navigate the group to our destination with plenty time to spare.
A good time was had by all who took part
let’s hope for a bigger group next time
We rounded off the summer before the
school holidays with our Summer Party.
September 2009
Back to Scouts after the summer break, and we had another busy program, the
scouts cooked Banana flavoured muffins, they had a go at organising a camp,
producing menu’s pricing up the cost of activities and working out how much
food to buy.
We also practised lighting fires in readiness for our Autumn Camp. We looked
at the safety procedures when using saw’s and axes for fire wood. We also
looked at how to contact a gas bottle safely to the cookers in readiness for
the camp.
The beginning of October we held our autumn camp at Barnswood near Rudyard
Lake, on the camp the scouts cooked all their own food and completed an 5
mile hike around Rudyard Lake.
Halloween
we had a special themed night, that was enjoyed by all.
We also continued our regular theme of Fitness with Greg putting everyone
through their paces.
November 2009
Another fun topic for November was having a go at tie dying their own
t-shirts. Some looked really good, we spent some time going over first aid
to give the scouts an idea of what needs to be done in an emergency.
We also covered off some more practical skills in Map and Compass.
November also saw the District Swimming Gala which this year the scouts won.
The cubs also won their section gala on the same night so Trentham came away
with every trophy.
We also held a sleepover at the scout house with winter Olympic games on the
Wii, a chip supper and couple of films to watch.
December 2009
We had a quieter month in December with a Fitness night and Carol Service
with a church group to lead us into the Christmas Party.
Activities 2008
With the scout movement moving into its second centenary we at Trentham
Scouts are continuing to have exciting times.
January 2008
In January we had the opportunity to look at some real life British
Forces and the equipment they carry when on active patrols and exercises, we
also got to taste some as well, which was interesting.
I think even camp food is more desirable?
February 2008.
In February we also go to have a go at some Krypton Factor style games in
a challenge of logic, the scouts also made some pancakes, close to shrove
Tuesday, as well as a lot of mess.
March 2008.
With March been such a short month because of Easter, most of the things
we did were in preparation for our District Scout Camp in April, including a
practice at making our own ice-cream, one or two tasted okay but a lot of
work is still needed in readiness for the district camp.
April 2008.
April will saw the Scouts attend their first camp of the year a cooking
competition camp with an incident hike, the camp was held at Consall Scout
Camp The scouts cooked a 2 course meal
making Beef Stew and Dumplings, followed by home made ice cream, which
involved the use of cream, milk, and a lot of ice and shaking the container.
On the Saturday the Scouts took part in an incident hike, overall one or two
team did very well while the biggest incident others came across was trying
to read a map, (I think we’ve got most of the autumn planned with improving
the map reading skills!!)
Scouts also spent a day at the Ministry of Defence at
Stafford, the scouts were given the opportunity to see the work
performed by the Tactical Support Wing of the RAF.
The Scouts first had a chance to look around a Wessex Helicopter,
and saw a large cannon type gun captured in the recent Iraq
conflict. The Scouts got to try on some night vision goggles taste
some RAF ration food, they also tried on a full size Bergan
(Rucksack) as well as trying on some Webbing and Pilot's Helmets.
The Scouts then ate a meal in the
Junior Ranks Mess, before been given the opportunity to have a
good luck around a RV Vehicle used in Norway, we then checked out
a 40 tonne Fuel Truck before been given a talk by some of the
Parachute staff who work in the unit and support the Front line.
A very enjoyable day was had and
our thanks got the Military and he personnel that looked after us.
May 2008.
May saw the scouts tackle their Fitness Challenge Badge as they look to
improve their fitness and understand about healthy eating. The month
consisted of short runs, and some distance running, press-ups, standing
jumps amongst many other things, the aim each week was to better the
previous weeks performance, luckily the weather was kind and we were able to
do it all outside.
June 2008
June saw us finish off the Fitness Challenge badge before attending our
Group Camp as part of the Guinness World Record Attempt for the Giant
Sleepover, we understand that we now hold a world record at Trentham Scouts
as been part of the biggest ever sleepover with over 33,000 young people
taking part.
Also in June we practised pitching tents as the weekend on camp
highlighted a few learning needs for one or two.
The Scouts also helped as volunteers on the Cancer Research Race for Life
at Trentham Gardens, the Scouts were on hand at the finishing line to hand
out the well deserved Medals, Goody Bags and of course some well needed
bottles of water.
