Scouts
For 10½–14 years Real adventure and the chance to lead it, for 10½ to 14 year-olds.
Scouts is where young people take charge of their own adventure. For those aged ten-and-a-half to fourteen, the section is built around doing more, going further, and taking real responsibility for how it all happens.
Scouts work in small teams called patrols, each with its own leader, and they plan and run a good part of the programme themselves. That might mean organising a hike, cooking for the patrol on camp, running an evening's activity for the troop, or leading a project from start to finish. Leaders are there to guide and keep things safe, but the ideas and the effort come from the young people.
The outdoors is where Scouts really comes alive. Expect hillwalking and wild camping, pioneering with ropes and poles, kayaking and canoeing, night hikes, backwoods cooking, and expeditions where patrols navigate their own route over a weekend. Scouts also travel further afield — to national events and, for some, international camps and jamborees with thousands of young people from around the world.
Alongside the adventure, Scouts develop skills that matter for life: planning and organising, leading a team, handling a budget on camp, first aid, resilience when a plan goes sideways, and the confidence to speak up and make a case. The section's top award, the Chief Scout's Gold Award, recognises a real breadth of achievement.
It stays a place to belong throughout. Patrols build strong friendships, the troop has its own identity, and young people who joined as Squirrels or Beavers often stay together right through to Explorers. New Scouts are just as welcome with no previous Scouting at all — and can come along to try it first.
Many Scouts go on to become Young Leaders in a younger section while they're Explorers, passing on what they learned here.
What a term looks like
- A camp, expedition or night hike, planned partly by the Scouts
- Hillwalking, paddling, climbing and other adventurous activities
- Pioneering, backwoods cooking and practical outdoor skills
- Patrols taking turns to lead activities and run parts of camp
- A community or international project
- Working towards the Chief Scout's Gold Award
Uniform: Teal shirt with the group necker.