Welcome to
1st Selsdon & Addington
Scout Group
St John The Divine
The Scout Hut
rear of St Johns Church
Upper Selsdon Road
Selsdon, Surrey
CR2 8DD
[email protected]
Page contents
- Welcome
- Scouting
- The Promise
- Uniform
- Badge Work
- Subscriptions
- Trips and Activities
- Child Protection and Health & Safety
- Photographs / Video Footage
- Group Contacts
- Positions of Badges and Awards for Beaver Scouts
- Positions of Badges and Awards for Cub Scouts
- Positions of Badges and Awards for Scouts
- Data Protection Policy
- Gift Aid Declaration Form
- General and Emergency Contact Information Form
Welcome
Your child has expressed a wish to join us at the 1st Selsdon & Addington St John The Divine Scout Group.
This information pack will provide you with basic information regarding Scouting and the Group.
The Group currently consists of Beavers, Cubs and Scouts and meets at the Scout Hut, Rear of St. Johns Church, Selsdon.
- Beavers 6 to 8 years old, meet 6:00pm – 7:15pm on a Tuesday
- Cubs 8 to 10 ½ years old, meet 7.00pm – 8:30pm on a Wednesday
- Scouts 10 ½ to 14 years old, meet 7:30pm – 9:00pm on a Thursday
With all sections, there is some flexibility in age ranges.
The Group feeds into multiple local Explorer Scout Units, however Explorers are more than welcome to attend any unit within the District and are always welcome back at the Group as Young Leaders with any of the sections.
There are a number of forms at the end of this pack that we would appreciate you filling in and returning to us. The purpose and reason for these forms is explained within the pack.
The Group can always benefit from assistance either as a Leader, helper or a member of the Group’s Executive or even as occasional specialist skills instructor, passing on skills or hobbies. If you would like to help, in any capacity, please contact us.
Scouting
The Scout Movement is a global co-educational youth organisation, the largest in the world, with over 28 million Members in 216 countries and territories.
In the UK Scouting is organised through The Scout Association and which has a clear purpose:
- To help young people achieve their full physical, intellectual, social and spiritual potential as
individuals, as responsible citizens and as Members of their local, national and international
communities.
The Scout Association offers everyday (and some more unusual!) adventure and activity to almost 400,000 young people across the UK.
Scouting is open to all young people aged 6 to 25 of every faith and background as long as they are prepared to make the promise. A number of variations of the promise are available to cover a range of faiths and nationalities.
There are also plenty of opportunities for adults to become involved as Leaders, Assistants, and Administrators and as Group Supporters. If you would like to be involved with our Scout Group then please contact one of the Group’s Leaders.
As a member of our Group we hope and will endeavour to ensure that your child can help to make the world a better place. Scouting makes a positive contribution to society by helping young people to develop as active members of the community who:
- Are self-reliant,
- Are caring,
- Are responsible,
- Show commitment.
However most importantly this continual personal development works best when the young people are working in partnership with adults. They do this by:
- Taking part in a variety of activities and new experiences,
- Exploring the outdoors,
- Participating in teams,
- Taking responsibility,
- Taking part in the Progressive Training Programme
Whilst the activities they take part in will depend on their age, each Section gives young people the opportunity to learn by doing. The main programme zones are:
- Outdoor and Adventure
- Global
- Community
- Fitness
- Creative
- Beliefs and Attitudes
Leaders are trained to deliver this programme, ensuring our young people stay safe while they enjoy themselves and learn.
The Promise
Our Scout Group, although sponsored by St Johns Church, is an open Group. This basically means that as long as your child meets the general requirements for membership of the Scout Association they are welcome within our Group.
To become a member of the Scout Association and our group, your child will be asked to make a promise at an investiture ceremony. This would normally be undertaken on a section evening, however, it can be carried out at any event. We would always try and make this a very special event for your child, however, it is your child’s investiture and would only be carried out when they were ready. Investitures may be delayed so that they could be carried out at a special event e.g. at camp. You, of course, would be more than welcome to witness this ceremony.
The promise that they make will be dependent on the section that they are joining. The general promise for each section is attached, it can, however, be altered in a number of ways to take into account religious beliefs, nationality and / or special needs.
In the promise your child will undertake to either “love God” or to do their “duty to God” (or their choice of deity). Being sponsored by St Johns Church, the Group attends a number of parades throughout the year including St George’s Day, Mothering Sunday and Remembrance Sunday parades. Attendance, although encouraged, is not mandatory.
