At the time of writing, we have just one week until the half term break. The weeks have flown past. It has been so nice to be back meeting at the Church again, although attendance has been affected by both leaders and girls having to isolate.

Due to the increasing number of Covid cases currently among children and young people, we have decided not to hold a Parade Service in November. Hopefully we can restart these next Spring.

The n:vestigate and n:gage groups are continuing to meet as one group as our numbers are quite low in the younger group. They have been following a badge entitled “Compassion” and having been thinking of how we can show kindness to others and created a “helping hands” circle. They have looked at the story of The Good Samaritan, creating finger puppets of the characters. They have also painted some cobbles which will be placed outside in the church garden, once finished.

The older groups, n:counta and n:spire, start their evening with a joint activity, a craft or something related to their badges. They have also started to design and paint some cobbles.

The n:counta group have started a badge called Safe and Sound. They have been thinking about body image, what we see in other people, what we think about ourselves etc. They also talked about strong female role models, in particular those in the public eye. They have also thought about how social media and how influencers and celebrities can affect the way that we think about ourselves.

This term we have enough girls in the n:spire group to run the badgework separately for them.  This group are able to choose what badges they

would like to complete. They decided to look at a badge looking at animals/pets and how to care for them. They are currently creating a poster which will highlight all of their findings.

We have welcomed 2 new girls over the last few weeks, which is very encouraging. We also have a Brigade wedding almost upon us. We wish Alice and Martin a wonderful wedding day on Thursday 4th November 2021, with the ceremony taking place at All Saints Church, Springfield.

Half term is nearly upon us and we’ve had a busy session in Anchors and Juniors and gained two new members in the Anchor section which is great news.

Since the last update, we’ve had a “getting to know you” bingo activity followed by games (always chaotic), an Autumn themed evening and a Science Themed evening where the boys used static electricity to move cans, made their own lava lamps and watched an experiment symbolising how Jesus frees us from sin. The boys have also done various puzzles, completed some Tangram pictures and built stuff with Lego.  The leaf lanterns from the Autumn evening have been my personal favourite from this session, they looked so nice once they were all lit up. 

Greetings from the company section, while numbers remain low for the section it hasn’t stopped the regular attendance of boys enjoying the start of the new session.

We are now using a new badge scheme that was launched by BBHQ and we can now enjoy different activities each week rather than the old system of blocks of classes for a few weeks for the boys to earn their awards.

This is proving very popular with the boys and staff and has seen them take part in playing a version of unfair monopoly which looks as ways society can be easier for some and hard for others depending on their situation, with some players starting with more money and property and some having less or paying heavier fines or penalty, it proved very enlightening to the boys and opened a good discussion about equal opportunities. They have also cooked a curry and had a James Bond themed evening including codebreaking, mocktail making and shooting practice.

We hope to have some new members and are advertising for recruitment but the boys we have are a great group and we all look forward to more fun and new activities leading up to Christmas.

As we return with restrictions having been lifted over the summer, we are able to return with leaders and the older girls no longer having to wear face coverings and no longer having to social distance. Both have made such a difference to being back together.

For our first week back, the younger girls were supposed to be meeting at Oaklands Park together with BB. Unfortunately the weather was awful and we had to move to meeting at the Church. Instead, they enjoyed an evening of games and sharing news about their summer holidays.

The older girls met at the Church. There was a lot of chatter as they enjoyed seeing each other again. They spent the evening finishing a craft that they started over the summer sessions. Sadly, I forgot to take a photo of the finished items!

Our numbers are a little low, particularly in the younger sections. There are some recruitment posters around the local area so we are hoping that we may get some enquiries. If you should know anyone who may be interested, then please pass our details over.

Following the summer break, Anchors and Juniors boys have been back for a couple of weeks. 8 boys returned and we have had a couple of new lads start in the Anchor section who seem to have enjoyed the sessions so far.

Both BB and GB are doing a recruitment drive at the moment to boost numbers so we hope to welcome a few more boys in the coming weeks.

Our first session was learning about Jonah. The boys had not heard about Jonah before so it was good to share the story with them via a short cartoon video. The boys then made a balloon whale with a jelly baby Jonah inside to take home.

Our second session was about space and the planets. As the boys arrived they had puzzles, a word search and mazes to complete before we all made a small origami rocket each. These were propelled into the air using a straw and a rather exciting game of “try and get the rocket to land on a planet (four small dishes)” ended the session with everyone joining in; yes, even the staff!

It’s great to be back to some degree of normality and to see the boys having fun.