Six Teenage Scouts Hone Their Media Skills At All Day Training Course

“It was brilliants and full of practical advice,” they said.

Six Explorer Scouts aged 15 from Luton, Maulden, Silsoe and Flitwick have just completed a wide ranging training course to become the next wave of young media spokespeople for Bedfordshire. They will join a small army of over 1,000 other Scouts around the UK including four others in the county. Their job is to tell reporters, TV and radio presenters about the fun, adventure and challenge of Scouting from a teenage point of view.

The Explorer Scouts were Mark Missenden and Catherine Clark from Luton and Lucy Onyango, Kim Wilson, Charlotte Adams and Andrew Draycott from the Maulden area. They admitted this was all totally new to them.  The course was run by Scout headquarters media people and included some eye opening comments from Tom Rochester, 17 of Dunstable who gave them a day in the life of a young spokesperson. He said, “You get opportunities to meet all kinds of famous people and to take an active part in putting Scouting on the map.”

They first interviewed one another about their likes and dislikes in a one minute question and answer session which gave them all a chance to settle in to the course. Then radio interviews gave the novice young spokespeople a chance to see how they coped with questions about their favourite activities. It was an innocent start by course tutor Chris Foster national media officer for the Scouts with 10 years experience behind him. Tom Rochester was also called in to provide a friendly face to the trainees such as the ever smiling Lucy.

But nothing prepared the Scouts for what came next. Chris played the part of different hard bitten newspaper reporters out to get a story come what may. He said to Luton based Catherine, “I was told I had to interview Scouts but you’re a girl. Tell me more. Later he added, “Now, off the record do you get to camp together?” Catherine said, I like being a Scout because it gives me a chance to try new challenges such as canoeing. Girls have been part of Scouts for over 10 years so it’s no big deal.  At camp we have our own tents and washing facilities but otherwise we all muck in together.

For Andrew from Maulden Chris became a tired and partly drunk reporter who just wanted to get home. His first remark was, “Are you the golfing chap I’m supposed to be meeting. Oh! I see you’re a Scout. So isn’t this a bit old fashioned now and I thought it was on the way out?” Andrew struggled at first but managed to turn the interview round to the exciting opportunities Scouting offered. He said, “I went to a World Scout Jamboree last year where there were 40,000 other Scouts from just about every country. Then I visited Denmark. Scouting is full of adventurous activities and we are growing in numbers. There’s over half a million of us in the UK and 28 million around the world.”

Later, the Scouts had a chance to appear on television as they gave an interview about their memories of their last camp. Lucy was a natural with a ready smile and a clear friendly voice. She said afterwards, “It was good fun. We learned a lot.” Charlotte added, “I liked all the practical stuff. It was brilliant.”

All the Scouts will now be added to the national Scout database and can look forward to major opportunities to shine in front of the country’s media. As veteran young spokesperson Tom Rochester remarked, “There’s never a dull moment in Scouting these days. One minute I can be hitting Top Gear star Stig over the head with a deck chair and the next I’ll be talking with MPs in Downing Street.”

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