Their Leader can generally answer any questions that you or your child may have with regard to the promise.
Uniform
On a section evening we would normally expect your child to attend in uniform from the waist up. However, for specific activities full or suitable uniform activity-wear may be more suitable. Guidance on the expected uniform for each activity would be provided with details of the proposed event or activity.
- Beavers Turquoise sweatshirt and Group neckerchief
- Cub Scouts Dark green sweatshirt, activity trousers and Group neckerchief
- Scouts Teal green smart shirt, activity trousers and Group neckerchief
The Group neckerchief is Scout Green, with the Group’s badge, the diamond anniversary eagle. These are available from the Group for a small fee, currently £5, and are handed out during the members investiture.
For activity wear there is a choice of optional polo shirts, available in turquoise for Beaver Scouts and green for Cub Scouts and Scouts.
All uniform is available from Hewitts of Croydon or from Scout Store. For your child’s first few meetings we don’t expect uniform to be worn, it should be purchased in time for their investiture. We also hold a limited stock of pre-loved uniform available for a small donation.
Badge Work
Members of all ages work towards attaining awards. From Circus Skills and Street Sports to Imagination and Public Relations, there is a wide range of choice of Activity Badges for all Sections. Hobbies that your child participates in can also be used towards attaining both activity badges and progressive training awards.
These are generally awarded for trying new activities and doing their best at them for the younger sections whilst Scouts do have some badges that specific standards have to be met. Generally the effort needed to obtain the badge or the standard required increases as your child progresses through the sections. In addition though, there are 14 staged Activity Badges these have been designed to provide a unified approach throughout the Sections.
These staged Activity Badges are:
- Air Activities
- Community Impact
- Digital Citizen
- Digital Maker
- Emergency Aid
- Hikes Away
- Musician
- Nautical Skills
- Navigator
- Nights Away
- Paddle Sports
- Sailing
- Swimmer
- Time on the Water
All Staged Activity Badges have 5 stages, with the exception of two. Nights Away has 12 and Hikes away has 6 stages. This means that a young person can gain whichever badge is appropriate to the level they have reached. It is possible, for example, for a Beaver Scout who is an excellent swimmer to gain a higher-level badge than a Scout who has just taken up the activity.
Each section has a number of Challenge Badges, these can either be completed individually or in groups. On completion of a number of these your child can earn the Chief Scouts Award, the highest award attainable in each section.
- Beaver Scouts – Bronze Chief Scouts Award
- Cub Scouts – Silver Chief Scouts Award
- Scouts – Gold Chief Scouts Award
When your child is ready to move onto the next section there are also moving on awards for each section.
Occasionally your child may be asked to undertake things at home to go towards badge-work or challenges being undertaken on a section evening. Many of the badges make excellent half term activities.
Subscriptions
At the current time subscriptions are £35.00 for the first child in all sections and £30 for each further child. These are termly and help to cover the cost of maintenance of the Scout Hut and the annual Capitation as well as things like badges and materials for activities carried out on a section evening. Some other activities such as camps, may incur extra costs.
In addition, during January, we have to fulfil the Scout Associations census and pay Capitation for each member of the Group. If we do not pay this for each child, it will mean that your child not being allowed to partake in Scouting activities, as Scout Insurance will not cover them.
If at any point paying for either subscriptions or for activities becomes an issue please speak to one of the Group’s Leadership team.
We can claim the income tax paid on all the monies that are paid to us. This includes money paid for subscriptions, capitation and activity costs. This means that for every £1 paid to the Group we can claim 25p back from the Inland Revenue. This would allow us to claim £22.50 per child per year on subscriptions alone. In addition to being an easy fund raising method, it means that we can keep costs of activities as low as possible. To enable us to do this there is a Gift Aid Declaration form at the end of this page.
Trips and Activities
In order to supplement the weekly section meetings and to ensure that everyone has the best opportunities, the sections will often arrange extra-curricular activities such as visits, camps or activity days. There are very few activities that members of The Scout Association are actually banned from doing. Consequently if it is possible to do something, and there is a large enough request to do something we will try to organise it.
However, when organising trips or activities we often have to impose a cut-off date for responses. This is generally due to purchasing tickets, completing all of the necessary risk assessments and making arrangements with the home contact for the event.
These cut off dates will be strictly adhered to. Consequently if, subsequent to your child being accepted on a trip or activity, they are unable to attend, please let us know as soon as possible.
