Beaver Scouts are the youngest section of the Scouting family. Beavers form a Colony. Their activities are based around making things, outdoor activities, singing, playing games, going out on visits, investigating nature, listening to stories, learning how to be safe and most importantly, making new friends.
Meetings
Beavers in Stocksfield normally meet 6.15 – 7.30 pm on a Tuesday night at the Scout Hut.
Weekly Meetings
[programme sectionid=24910]
Camps & Special Events
[events sectionid=24910]
Communication
Programme details are published on this website and also on Online Scout Manager (OSM).
Email the leaders at beavers@1ststocksfieldscouts.org.uk
We also have a dedicated private WhatsApp group for the parents and guardians of Beavers. Membership is managed by the section leaders.
Leaders
Brian McVeigh
Beaver Scout Leader
Fancy getting involved too?
Join us…
Who is Beaver Scouting for?
Beaver Scouting is open to young people aged between six and eight years old who want to join and can make the Beaver Scout Promise.
What do Beavers do?
Beavers take part in a wide range of activities. These include making things, singing, playing games, going out on visits, investigating nature, listening to stories, learning how to be safe and most importantly, making new friends. They do this through taking part in a programme of activities provided by the leadership team.
Becoming a Beaver: Investiture
Making the Promise is the most important act in Scouting and is common to every Section. Scouting has a special ceremony for making the Promise called Investiture or being invested. After a few weeks of trying Beavers, members who want to stay are invested. It is helpful if they have their blue Beaver jumper at this point. During this short ceremony, a Beaver makes their Promise. They receive their Group Scarf, Group, District and County badges and their Membership Award. They are welcomed as a new Member into the Scout family. Often several new Beavers are invested at once.
Beaver Uniform
Beaver Scouts wear a turquoise sweatshirt, the 1st Stocksfield Scout Group scarf (sometimes called a “necker”) and a yellow woggle (to keep their necker on).
Jumper 
Necker 
Woggle
Traditionally all Beaver Scouts wear a maroon coloured woggle, or a woggle of the colour of the Lodge they are in (see below on how Beaver Scouts are organised). In Stocksfield, a yellow woggle is worn by all Beavers.
The Beaver Scout Promise
Scouting differs from many organisations in that it requires its Members to make a Promise. The wording for Beaver Scouts is simpler than that of the Scout Promise. There are several versions, designed for different faiths:
I promise to do my best to be kind and helpful and to love God.
I promise to do my best to be kind and helpful and to love Allah.
I promise to do my best to be kind and helpful and to love my Dharma.
I promise to do my best to be kind and helpful and to love our world.
By making the promise a young person becomes a Member of the worldwide Movement; they become a Scout.
The Motto
The motto for all Members of the Movement is:
Be Prepared.
How Beavers Started
Beavers started in Canada. In 1986 Beaver Scouts became a part of The UK Scout Association and it has been one of the quickest growing Sections. A group of Beavers is known as a Colony. Globally there are currently in the region of 100,000 members in 7,000 Colonies. The Beaver Scout Colony generally meets weekly for about an hour, with the chance to go on a residential experience every year and on day trips away.
How Beavers are Organised
Beaver Scouts meet together as a Colony and work within a variety of small groups called “Lodges”*. A team of adults will run the Beaver Scout Colony. Some will be uniformed Leaders, others may be informal assistants or helpers. Explorer Scouts who are Young Leaders might also assist the leadership team in the running of the Colony.
*Currently the Colony in Stocksfield is not split into Lodges.
Badges and Awards
There are a wide range of badges and awards for Beavers to aim for during their time with the Colony. Badges and awards are given in recognition of the effort made by each young person at their own level.
A full list of Beaver badges is available on The Scout Association website.
The Membership Award
This Award helps the young person understand the commitment they are making when they make the Promise and become a Member of the Movement. It covers the history, traditions and practices of Scouting.
Joining In Awards
The Joining In Awards recognise a commitment to Scouting. They celebrate Beaver Scouts participating in a Balanced Programme over a period of time. They are awarded on the anniversary of the young person joining Scouting.
Challenges
The Challenges have been developed to extend Beaver Scouts’ skills and experience in a particular area. The Challenge badges are all hexagonal and worn on the chest.
Activity Badges
Activity Badges are optional, but they provide an opportunity to reward a young person who has taken part in an activity over a period of time. They should raise interest and extend a young person’s skills throughout their time in Scouting. Beaver Scout Activity Badges are round and yellow and worn on the sleeve.
Staged Activity Badges
There are also a series of staged Activity Badges, which gives a young person the opportunity to develop an area of interest throughout their time in Scouting. These can be worn in Beavers, Cubs and Scouts.
Chief Scout’s Bronze Award
This badge is the highest award available in the Beaver Scout Section. It is gained by completing all the Challenge Awards, plus any four activity or staged activity badges.
The Chief Scout’s Bronze Award can be worn on the Cub Scout Uniform once they move onto Cubs.
The Moving-On Award
This helps ease the transfer of a Beaver Scout to the Cub Scout Pack. It also allows the Beaver Scout to be invested into the Pack immediately, recognising that they are already Members of the Scout Movement.
Sleepovers
Sleepovers give young people their first experience of a night away from home without their parents/carers. They are intended to plant a ‘seed’, which then grows as the young person moves through the Sections. Leaders have to be specially trained before they may take young people away, so you know they will always be in safe hands. Sleepovers in the Beaver Scout Section must not exceed 24 hours. They provide an excellent opportunity for young people to try out activities that are not possible at the regular Colony Meeting. As you might imagine, the whole atmosphere of living together even for a short while as a Colony is very special for the young people involved.
Publications
Badges & Awards 
A3 poster 
Adventure Book
If you (or your Beaver) want to know more there are three publications that you might want to consider buying from the Scout Shop. We have a copy of them at the hut if you want a closer look first. None of these are required purchases.
Badges and Awards Book
This A6-sized book fits into your pocket. Aiming at both Beavers and their parents, it lists the requirements for every badge in the Beavers section, with coloured pictures of each one. Although all this information is available on the Beavers pages of The Scout Association website, it is useful to have this information in a book, and at £5.00 it is reasonably priced.
Buy the Beaver Badges & Awards book
Scratch Off Achievements Poster
There is also an A3 scratch-off poster that retails at £7.00. As Beavers earn their badges they can scratching them off the poster to reveal a picture of the badge underneath. It seems rather expensive for what it is and cannot be passed on from an older to a younger sibling.
Buy the Scratch-Off Chart
Adventure All the Way
This soft back book is aimed squarely at Beavers. It contains information about the Promise, activities, games and nights away, expressed as a series of cartoons. There are sections for your Beaver to fill in, including a badge chart at the back that they can tick off. Priced at £2.00 it seems better value.
Buy Adventures all the way
It’s just the start
While a young person is in Beavers they will have fun, make friends and get to do exciting activities that they wouldn’t get to do anywhere else. But this is just the start! Beavers is the first step in Scouting for future development as individuals and Scouts. It will seem that they have only just started before it will be time to ‘swim up’ to Cubs!