Parents’ Guide

The Programme

The programme is a seamless progression of adventurous, creative and community activities. It aims to help young people grow in a number of personal development areas. The idea is that they learn by doing rather than just being told what to do.

Chief Scout Awards

We structure our programmes around badges covering many various activities and skills. Each section has a Top Award, called the Chief Scout Award which is the highest award available and each young people aims to achieve these by completing a number of Challenge, Activity and Staged badges.

Each section has their own Chief Scout Award which increases in challenge:

• Squirrels – Chief Scout Acorn Award
• Beavers – Chief Scout Bronze Award
• Cubs – Chief Scout Silver Award
• Scouts – Chief Scout Gold Award
• Explorers – Chief Scout Platinum and Diamond Awards

Challenge, Activity and Staged Badges

The Chief Scout Award is achieved by completing a number of different Challenge, Activity and Staged badges in each section. More information on these badges is available here:

• Squirrels
• Beavers
• Cubs
• Scouts

For Young People, we expect:

• Full and active participation in our weekly meetings, extra events and camps. All of this put together, is how you’ll get the most out of Scouting
• Provide their involvement in decision making. This is mainly done by sharing ideas on what we do in Scouting during regular youth forums
• Behave appropriately. Scouting is youth led, supported by adults which works best when young people behave according to their section’s code of conduct. By attending Scouting activities, young people and their parents agree to behave positively, otherwise we may have to limit attendance to extra events, or in extreme circumstances, remove them from our Group.

For Parents, we expect:

• Support your child in attending regularly, including extra events and camps
• Let Leaders know when they won’t be attending (via OSM)
• Maintain their records so we can keep your child safe
• Ensure your child wears their uniform and necker to meetings
• Pay for your child’s subscriptions and events promptly
• Attend our AGM, that happens once a year
• Support the Group with your time where possible. This could be demonstrating a skill with one of our section, do some DIY at our Scout Hall, or become a parent representative.

It is important to note that all of our Leaders and Supporters are volunteers, giving up their time for free to support Scouting in St Neots. We have a zero tolerance on verbal, written and physical abuse to any member (young people and adults) of our Group. If this occurs, the Lead Volunteer may decide to remove you and your child from our Group.

Scouting is a uniformed organisation, and you’ll need to provide this for your child. Beavers wear a blue jumper; Cubs wear a green jumper; and Scouts wear a green shirt. This uniform is used to proudly display the badges and awards they’ve achieved. All members of our Group wear a blue and green necker, showing them as part of our Group.

More information on each section’s uniform and badge locations can be found here:

• Squirrels
• Beavers
• Cubs
• Scouts

Uniform can be purchased here.

Like most youth groups, we use photographs, videos and audio recordings to inform parents of what we do. Most images are shared on our section’s private Facebook groups and occasionally to promote 1^st St Neots in the press and on social media. This is incredibly important in building the reputation of our Group in highlighting the great work we do, finding more volunteers and finding more supporters.

No individual is ever named in any images used and shared publicly without explicit permission from parents.

By having your child as a member of our Group, you agree to this otherwise if there is a legal restriction that means your child cannot have photos published publicly or you wish to opt-out, you must inform a leader in the first instance.

We expect all young people to have full and active participation in our weekly meetings, extra events, and camps. All of this put together is how you’ll get the most out of Scouting.

Our Leaders maintain a attendance register every week in OSM. This is so we can record badge work achieved and progress within the section.

Should your child miss two consecutive meetings with no notice provided, we will contact you to find out why. If they miss another meeting with no good reason given, our Lead Volunteer has the authority to remove them from the Group releasing their place to someone else on the waiting list.

Our sections run camps throughout the year, the number of nights away generally increases through the sections (e.g., Beavers may spend a weekend or two away whereas Scouts are closer to 12 nights away).

These camps are an integral part of the programme we deliver and the Scouting experience, with the Chief Scout Award and some Challenge badges only available if you attend some of these camps.

Offering an invitation to young people is at the discretion of our Section Leaders, and they may not offer your child the opportunity if their weekly attendance is poor.

Once a year, our Group attends the town’s Remembrance Parade and Service which holds significant importance to Scouting. We remember all that lost their lives including many Scouts, some of which were from our own Group.

We expect that all young people attend this event in full uniform, behaving appropriately and proudly representing our Group.

Each section sets its own code of conduct but as a minimum, we expect everyone to follow the Scout Law which is:

• A Scout is to be trusted.
• A Scout is loyal.
• A Scout is friendly and considerate.
• A Scout belongs to the world-wide family of Scouts.
• A Scout has courage in all difficulties.
• A Scout makes good use of time and is careful of possessions and property.
• A Scout has self-respect and respect for others.

Scouts who constantly show disregard for this behaviour code or the code of conduct in each section may be asked to take time away from the Group to reflect and in extreme cases, they may be removed from the Group.