Are your beavers/cubs/rainbows/brownies back yet?

[Flump9]

Are they back yet and do they have to social distance?

Our beavers, cubs and scouts met over zoom before Easter.
Since Easter we have been meeting in a local park.
We hope to go back inside, to our church hall, in September.

Beavers since April I think, guides only just back face to face this week. The beaver leaders said, we will try to get them to SD but with the best will in the world, it'll be nigh on impossible!

Guides back last night, outside.

Guides - have been meeting outside since the last restriction easing date. They have Zoom as a backup in case of bad weather. All the Guides & leaders are distancing even though outside. So much better meeting in-person than on Zoom though!

My Brownies are back outside only. We have to social distance and our hall could only 1/3 of the pack at a time and we don’t have enough leaders to run a Zoom at the same time.

I’m also more comfortable with the occasional lapses of social distancing outside than I would be being inside a badly badly ventilated large portacabin.

The Brownies all mix all day at school, lift share to and from Brownies and have sleepovers with each other during half term, but at Brownies they social distance. Can’t wait until we can stop doing that, though very happy with staying outside while the weather’s nice and we have the light.

Scouts Association has been very particular about this. Ours are back in full patrols this week. All outside, but we would have been this half-term anyway, come rain or shine.

Not really. I'm an assistant Beaver Leader and we've been on Zoom for every single one of our meetings and camps since last March. We've had ONE face to face session (a few weeks ago) but the leader is planning for the rest of the summer term to be on Zoom. My son has had no badges given to him AT ALL, including his membership badge, since he joined in September 2019. I am so frustrated and fed up with the whole set up and just want to quit, especially when our Cubs and Scouts groups have been back face to face quite a few times and it's more difficult with them with social distancing etc.

Yes Cubs, every other week as group is halved, outside mostly

Our Beavers, Cubs and Scouts have been back since start of summer term. Outside only (except for the loo) and Cubs and Scouts are wearing face masks (not sure about the Beavers). Lots of hiking, litter picking and camping skills work going on!

Guide and Rainbow leader here - back to every week outside since March. Distanced as much as possible but we know they go to school together so that's hard but we don't actively encourage been close to each other

Scouts, Cubs, Beavers are back, outdoors every week regardless of weather and Scouts have to wear masks if they can't distance. Guides are outdoors in person every other week and on Zoom the week in between. Brownies have not returned and may close.

Beavers have been back since April. Our colony is outside only, SD is apparently a challenge with excitable 6-8 year olds...

I haven't heard a thing from our Brownie pack since March 2020. Dd is 10 now so not sure if it's worth bothering about. 🙁

Beavers has been back for a few weeks, outdoors only

No my girls go to guides and the hall they use is being really difficult with regards to guidelines unfortunately.

@BoomChicka

Yes, only since this week! Outdoor meetings only, strict social distancing, must take hand sanitizer and I had to fill out consent forms and read the risk assessment seems like massive overkill to me, I'd be fine with them mixing indoors but also appreciate they are volunteers and won't want to isolate for an infected child, so it's better than nothing.

When we first met up again after lockdown, I was asking our parents to confirm attendance and to agree the Covid 'rules' every week. Since Easter, I've just asked once. I'm still confirming weekly for one of the kids' sports (indoors) but not at all for the other (also indoors, but in a massive hangar-sized space).

What I'm struggling with is the dissonance between the Scout Association rules and our risk assessments on one side, and the reality on the ground on the other. I think we're really devaluing risk assessments here. If it's truly risky enough that Cubs should be socially distanced outdoors, it's too risky. Obviously I don't think it's too risky, as I'm holding meetings anyway, but my risk assessment says something else. It's nuts.

My DD’s rainbow group have been back since just after Easter. They are restricting numbers but not distancing. Trying to be outside as much as possible.

Thank you to all the lovely people who volunteer to run these groups!

Leaders choice, one of the cub packs is back meeting outdoors, the other cub pack is waiting for social distancing to end. Scouts and Beavers will meet sometime in June, outdoors only, Explorers went back in May.
The reason The Scout Association is tougher on outdoors and Social Distancing than school rules is because groups (especially in urban areas) cover several schools and year group bubbles, so an outbreak from a Scout meeting could close 7 or 8 different school bubbles.

