With over 70 members, communication to Explorers can be tricky. We generally send an update email each Friday. Explorers are strongly encouraged to input their own email address under member details in OSM to ensure they receive these communications directly and do not have to rely on parents passing messages on!
At Explorer age, we generally expect Explorers to manage their own diaries and so expect them, rather than their parents, to be the ones to get in contact with us. We can be contacted by emailing [email protected].
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We meet on Tuesdays during term time between 6:30pm and 8:30pm
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We meet every week during term time. Explorer term dates are chosen based on the school terms of the majority of our Explorers. There is no expectation of regular attendance for Explorers, but it is useful for our planning purposes if you can indicate on OSM if you are not planning to attend a meeting.
HQ-based meetings will take place in our Scout HQ at the Trevor Bailey Sports Ground, Dulwich Common, SE21 7HA and will start at 6.30pm sharp. Please enter the building via the main front door and then turn immediately right. The Scout HQ is up the metal staircase at the end of the corridor. There is a video doorbell to the right of the main front door - press for access. (But it's the left door that opens!)
Whilst most of our meetings take place in our Scout HQ, we aim to run off-site meetings twice each term, which allows us to run more adventurous activities within the weekly meeting format. We assume that Explorers will have ZIP Oyster cards available for use both for schemes around London and on some trips. You can apply for one from TfL here if you don’t yet have one.
Please note that whilst we encourage the Explorers to organise their travel to and from these meetings themselves (and we generally find that they travel together in groups), the meetings and our supervision of Explorers will begin and end at the relevant venue or meeting point.
We run weekend hikes, camps, and other activities throughout the year — these are just as important as weekly meetings. See upcoming events in OSM or on our calendar.
As with all aspects of the Explorer programme, we encourage Explorers to make their own decisions about how trips operate and the activities we do. This includes choosing their own groups for activities and sleeping arrangements, which can therefore be mixed gender.
We usually send a kit list and specific details for trips out a few weeks before the event. See previous kit lists to get an idea of useful equipment. If you can’t afford any of the kit required, please get in touch as we are often able to lend some out.
All activities involve some risk. We manage this carefully — each trip has a risk assessment approved by Southwark Scouts. You can read more about how this works on the Scouts website, or specific assessments are available on request.
We can provide scheme administration for anyone wishing to participate in DofE. If demand is there, we can give an overview of how the scheme works and the support available one Tuesday evening. To apply, please complete the online application form. With sufficient numbers we can easily run Bronze walking expeditions within Explorers. Silver and Gold expedition hikes are harder to arrange given the greater time commitment these require and it’s often easier to make use of the various external providers to support these.
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Explorer uniform is: Explorer’s beige shirt, navy activity bottoms, group scarf and woggle
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