Child Protection and Health & Safety
The Scout Association's policies, rules, code of behaviour, advice on Child Protection and safety policy are there to ensure our young people stay safe whilst ensuring that the Programme of activities that we provide is fun, exciting and challenging. Most importantly we must also make sure that all activities undertaken are safe.
It is the policy of The Scout Association (and therefore of the Group) to safeguard the welfare of all Members by protecting them from physical, sexual and emotional harm. The Scout Association is committed to:
- Taking into account in all its considerations and activities the interests and well-being of young people
- Respecting the rights, wishes and feelings of the young people with whom it is working
- Taking all reasonable practicable steps to protect them from physical, sexual and emotional abuse
Promoting the welfare of young people and their protection within a relationshipof trust.
All adults aged eighteen or over, no matter what their role or involvement within Scouting, are responsible for putting this policy into practice at all times.
All Leaders and regular helpers have been subjected to, and passed, an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) disclosure. In addition all leaders have passed a basic first aid qualification.
However, accidents occasionally can happen, consequently, in order to comply with The Scout Association’s own health and safety policy’s, we require certain information regarding emergency contacts (next of kin, emergency contact numbers etc.). If this information changes e.g. change of address or phone number please let us know. A general information contact form is attached to this page. This is the minimum required information to allow your child to join in our activities. Within the first few weeks you should be provided with the official form which should be filled in and returned at the earliest opportunity. Separate health and/or information forms will be distributed for camps and other activities where the information we hold must be more specific. These will be destroyed once the activity has ended.
The Group can cope with members that have special needs, however we do need to know of any special requirements, allergies etc. that your child may have.
All information provided is kept in complete confidence. It is normal for us to ask for a new form to be filled in when your child moves sections to ensure that we have up to date information.
Photographs / Video Footage
The various sections regularly take part in a wide range of activities, organised at a Group, District or County level. Many of these involve challenging activities, which the youngsters involved often like evidence to prove that they have taken part.
In addition, images of the youngsters enjoying themselves can be extremely useful for publicity purposes, internally (e.g. for use on the Group newsletter), externally (sent to local newspapers, ‘Scouting Magazine’ (which is provided to Leaders in Scouting) etc.), and on display boards etc. in the Community Centre. Photographs and video footage of the youngsters in the activities may also be used as a training aid (both adult and youngsters) or as validation of adult training.
At Group events it is relatively easy for the Leaders in charge to take suitable and agreeable photographs of the children involved. At larger events such as District or County events, it is not necessarily possible for the Leader to dictate what photographs might be taken or the specific end use of the photographs. However as the photographs would be taken as part of a Scouting event they would need to comply with The Scout Association’s Child Protection Policy, as would photographs or video images taken during Group events.
If you do not wish photos of your child to be used for these purposes, please indicate on the form at the end of this page.
Group Contacts
Up-to-date Group contact information can be found on our website at www.1stselsdonscouts.org.uk/contact-us
Scouting Information
- The Scout Association www.scouts.org.uk
- Croydon District www.croydonscouting.org.uk
- Scout Shop shop.scouts.org.uk
- Uniform www.hewittsofcroydon.com/scouts.php
Badge Requirements
Position of Badges and Awards for Beaver Scouts
The Beaver Scout Promise
I promise to do my best
To be kind and helpful
And to love God.
Position of Badges and Awards for Cub Scouts
The Cub Scout Promise
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 Cub Scout Law
The Cub Scout Law
Cub Scouts always do their best
Think of others before themselves
And do a good turn every day.
Position of Badges and Awards for Scouts
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
The Scout Law
A Scout is to be trusted.
A Scout is loyal.
A Scout is friendly and considerate.
A Scout belongs to the worldwide 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.
Data Protection Policy
This is a summary, for full data protection and privacy policy see our Privacy Policy page.
The Scout Group holds a variety of personal data on Section Members and their families to ensure efficient administration and running of the Group. This data is described below:
Notes
- Scouting photographs, video and audio clips may be used on social media in accordance with the information provided on the photographic consent form.
- Any parent wishing to exempt their child should indicate this on the consent form.
- All membership, financial and progress records will be held on the internet on a secure website hosted in the UK and specifically designed for the management of Youth Groups.
If you would like to print this page, you can use your browser's print function.
If you require a physical printed version of this page and the required forms, please contact your Section Leader.