Guides and Rangers - outside since Easter (previously on Zoom). Social distancing is required, but really hard to achieve - the girls mix at school, often arrive as lift shares... they’re really not used to it. We plan activities around that and try to focus on activities that naturally separate them where we can. We could do an additional risk assessment to run indoors, but our hall isn’t really large enough for social distancing on an ongoing basis. We’d have to very much do ‘sit there, don’t move’ activities, which doesn’t lend itself to fun and variety! We’d normally be outdoors in the summer anyway, so we’re happy with that for now.

I am hoping the next rule change means that we can do away with the social distancing rule. I’m happy to stay outdoors until September or even October if need be, but let’s end the pretence that children/teenagers actually social distance.

Scouts have been amazing been back on and off since Oct - started alternate weeks, then in March was full group outside. They strictly social distance from leaders but its a bit more relaxed between dc. Its all outside mostly on a camp site or at a park. They can't share anything, sanitise +++and are encouraged to test before each meeting. During lock downs they had weekly two hour zoom meetings.
Guides did nothing till November then alternative weeks on line then Jan to now has been on zoom for one hour and this will continue till beginning of July. They're breaking up 3 weeks early and then will let us know in September what's happening. Dd says they average about 7 guides a week (from a big group of 40). The content of the sessions is not as interesting as scouts. I understand they're volunteers and it's a difficult situation but I feel this is a not going to last much longer as it honestly feels like a school lesson. And parents won't keep paying for an online 'school lesson'.

@JennyWren

Guides and Rangers - outside since Easter (previously on Zoom). Social distancing is required, but really hard to achieve - the girls mix at school, often arrive as lift shares... they’re really not used to it. We plan activities around that and try to focus on activities that naturally separate them where we can. We could do an additional risk assessment to run indoors, but our hall isn’t really large enough for social distancing on an ongoing basis. We’d have to very much do ‘sit there, don’t move’ activities, which doesn’t lend itself to fun and variety! We’d normally be outdoors in the summer anyway, so we’re happy with that for now.

I am hoping the next rule change means that we can do away with the social distancing rule. I’m happy to stay outdoors until September or even October if need be, but let’s end the pretence that children/teenagers actually social distance.

That's exactly how I feel about the pretense. I try to get my Cubs to distance, but I don't try very hard, because I could talk until I'm blue in the face and it wouldn't happen. It's not because they're disrespectful, or because I'm ineffective: it's because they're children. I don't like the disingenuous risk assessments: "Cubs will be asked to socially distance". Yeah, and then what?!

Yes Landslidelife - DD has described Guides as being like a PSHE lesson. We're dropping it at the end of this term. She'll do Scouts.

DD’s Scout group and the Beavers/Cubs and Explorers are back but outdoors only.

The reason is that the church meeting hall is not COVID-secure, the restrictions would mean the leaders would have to deep-clean the hall after each meeting. All groups (Guides, Scouts, Slimming World etc) have been kicked out of the hall.

It’s really depends on the circumstances with your meeting place. Another Scout group has their own hut and they meet indoors as nobody else is using it.

JennyWren that's exactly like us.

I run Guides and Rangers, we've been meeting face to face outdoors since Easter and Zoom before that, apart from September-October.

Guidance from HQ is that 2 metre social distancing much be adhered to at all times but it's impossible. The girls tell us "Miss what's the point? I've been in school with her all day, sat next to her on the bus and had tea at her house before Guides!" And it really does impact on what we can achieve in meetings.
But you should see the risks assessments we've had to write.

Our Beavers, Cubs and Scouts are all back outdoors, Rainbows a mix of indoor and outdoor, Brownie groups one is back outdoors, the other not back at all because the leader is vulnerable and doesn't feel comfortable yet.

Ah yes... Enforcing social distancing...
' Fred and George, stop sharing that pencil. Yes I know you're twins... But you need to social distance....'