September 2008
Back to Scout work after the summer holidays, the
scouts prepared for the last camp of the year at the end of September.
The last camp of the year was held at Kibblestone near
Stone, the idea for this weekend was back to basics and the scouts got loads
of free time to practice their skills.
October 2008
The scouts worked in their patrols during this month
and learnt some basic skills, like cooking, axe and saw safety, hygiene
around the campsite and Quartermaster.
Learning to look after the equipment they had used on
the last camp and making sure it was put away neatly and most important dry.
This month also saw our Senior patrol run an evening on
Russia as part of their Global Challenge Badge.
November 2008
November was a busy month, with the usual Scout
meetings taking place covering some basic map work and a regular 6 weekly
Fitness challenge.In addition we had the District Swimming Gala at Fenton
Baths.
We also took part in the district 5 a side football
competition, that We won in a thrilling 7-3 final win after been 3-0
down.
(click to enlarge photo)
This makes it a Cub and Scout Double – Well Done to the
team.
December 2008
December was quit e month finishing off the map work
and holding our Christmas party.
Activities 2007
With 2007 being our centenary year, we have
been really busy this year, activities to date are
January 2007
January saw the scouts making balloon rockets to see how far they could
travel. The record was around 8m. In this first month of the year we also
made some bird feeders out of wire, lard and bird seed!! The smell in the
Scout House after cooking loads of lard was an experience.
February 2007
In February we had a somewhat short month due to half term and a heavy
fall of snow led to one night been cancelled an hour before we were due to
start. However the other weeks were full of activities. We plotted a route
for a lost leader around Brownsea Island (the place of the first ever scout
camp in 1907) following a set of clues. A cooking exercise took place making
some pancakes with lots of Syrup, sugar and chocolate sauce.
March 2007
March saw a return to some more traditional scouting activities, with A
Fire Safety Quiz before 5 scouts took part in the Area quiz at Hanley Fire
Station finishing a respectable fourth. We also did some map and compass
work to refresh memories. We did a pioneering project making a sedan chair
to race around an obstacle course and a quiz on the 21 World Scout
Jamboree’s that have taken place since 1920.
April 2007
April was another short month for scout nights with Easter at the start
of the month, however 8 scouts took part in an Activity Camp at Kibblestone
International Scout Camp, the activities they took part in were, Ariel
Runway, Climbing and abseiling, Field Archery, Inflatable Games, Caving and
Crate Stacking. It was a good camp attended by over 150 scouts in total.
April also saw us start preparing for our Centenary Camp, we began by
coming up with ideas to present to the visitors on the Past of scouting, it
was decided that we would draw posters about some main dates in scouting’s
history, and scouts would give a presentation on these 10 key dates, (more
information on this can be found on our Centenary Pages).
6 scouts also took part in the Annual St George’s day parade.
May 2007
May was a busy month getting everything ready for our big camp, we put
the finishing touches to our presentations, we made a special pioneering
gateway as an entrance to our camp, this also included building a pioneering
fence as well. Plenty of camp fire songs were practiced at the end of each
meeting in readiness for the big weekend.
May was the month of a somewhat landmark for Trentham Scout Troop, our
first girl scout was invested into the troop, closely followed by a second
girl later in the month, scouting has accepted girls in all its units since
the mid nineties but this was the first time we have had girls in our troop,
this has been good for Trentham Scouts now that the new facilities are open.
The end of May saw the centenary camp, all information on this can be
found elsewhere on the website.
June 2007
Following our centenary camp in May, June saw the
scouts turn their hand to backwoods cooking, here the scouts each built a
fire and placed a brick in the centre, once the fire was hot, they placed a
rasher of bacon in some tin foil and cooked the bacon, add some bread and
sauce and you have a delicious meal.
June also saw the scouts learning about trees and their
leaves with the scout fellowship as part of their outdoor awareness.
Unfortunately due to the terrible weather conditions we
had to cancel our ‘summer camp’ at Kibblestone, this is now to be held in
September.
July 2007
In last month before the summer break the scouts looked
at Global issues and discussed and shared their ideas around saving energy
and reducing the carbon footprint.
Some of the ideas raised were very interesting and a
number of the scouts kept a diary of the things they had done over a wee to
reduce their energy emissions.
The last week of the school term saw the scouts enjoy a
summer bar-b-cue.
September 2007.
