Chester-le-Street District Scouts

District News – December 2024

Posted on 22nd December 2024 by Tony Brewis

	Just a quick one for me as my last message to you all of 2024. Thank you so much for all that you do and continue to do, seeing the genuine joy on young people’s faces makes it all worth it. Have a fantastic Christmas and New Year, I look forward to seeing you all in 2025! Andrew x.
On the 4th December, we held our 2024 District Christingle event at St Mary and St Cuthbert Church, Chester-le-Street. Every group in our district attended and once again it was fantastic to see all our young people with Christingles, hearing nice and loud Christmas carols, to see the amazing photographs celebrating Scouting across Chester-le-Street throughout the year and of course to have our fantastic Explorer Scouts helping to run the event. Thank you to Matt, the Director of St Mary and St Cuthbert Church, for allowing us to be there and for facilitating the Christingle Service. Finally, thank you to all our young people and volunteers who attended so joyfully.

Recognising change

The last year, and last few months in particular, has been a time of rapid change within Scouting. There are many good reasons for this as our transformation embraces team-based roles and more flexible volunteering, how we have responded to research, how we are improving governance and how we are making Scouting safer, much of the latter being in response to the Ben Leonard prevention of future deaths report.

These changes will have affected some of the ways that we volunteer, the requirements upon us and will have affected how each of us do things in Scouting to some degree. It’s OK if you need to say that this has changed the way you feel about your volunteering role.

If your current role doesn’t feel like the ‘right fit’ for you then please do discuss this with your lead volunteer. We would far rather find the ‘right fit’ for you, even if that means doing something completely different or even a break from volunteering, and then we can help recruit someone to your current role or responsibilities whilst you still have the motivation to help, so our young people won’t miss out.

Congratulations to…

A huge congratulations to Susan, who was recognized at the District Christingle for her incredible 20 years of service to Scouting and was also presented with The Award of Merit! Susan has led fundraising efforts at 1st Burnmoor, securing substantial grants that have enabled countless projects and opportunities for her group. Her dedication, leadership, and passion have not only supported young people in their Scouting journey but also strengthened the entire Scouting community.

Centurions Explorer Scouts Darren, Neeve, Huw and Jake who won the Durham University Scout and Guide Group Midnight Madness event in November. That means our Explorer Scout Unit have won the competition for an amazing 4 years in a row. Well done to all who took part.

Forthcoming learning opportunities:

We have run 4 First Response courses in our district over the last 4 months to support our volunteers with the most flexibility to complete this course.  The next First Response course is:

• Saturday 11^th January – go to our district First Response page for details of pre-course learning and how to book on – First Response | Chester-le-Street District Scouts

All initial learning modules (which are now called “Growing Roots”) are now embedded within your My Learning profile on scouts.org.uk – you will need to sign in with the email address that you registered on joining/or previously on Compass (and use the ‘reset your password’ option if you haven’t yet used the system).

If you need some guidance on how to access your learning modules, please speak to your Team Leader, your Lead Volunteer or reach out directly to our Volunteering Team Lead karen.gibson@chesterlestreetscouts.org.uk for support/advice.

District funding:

The District Trustees Board has approved the following funding applications to support Scouting across the district this quarter:

• New first aid training consumables and equipment (£242)
• Display screen equipment for 1^st Waldridge Scout Hall to support learning events (£416)
• District Event display materials and volunteer safety tabards (£705)
• Activity equipment for 1^st Burnmoor centre activities and district wide events (£1434)

The District Trustee Board will continue to aim to fund all training / learning event requests for adult volunteers across the district that provides benefit to young people in Chester-le-Street Scouts (any external training provision or expenses should be pre-approved by the District Treasurer or Volunteering Development Team Leader in advance).

Dates for your diaries:

• 6^th January – District Leadership Team Meeting, 7pm, 1^st Great Lumley
• 25^th January – District Scout Patrol Leaders training weekend, 2pm, 1^st Great Lumley (this event has been shared with Scout sections on OSM).
• 10^th February – District Six Cub Scout Competition, 6pm, 1^st Great Lumley (this event has been shared with Cub Scout sections on OSM).

You can now see all confirmed District Meetings and Events on the front page of the Chester-le-Street District Scouts website – this includes District Beaver, Cub, Scout and Explorer Scout events.

Understanding our new District structure:

We are aware that a lot of change has taken place recently, so we wanted to update you on how the Chester-le-Street District Teams are developing.

Volunteering Development Team

Key responsibilities:

• Attract and Welcome new volunteers
• Make sure volunteers are well supported
• Help volunteers with learning
• Recognise volunteers

Team Leader – Karen Gibson karen.gibson@chesterlestreetscouts.org.uk

Team members include –

• Learning Assessors – David Holmes, Sharon Gibbons, Tony Brewis and Karen Gibson (any Learning Assessors in the county can be used for assessments)
• Volunteer recognition – Ian Gibson
• Trainers – First Aid – Keith Griffin and Tony Brewis
• Welcome volunteers – to be recruited

Initial priorities –

• Support volunteers with the new online learning tools and courses
• Recognition activities for volunteers

Support Team

• Open new sections
• Build support in the local community
• Look after property and equipment
• Making sure everything is running effectively

Team Leader – David Quinn david.quinn@chesterlestreetscouts.org.uk  

Team members include –

• To be recruited

Initial priorities –

• Support volunteers with the new online membership system
• Improving communication channels across the district for volunteers

Programme Team

• Help sections run great programmes
• Find expert advice and support for volunteers
• Coordinate district events and support group events
• Support volunteers in arranging activity and nights away opportunities for young people

Team Leader – Tony Brewis tony.brewis@chesterlestreetscouts.org.uk   

Team members include –

• Events sub team – to be recruited
• Squirrels Programme Support and Advice – to be recruited
• Beavers Programme Support and Advice – Rich Hall beavers@chesterlestreetscouts.org.uk
• Cubs Programme Support and Advice – Julie Dowson cubs@chesterlestreetscouts.org.uk
• Scouts Programme Support and Advice – Rob Knox scouts@chesterlestreetscouts.org.uk
• Adam Wilson (Nights Away Assessor nights.away@chesterlestreetscouts.org.uk – although any Nights Away Assessors in the county can be used for assessments)

Initial priorities –

• Develop and publish a 2025 District Events Programme and events delivery team for each event
• Programme support for newer section team members with their section programme and events

14-24 Team

• Support the Explorer Team
• Opportunities for Explorer Scout Young Leaders
• Support Scout Network membership

Team Leader – Matthew Holmes matthew.holmes@chesterlestreetscouts.org.uk    

Team members include –

• Explorer Section Team Leaders – Rich Hall and Tony Brewis
• Scout Network Team Leader(s) – to be recruited
• Young Leader Support(ers) – to be recruited (c/o Matthew Holmes)
• Scott Doughty (DofE Assessor), David Holmes (Network Team/DofE Leader)

Initial priorities –

• Support awareness, recruitment and support of 14-24 year old members in Scouting
• Develop Network opportunities
• Develop Young Leader opportunities and support across the district

Would you like to generally assist with one of these district teams or specifically for one of the ‘to be recruited roles’?

If so, please reach out to the relevant Team Leader to find out more information and to discuss what this may entail.

The District Leadership Team is responsible for the effective delivery of Scouting in Chester-le-Street, which includes support for volunteers, having the right people to deliver safe Scouting, supporting great opportunities for young people and ensuring that Scouting is accessible and inclusive for everyone.