Welcome to Ripon and District Scouts

Following a recommendation by the County Appointments Advisory Committee, the County Commissioner, Mark Edwards, is pleased to announce that from Monday 1 June, JOHN LOCKWOOD took up the role of District Commissioner Ripon & District. John is now contactable on email via dc.ripon@nys.org.uk

Many of you will know John from his role as Scout Leader with 1st Masham Scout Group and as Ripon & District Chair since September 2019. Also, as a member of the County Executive Committee since June 2018, John has progressively developed his Scouting skills and experience and we are delighted that he has now agreed to step up to lead the District and take it forward positively. 

Ripon & District has a proud Scouting history and as one of the largest in the County it has nine very successful Groups and three Explorer Scout Units, both large and small, supported by a dedicated Active Support Unit. We are sure that you will all give John your full support as he begins this new chapter in his Scouting career and on his new Scouting journey in taking the District forward. 

In doing so, we are also confident that he will help you and your fellow Leaders to offer ever more opportunities for adventure and skills for life to your young members at this most challenging of times and when face-to-face Scouting eventually resumes.

Finally, the County Commissioner gives his sincere thanks to you all for YOUR enduring support and dedication to Scouting and young people, and also to him personally during his time as your Acting District Commissioner.

The Scout Association's Chief Executive, Matt Hyde, has offered some inspirational thoughts for the months to come.

“We can take the best of our pre-Covid-19 culture and build on that, drawing on recent examples where we’ve had to think and act differently. These are the anchor points for a rebooted movement with a new vision that is digital, agile, shaped by young people, diverse, engaged, collaborative, dynamic and impactful. It matters because young people, whose whole lives will be affected by this crisis, need us now more than ever so they can gain the skills they need to succeed. That’s why we need to change our mind-sets, have the courage to reinvent ourselves, and harness the power of positivity.”

Now that’s a challenge for us all!

At a recent meeting of the District Executive Committee (on-line) on Wednesday 13th May, the Executive decided to put the scheduled District AGM (scheduled for 1st June 2020) on hold due to the present World Pandemic of Covid-19 (Coronavirus) that is disrupting all face-to-face meetings in the UK at the present time.

The NEW date is to be Wednesday 16th September 2020 when, hopefully, things may have got a little better and a face-to-face AGM might be possible.

Please change this date in your Diaries and we look forward to seeing you all there. More details to follow - keep your eyes on this Website..

The District Executive met (on-line) last night (Wednesday 13th May) and as well as dealing with their normal termly business, they learnt of the passing of one of our District Adult Members, CHRIS MILLROSS, who died in Harrogate District Hospital recently.

Chris was a valued Scouting volunteer from our Ripon & District. He had served in Leeds, as well as being the District Treasurer in the former Vale of Mowbray District. He was a valued and respected member of Ripon & District’s Appointments Advisory Committee. Chris was born in Scarborough and lived in Moortown from 1977 to 1992 before moving to Asenby near Thirsk and then to Boroughbridge.

The thoughts of the whole Scout District are with his wife Pauline, his daughter, Clare, and  his 4 grandchildren at this time.

Today we’re sharing our five ways for young people to bounce back more easily. These can be used by all young people across the UK. While the ideas are based on our 112 years’ experience preparing young people for the future, every parent and guardian can use these simple techniques to help their own children build their resilience, even if they’re not a Scout.

Have a go at something new (and be prepared to fail).

Now’s the perfect time to try something out, because no-one will see it! Your child could write a poem, paint a picture, learn a dance, try a new language – the results don’t matter, it’s just fun to experiment.

Learn and pass on a skill.

Once they’ve tried some new things, they should be able to find something they want to stick with. There are more free resources than ever before to help them (including The Great Indoors activities) and more ways than ever of sharing their skills at the end, whether it’s via YouTube, Instagram stories, a Facebook Live – anything! Remember to keep internet safety in mind: the NSPCC have some good guidance on this.

Chat with someone different from you.

This is something best done supervised with an adult but there are lots of ways of connecting with new people, even from inside the home. Many elderly people are lonely, especially at the moment, and there are ways you can volunteer together to have phone calls with local elderly residents – check with your local coronavirus volunteers group (they often have Facebook pages) to see if something’s in place, or you could use Age UK’s resources to reach out to neighbours directly. If you decide to have a conversation via video chat, read our guidance to see which platform would be most suitable for you.

Achieve something as part of a team.

Every household’s got to stick together in this, so why not work on your team building skills? You could do a DIY project together, have a spring clean, or learn one of those new skills together – the important thing is supporting each other through it.

Learn to pick yourself up, start again and bounce back.

This is one of the most essential things to learn as a young person. If they’ve had a bad day – they’ve lost their temper with a sibling, accidentally ruined a model they were making, or been upset by the news – show them how to put it behind them, start again, and face a new day with as much positivity as they can and some lessons learned. Knowing that it’s okay to have bad days, and how to cope with them, will help them in the short term and importantly, in the long term.



The Creative Activities Team is running another photographic competition for all members of Scouting and Guiding within North Yorkshire.

As we are currently living in extraordinary times the theme of this year’s competition is Making the Ordinary Extraordinary! This can be interpreted in many ways; ordinary objects or scenes or events photographed in an extraordinary way, used for extraordinary purposes, from unusual angles or just plain odd!

Entries will be judged in the various sections from Rainbows and Beavers through to Leaders and Active Support/Trefoil Guild.

As a change from previous years we will be happy to receive entries each month (with the first entries at the end of May), we will publish the best from each month on the relevant County website and then hold them over for eventual winners in October. Each person may enter one photograph per month, which must have been taken by the entrant, to the competition. Submissions must be in digital jpg format, entries taken on camera phones will be accepted.

All photographs must be submitted with the name of the photographer, section (Beaver, Brownie etc), Scout or Guide Group, District plus Guide County details, an email or postal contact and confirmation that the photograph is all the entrant’s own work. 

The entries will be judged in the appropriate section, all judging will be anonymous and the decisions of the judges will be final.

The competition will be open for submission between 1 May 2020 and 31 October 2020. Any entries after this date will not be judged. Photographs must be submitted to the following email address only: creative@nys.org.uk

Any photographs submitted to the competition may be used by the Scout or Guide Counties for any Scouting or Guiding purposes. All other rights are retained by the photographer