Children's worship and activities

At 11.00am there is a relaxed child-friendly service each Sunday. On two Sundays the children remain with the adults to enjoy activities and worship within the church. On the other Sundays there are children's groups staffed by leaders who are all CRB checked. The children can then learn at their own level. The session includes a news/circle time, Bible story, games, cooking, crafts, singing. There is a selection of toys for the babies to play with. We end with a drink and biscuit and say a prayer. Then we rejoin the congregation for communion / blessing and an opportunity to share our craft work. Junior church has approximately 10 children attending regularly. Sometimes we have up to 16 with visitors and on special occasions.

Heslington hosts the thrice-yearly York churches Sunday afternoon five-a-side football tournament for under 13's, who compete for the Heslington Trophy. The next tournament dates in 2010 are 21st March and 13th June. The late summer fixture took place last year on Sunday 27th September on Lord Deramore's School field, by kind permission of the Headteacher.
With some of the older members having to move on, we welcomed five new members to our squad Edward, Billy, Asher, Anjan and Chark joined Brandon, Maya and Iona who have played in previous tournaments. Considering most of the team didn't even know each other, let alone ever having played together, they showed great promise for the future. We finished 4th out of 7, winning two games and being narrowly beaten in the others. We can now look forward to the next tournament on 21st March 2010 with optimism.
Many thanks once again to John for organising this very popular event.

On Sunday 4th October, the older members of our team were invited to take part in a five-a-side tournament for the under 16's at Stamford Bridge. The other teams taking part were Stamford Bridge, Acomb, Elim, YCC and Wham. We fielded probably the youngest team in the tournament, our squad consisting of Matthew, Fran, Billy, Bilbo, Asher and Chark. After a good start against YCC, resulting in a 2-2 draw, we went on to lose the other four games despite some very spirited performances. As with the under 13's, we have a lot to look forward to when we put our boots on for the next tournament in 2010.

Church-sponsored Brownies and Rainbows meet on Monday evenings on the Church premises.

The 1st Heslington Rainbows have 20 members with 5 adult helpers. We have lots of fun doing craft activities, baking and playing games! We have just achieved our Roundabout badges and we really enjoyed our recent trip to Creepy Crawlies. The Rainbow Guider is Sue Laurence.

The 1st Heslington Brownies have 15 members with 6 adult helpers. We enjoy a pack holiday each year as well as doing lots of work on badges, crafts, baking and have lots of fun. In July 2007 we celebrated 40 years of 1st Heslington Brownies with lots of past Brownies and Guiding friends, a cake, banners, balloons and food. The Brownie Guider is Janet Owston.

Church-sponsored Scouts, Cubs and Beavers meet across the road in the Scout hut. The boys' activities assist their development as they learn to socialise, work together in groups, make friends and undertake challenges appropriate to their age. The Heslington Scout Group has had a particularly interesting and fruitful year in 2007.

Our Beaver colony for ages 6 – 8 comprises 21 Beavers with 3 waiting to be old enough to join. In the last year we have had sleepovers at Tamasha Centenary Camp, the Railway Museum, the Minster and in our own Scout Hut. Beavers helped out with the Garden Make Over at Heslington Reading Rooms and buried a time-capsule there to mark the Centenary of Scouting. This year we have been on a visit to the University Observatory and are going to a sleepover at Snowball Scout Camp and on a water activity day in Richmondshire.

About 10 Beavers will swim up to Cubs over the next few months which may give us some places available in this age range later in the summer.

Heslington Cub Pack (age range 8 – 10½) currently has 21 members with a further 2 about to be invested. The year saw us kayaking in June, sleeping over in the Minster in August and climbing Roseberry Topping in September. 2008 looks to be just as busy, with a mixture of camps and other adventurous activities.

Similarly our Scout troop for ages 10½ – 15 remains full with some 20 members and activities have included a mixture of hikes and camps, canoeing, pioneering, campfires and rock climbing. We have held a summer Camp, a weekend at a mountain hut in the Pennines and a bivouac night sleeping out under the stars on the North York Moors.

We also have a very healthy membership in the 15 to 25 years age range comprising several young leaders and a number of Warranted Leaders and Section Assistants over 18. These groups have also actively pursued programmes of personal development, often with a mountaineering flavour including expeditions for Young Leaders linked to the Duke of Edinburgh scheme and Mountain Leadership skills for the over-18s.

Scouting dates its foundation back to 1907 and so we have been part of the Centenary Celebrations which have taken place nationally. The Group organised a Sunrise Ceremony (at 5.00am) in summer in the Howardian Hills. Locally in Heslington, we have carried out a project to clear, tidy, replant and repair an area at the Meeting Room off Main Street.

Owing to the invaluable work of a few supporters on our small Committee, the Group has been able this year to replace its elderly vehicle with a much more youthful minibus and currently has in mind a new bespoke camping trailer.

The Group Leader is Andrew Eccles.

Our website is http://www.heslingtonscoutgroup.org.uk