Luton YSP’s Attend HQ Scouts Speak Up Course
21st July 2018 – Blackwell Court Birmingham.
It was on this day myself and the Scouts Speak Up course (also know as the SSU course) as part of our training for Jamboree media. We were accompanied by our Comms Champion for Unit 9, who himself attended a course that differed to ours on the day.
It was an early start for us all but we made our way up to Blackwell Court for 9am, in fact slightly before! This meant we could be given our official Uk contingent scarfs, something we have been waiting a while for!
The day was spent with Jamboree Scouts from all over England, some coming from as far as Leeds and even from the birth place of William Shakespear, Warwickshire. Of course we had never before met these people so the day started with a few ice breaking activities.
Post these ice-breaking activities we were put into a Q&A like session where we were tasked in asking and answering questions within a time limit whilst still getting your positive message across. This proved to be an interesting and useful start to the day.
It was a very sunny day at the time so portions of the day where spent in and others out. For the next part we were taken in and watched what the leaders called a ‘Goldfish Bowl’ interview.
This was a completely unprepared face to face interview where the leaders did well to keep the composure and provide sufficient answers in such a situation.
Earlier on we had prepared a recent positive scouting story, mine being a recent camp, using these stories we were put into a similar situation only this time we had some sort of prior perpetration. We later partook in line radio interviews and paired radio interviews using the same story. All this was done before lunch.
Post this lunch break we were split back into our groups to go have a go at TV interviews. We had also previously made a few notes about a recent jamboree story, mine being selection camp. These were actually quite interesting and a new experience.
The day overall was enjoyed, worth the travel!
By Stephen Avis