As the new school year started the scouts saw their
numbers increase to 25, this is the highest number the troop has had for a
number of years.
The scouts spent the first week getting to know each
other as we had a number of new scouts and some others who had not been
there that long.
We also spent a night pitching a tent in readiness for
our forthcoming camp later in the month. Another night saw us talk about Axe
Safety, Saw safety, Camp Safety, Cooker safety, all in readiness for the
camp.
The last weekend of September saw the troop take 15
scouts to our belated summer camp at Kibblestone. We arrived Friday evening
and just managed to pitch all the tents before dark, we them had a relaxing
evening in front of the camp fire.
On Saturday after a breakfast of Sausage and beans, the
scouts prepared a packed lunch for a short hike to Barlaston Downs, where a
wide game was played and trying out the orienteering course on the downs. On
return to Kibblestone and after some well deserved free time the scouts set
about preparing their cowboy stew for tea, several hours and a few missing
finger nails later the camp enjoyed a tasty meal. The rest of the evening
was free time followed by a supper of roasted marsh-mellow and chocolate
biscuits on the camp fire.
Sunday morning saw a lovely breakfast of fried bacon
butties before the camp was tidied away and the parents came to pick up the
scouts. All in all a great weekend with great weather.
October 2007
The scouts learnt some things about communication as
part of the communication badge, this involved learning about many types of
communication from semaphore to modern day mobile phones.
During October we celebrated Halloween with a fun
packed night making Broomsticks, Witches hats, cooking pumpkin soup and
making a pumpkin candle. This was followed by apple bobbing and marshmallows
in flour.
November 2007
Through November we went back to basics and learnt some
of the traditional scouting skills, Map Reading; Knot tying, Lashings and
First Aid skills.
At the end of the month we ran a test on all the skills
learnt to see what we had learnt through out the month.
December 2007
December saw the scouts tackle the ice skating rink at
Trentham Gardens, some of the scouts were natural Torvil and Deans while
others had as much skill on the ice as Eddie the Eagle had on the snow!
We finished out last meeting of the year with our usual
Christmas Party, only this year we had the added bonus of a full Disco.
Activities 2006
December 2006
December was a month of mainly fun activities, the
scouts visited Ten pin bowling locally and had a night of two games of
bowling with a meal (when it eventually came). Top score was 126 with the
lowest been 65, fair to say the leaders finished about midway down the
scores.
We also had a free night of games and food on our
last meeting before the Christmas holiday break, where the scouts played
on computer games, table tennis, snooker and pool.
November 2006
November saw the scouts building a newspaper tower to
support a weight, the highest tower stood nearly 3 feet tall (1 metre). We also spent an evening producing a fires safety poster in order for us
to enter the local fire safety quiz early in 2007. Further activities
including starting to work on the IT badge and keeping fit by doing some
basic circuit training as part of the Fitness Challenge award.
October 2006
October was a quite month in terms of activities as
the Scout hut was closed for two weeks due to an extension and internal
building works taking place however, we still managed to fit in a week of
pancake cooking. Something we are hoping to repeat closer to Shrove
Tuesday
September 2006
The early part of September saw the
scouts putting the finishing touches to earn themselves the Camper Badge
and the Challenge Activity Badge, in all 7 scouts earned both badges.
Mid September saw 8 scouts attend the Activity Camp at Kibblestone. The
camp was attended by 250 scouts, mainly from Staffordshire but there were
also scouts from Shropshire and Nottinghamshire.
The activities for the weekend included,
canoeing, abseiling, rock climbing, go-karting, orienteering, crate
stacking, archery, rifle shooting, wood turning, pottery making, assault
course, the net amongst others, the weather was reasonably kind to us and
a good time was had by all.
Plans are already in place for the next
one next year.
August 2006
We were closed throughout the month of
August, however one scout and one of the leaders did take part in a weeks
camp at Rangemore near Burton on Trent, that involved a large contingent
of scouts from Denmark.
July 2006
July saw most of the weekly meetings
taking place outdoors, making the most of the good weather, throughout the
month the scouts honed their camping skills pitching and striking tents
(that’s putting them up and taking them down)!
We also had an activity to make a bridge
to transport water over an imaginary ravine using wooden poles and rope
only.
The last week before the school holidays
was spent playing a wide game at Trentham Park Woods, which was enjoyed by
all apart from the gnat bites.
