January 2026 Newsletter

We hope you all had a tremendous Christmas and that you are enthusiastic for all 2026 has in store for us. As we take down the Christmas decorations, the leader teams have been putting together more exciting programmes, and all of us here at 3rd Chalkwell Bay are looking forward to a busy year or events, activities and adventures, learning new skills for life every week.

In this month’s newsletter:

• Presentation Evening
• Annual Census Data
• Festive Fundraising
• Spring Membership Fees

Presentation Evening

7pm on Sat 17 January 2026

A reminder that our annual Presentation Evening is this Saturday evening at Leigh Road Baptist Church, (Marguerite Drive, SS9 1NN), celebrating the achievements of all the members of the 3rdCB family over the past year, including awards across all youth sections.

Please arrive at 7pm so that we can start in good time.

Seating for parents and other guests will be in the centre of the church (please leave the side seating free for the young people). Full uniform for all youth members please.

After the presentations there will be a chance to have a chat with the leader team over a tea or coffee and a slice of cake. We are asking for parents and children to make cakes to bring with them, if you’re able to, please let us know if you intent to bring a cake by replying to this email. As always, please avoid using nuts (a number of allergies across our young people and adults), and ensure allergens are labelled. 

Annual Census Data

Each year Scout Groups across country give The Scouts Headquarters data on our membership, numbers and activities to help improve participation and target support where needed at a national level.

We’ll shortly be sending out email asking parents to complete census data on your children through the Parent Portal, and would really appreciate if you can fill this in. It’s only 4 questions.

This is held anonymously, and even we only get to see overall numbers in the group. The data will help the Association in understanding the makeup of the membership; monitoring progress against its inclusivity objective, and prioritising development work both nationally and locally. It is statistical only, and held / returned anonymously.

Don’t worry if you don’t get an email, we already hold the data for a lot of members, so only ask where there are gaps.

Festive Fundraising

We were invited into Waitrose in Leigh in the run up to Christmas for some festive fundraising, helping shoppers pack their bags in return for donations.

We raised over £3,500 (including GiftAid) thanks to the generosity of Leigh’s shoppers, a truly fantastic amount which will be used to support this years activities and buy new equipment.

Thank you to everyone who volunteered their time, you are all awesome.

Christmas on Strand Wharf

Marcus the his events team also put on a Christmas Fayre on Strand Wharf at the start of December. With food, drink, local stalls and live entertainment, finished off with carol singing. A really fun winters day, thanks to everyone who came down, and especially the Scouts who went round with collecting buckets.

Spring Term Membership Fees

Membership fees for the Spring Term are due on 1 Feb. If you’ve not got an automated subscription set up you’ll receive an email at the start of Feb asking for payment, which can be done through the Parent Portal.

You may also get an email inviting you to sign up for GiftAid, which is a government scheme allowing us to claim an extra 25% on membership fees for UK taxpayers. It costs you nothing and makes a huge difference to our finances over a year, so please do register if you can (we only need your name, address, and confirmation you pay UK income tax).

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