Cubs

The Cubs section of the Scouts caters for children aged eight to 10.5 years old. It is the third Section of a Scouts Group, and while children do swim up to Cubs from Beavers, we do accept children who have not been Beavers and who are of age. We currently have one Cub Pack.

In the Cubs section all activities are age appropriate, and if your child is "swimming up" from Beavers they will be offered the chance to attend both Beaver and Cubs meetings in order to help with the transition.

In Cubs, activities are generally Leader-led but the children are offered the chance to influence what activities they would like to do and help plan the programme of activities for the term. Children will learn #skillsfor life in a fun, friendly, and inclusive way. Being a keen teaching environment for camping and pioneering skills, there will be some activities which will use fire; cutting tools; or have a greater risk of injury. All such activities are risk-assessed and suitable mitigation is put in place to avoid accidents. We teach children to respect the dangers inherent with such activities and to develop the ability to assess dangers for themselves.

Within a Cub Pack we have Sixes. These are smaller groups of Cubs - a bit like the Lodges in Beavers, and each Six has a Sixer, and a Seconder. If your child is chosen to be a Sixer or Seconder they will be given a set of "stripes" to show their role, within the Six and they will be expected to take on responsibilities for their Six.

Investiture

After a few visits to meetings your child will hopefully want to keep coming. If this is the case, your child will then be invested into the Cubs Section in a short ceremony at the end of a meeting. If your child has not "swum up" from Beavers, it is at this point you will need to buy your child the Cubs sweatshirt (see our FAQs page for details on where you can purchase it).

At their Investiture, your child will be asked to recite the Cub Scout promise (see side bar) and then they will be given their Neckerchief, and three "starter" badges: The Scouting membership badge, the District Badge and the 6th Farnborough Scouts Group name tape badge.

Along with the Cub Scout Promise there is also the Cub Scout Law (see side bar). This is a set of principles each Cub is expected to live up to whilst they are a Scout and hopefully even after they leave Scouting. They are a set of personal values which we hope will help your child develop into a contributing member of society.

Uniform

The Cub uniform is made up of the official Cubs sweatshirt and the 6th Farnborough Group Neckerchief and woggle. There are other optional items you can buy - such as the official Scouts trousers (which are hard wearing and stand up to the out door activities well!), but this is up to you.

Your child's Neckerchief and woggle will be provided by the Group as part of their Investiture.

Badges

Within the Cub Section there are three types of badge Cubs can earn:

  • Activity badges - There are 36 activity badges ranging from Animal carer to World faiths. They are red circular badges with a yellow border
  • Staged-activity badges - There are 16 staged activity badges. A staged activity badge is one on a particular theme, but there are different levels that can be awarded. For example, there is a Swimmer staged activity badge, which at level one a child has to be able to swim 10m, but at level five it goes up to 1,000m. They are blue circular badges with purple border
  • Challenge badges - There are seven challenge badges for Cubs to earn. Challenge badges are designed to encourage children to step outside their comfort zones and try something new or that may scare them - such as giving a talk to the Pack. They are blue hexagonal badges with a yellow border

Awards

If your child completes all seven challenge badges and at least six of the activity badges (including staged activity badges) - they can earn the Cheif Scout Silver Award, which is the highest award a Cub can get.

To find out more about badges and what your child need to do to achieve them, please visit The Scouts Association website - or look at the parents section of OSM.

Below is a screen shot from OSM showing a child's badges and their progress on them so far. Badges start off "greyed out" and "fill-up" with colour as activities are completed so you can easily see how they are progressing towards completeing a badge. To find out more about OSM, please see our (see our FAQs page).

A screen shot of OSM showing a child's badge progress

Leaping up to Scouts

At around 10.5 years old, if your child wishes to continue in Scouting they will attend a special Leaping up ceremony and move into our Scouts Section. At this time your child will be offered the chance to attend both Cubs and Scouts meetings for a few weeks, to help with the transition and to give them a chance to make new friends in Scouts. For the ceremony your child will run and "leap across the river" (two sticks on the floor!) to cross the bank to the other side where a Scout Leader will be there to welcome them into Scouts.

Below is a picture of a Cub leaping up to Scouts!