June 2006
June saw four scouts attend the District Activity Camp at Barnswood, where the activities spread over the weekend were a day canoeing on Rudyard
Lake and a day either hiking on the Roaches or rock climbing and abseiling again on the Roaches.
During that weekend the rest of the scouts still met and spent the evening orienteering around the scout headquarters learning how to use a compass,
lets just say they won't be let loose on a hike .... just yet!
In early June while the weather was so glorious we spent an evening pitching our dining shelters as experience for future camps to give everyone the
skills needed to pitch a camp.
The scouts also practiced building a fire and lighting it with one match to boil a pint of water, the scouts enjoyed this activity and all
successfully boiled the water, but I think more than one match was used.
May 2006
In May, the scouts spent two troop nights practicing and performing a short play, the theme was fairy stories although the scouts were free to
interpret the stories in their own way, and they certainly brought Goldilocks and the Three Bears into the 21 Century, it was more of a cross between Tracy Beaker
meets the WWF Wrestlers!
Mid May saw 7 scouts attend the District camp at Beaudesert, the weekend was a tremendous success, the scouts took part in a wide game on the Friday
evening, before taking part in 5 chosen activities on the Saturday, the Activities included;
Coracle Racing, Orienteering, Pedal Kart Racing, Tree Climbing, Volleyball, Crate Stacking, Aerial Runway.
Sunday was set aside for a cooking competition, the scouts had to prepare a 3 course meal and cook it on a camp fire, no fire gas cooking was
allowed, the scouts had to cook Coq au Vin with at least two vegetables for a main course, the choice of starters and dessert was each troops choice.
We had Grapefruit for starters and Roly Poly and custard for Dessert the competition was won by Stoke Scouts and the Sea Scouts who will represent
the District in the County Competition in September, the scouts did a great job of cooking and worked really hard.
April 2006
5 scouts attended the District Activity Camp at Kibblestone where they took part in various activities including :
Climbing
Abseiling
Bungee Run
Assault Course
Archery
Cannon Run.
There were a number of other scout groups at the camp and a good weekend was had by all even though it poured with rain when we were packing up on the Sunday
Afternoon.
Also the scouts attended the
District St Georges Day Parade, at Longton
Central Hall, following a parade down the Strand in Longton, a service was held in the hall then the scouts paraded back to the Car Park opposite the new Wilkinsons
store.
On the parade the scouts were also joined by the Beavers and Cubs from
Trentham and groups from right across the district including the girl guide section.
Following two weeks off, one week due to a camp and one week during the Easter Holidays, the scouts started back with a 'River Challenge' night.
This idea was suggested by one of the patrol leaders.
The idea of the challenge was to construct a system that could be used to carry equipment across the river without either the scouts or the
equipment touching the river, using only wooden poles and string. In the case the equipment was a Dixie (Saucepan). The Scouts worked in 3 teams (Patrols) and
quickly started to build an 'A Frame' out of the larger wooden poles, they then added the smaller poles to the legs as supports, one A Frame was used either side of
the river, using a rope, the Dixie was pulled across the river using a pulley system.
All 3 groups successfully managed to complete the challenge but I think some work on knots and lashings needs to take place soon.
March 2006
Fire Safety Quiz - The scouts took part in a fire safety quiz at Hanley Fire Station, competing against other scout groups and some school
teams, in total nine teams took part with Trentham Scouts finishing in 3rd Place after a tie break question behind Heron Cross Scouts B in first place and Heron
Cross A in 2nd.
The scouts had a practice of putting up the new four man tents recently acquired the tents are lightweight and will be used for the first time on the District Activity Camp in April.
At the end of March the scouts cooked Pancakes in a belated celebration of Pancake Day, the scouts cooked their own pancakes on camping stoves, then added their own
toppings of Sugar, Chocolate Sauce and treacle, some even at the same time!! A good night was had by all and some scouts pancakes nearly looked like a pancakes!!
February 2006
Hot Air Balloon Making
Two troop nights were taken up making hot air balloon's from crepe paper. Each group of scouts managed to successfully fly their Hot air balloon up
to the Scout House roof. The record for the longest time on the roof was 11 seconds.
The other two troop nights in February were spent at Longton Fire station, receiving a Fire safety talk from two fire fighters from Red Watch. The
fire fighters gave us lots of information about fire prevention, fire safety as well telling us all about the station and the effects that fire can cause. The
visits will form part of the Fire awareness badge.
