Being a Scout

When you join Scouts, you’ll be introduced to lots of new activities, people and things.

The Scout Section is for young people, usually aged between 10½ and 14 years. A young person can come in to the Troop at 10 and may stay until they are 14½ years old. Scouting is about being with friends, as part of a team, participating fully in the adventure and opportunities of life.

Scouts are encouraged to take part in a wide range of activities as part of their programme. “Participation” rather than meeting set standards is the key approach and for the Scout who wants to be recognised for his or her achievements there are a number of Challenges Awards and Activity Badges. Scouts take part in a balanced programme that helps them to find out about the world in which they live, encourages them to know their own abilities and the importance of keeping fit and helps develop their creative talents. It also provides opportunities to explore their own values and personal attitudes. We aim to deliver at least 50% of the programme outdoors doing adverturous activities. From time to time it is expected that Scouts will participate in community based projects.

Being outdoors is important and half the Programme is given over to taking part in both the traditional Scouting skills, such as camping, survival and cooking as well as more adventurous activities.

The Scout Promise

On my honour,
I promise that I will do my best
to do my duty to God
and to the Queen,
to help other people
and to keep the Scout Law.

Patrols

Scouts borrows a great deal of its structure from the Lord Baden Powell’s experience in the military. The scout section is known as a Troop, with scouts being organised into Patrols. We have four Patrols in our Scout Troop.

Each Patrol is made up of around 6-8 scouts of a range of ages and new scouts normally join a patrol in which they know at least one person. Each Patrol is led by a Patrol Leader (PL) and may be helped by an Assistant Patrol Leader (APL); these are scouts who have demonstrated their competence, good behaviour and been a good example to those in the Troop.

Scout Programme

All Scout sections rely upon a ‘training’ scheme in the form of badges to track progress of the scouts and to provide a feeling of achievement. However, scouting is not just about badges, the ‘games’ and adventurous activities are very important to scouting, not just because they are enjoyable, but because they are also important in the young person’s development.

What Scouts wear

Scouts wear a uniform during their weekly meetings and sometimes on trips away, depending on where they’re going and what they’re doing. Usually, this consists of a teal green shirt or blouse with their badges sewn on, which they pair with a scarf, known as a necker.

Alongside their shirts, Scouts might wear the accompanying blue uniform trousers or skirt, or they might save their uniform bottoms to wear for special occasions like awards ceremonies and public events – choosing to wear something more casual with their shirt during the sessions. Optional accessories such as hats, hoodies, are also available.

You can purchase uniform from the shop at The Quarries, open Saturdays 10am to 4pm.